Felting (Heritage Crafts and Skills)

by Lynn Huggins-Cooper

This book offers a journey through the history of the ancient craft of felting from the earliest times, when people first discovered that animal fibre, moisture and friction created a durable, warm fabric. Felt has been used for everything from apparel to housing; it has been used for practical, decorative and even religious applications. This book looks at the rise and fall of felting through history and into the industrial era, including its importance to the hat-making industry.

The second part of the book brings us to the modern - and some might say, golden - era of artisanal felting with interviews from felters and textile artists generously sharing their creative process.

Finally, if you are inspired to try this fascinating craft, there are step by step instructions for both wet and needle felting, and a useful list of resources to get you started on your own felt-making journey.

• ISBN13: 9781526724649
• Publish Date: 21 May 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
• Imprint: Pen & Sword History
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 176
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Felting is a historical survey and informational guide to working with wool for felting objects written by Lynn Huggins-Cooper. Due out 30th April 2021 from Pen & Sword, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback format.
This is the newest book in the Heritage Crafts series which cover many traditional and heritage subjects such as leatherworking and tanning, dyeing, fibre crafts, felting, and others which are in danger of being lost forever. This book makes a nice addition to the series and provides a surprisingly comprehensive look at felting as both a practical and decorative artistic activity.

The material is presented in chronological chapters of felting history from ancient times to the modern day. With such a massive timeline, the coverage is brief for each time period, but provides a lot of tantalizing glimpses to follow up later. The last chapters include interviews with several different individual artisans and collectives. The format provides the same questions to each interviewee and it's interesting to see how they came to their craft from often disparate origins, cultures, and geographical locations but their enthusiasm and respect is shared by all of them.

The photography is sparse and mostly confined to a gallery chapter at the end of the book, but the included pictures are beautifully clear and illustrative. There is a short general tutorial (for making a felted fairy doll) as well as a wealth of links provided (slanted toward readers in the UK) in the form of a solid bibliography and links section to stockists and teachers. This would make a superlative library selection for a guild or shop, as well as for any crafter's home library.

This is a good, accessible, clearly written introduction to felting materials and technique. The series as a whole would be superlative for library acquisition, maker's groups, homesteaders, historical re-enactors, and similar uses.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.