Sunday, October 4, 2009

Installation for International Day of Felt at the Corvallis Arts Center.

It was a wonderful weekend with the installation of the piece I had planned for the International Day of Felt, which was October 3. The installation looked so good we left it up for one more day.

The project turned out really great. Let me explain how we did it. My 4H kids, family and I went to four different public venues in Albany, Lebanon and Corvallis and taught about 60 people to make felt. They made small units of felt approximately 3 inches square which I then dyed in the theme colors of yellow-red from the color wheel. In addition, I went to the Corvallis Waldorf School and with Shellece Millison, taught the 5th grade and the 6th & 7th combined classes how to make felt. Shellece then taught the 8th grade class: altogether about another 40 people. I taught some friends at my studio as well.

So in total, a little over 100 people learned to make felt. The installation itself was made up of 20 strands of wool yarn which hung down from the trees. Each yarn had 16 squares sewn to it at intervals, so that they looked like leaves hanging down from the trees. The squares flickered as the wind blew, much like the flicker of aspen leaves. The strands themselves also moved with the wind. It really was lovely.

Here is a link to some of the photos from the installation. Some videos are here.
Below is a photo of Shellece and me at the installation.



For more information about the International Day of Felt, go here.