Felting workshop

Hi again! Now that I've written a bit about the Fulbright it's back to what's going on in Mongolia :)

Yesterday I had the chance to go to a felting workshop and make my own pair of slippers! Very cool!

I woke up early and met my fellow researchers, and soon to be felters, Ellen, Christa, Takiko and Nastuko out in the -40 degrees at the bus stop. (Fun fact: when it gets down to -40 degrees Fahrenheit it's the same as -40 Celcius!) We had a little trouble figuring out where to get off the bus since the windows were covered in a thick layer of ice and frost. After asking the ticket lady, (every bus has a person who collects money from boarding passengers) she indicated that we should get off at a certain stop, and then promptly took one of our vacated seats next to the heater. We got off and looked around, but clearly this was not the right place! We hurried inside a small khuns baraanii delguur (food and goods shop) and called the workshop and eventually figured out we had gotten off one stop too soon. Finally we got to the workshop and waiting for us was hot tea and homemade cake! Yum! Then we got to work making our slippers.


Looking back at my pictures it seems like I missed some of the steps- probably because my hands were soapy and covered in bits of fluff. Anyways you can still see how different the final product looks from the starting materials.

First we chose the colors we wanted for the inside and outside of the slippers.

I chose a purple outside and green inside.

We covered a pattern made out of a sheet of bubble wrap with the wool.

 

Then we sprinkled it with hot water to mat it down.

We did this on each side with each color.

Everyone's slippers in the making!

Then we began the process of felting the wool. We covered the wet wool with a piece of mesh, soaped up our hands, and gently worked and kneaded the wool. The wool started dreadlocking together and shrinking. 

Then we added decorations to our slippers. I found a few scraps of felt with blue and black that looked like mountains to me so I added some white snow and some orange-y clouds. Then we felted this onto the slipper. In the picture you can see our workshop leader Maira is snipping the felt into two slippers and retrieving the bubble wrap pattern to reuse.

Then she washed them in a washing machine, and we resumed the felting process. This time we vigorously rolled and squeezed them for about an hour. Finally they were small enough to wear. To make them foot-shaped Maira and her assistant forced the slippers over a wooden shoe form and let them sit for about 10 minutes.

Me and my slippers! They're warm and comfy!

Although fashion felt items are becoming more popular, Mongolians' main use of felt is as insulation for their gers. In the countryside they make big bolts of felt by dragging a roll of wool behind a horse for a few hours. This knots the wool into a thick sheet of felt. You can see the felt layer of a ger being set up in this photo:

I took this photo in 2009.

That's all I've got for now :) Next I'm thinking of writing a post about Mongolian food and the wonders/horrors to be found in the grocery stores. Today there was half of a cow carcass sitting in a shopping cart next to the meat counter. The funny thing is that things like this don't surprise me anymore.