From time to time I spend one day in Prato, at the DHG office. Every time I find an excuse to linger in the warehouse: all these colors and wardrobes with colorful wool make me truly happy! I walk between the rows and ask questions, getting real pleasure from contemplating different shades of wool, plant fibers and fabrics. Idleness is never in vain, contemplation generates new ideas, I am not ashamed of that. For my taste, I find the Bergschaf area quite “neutral”, a delicious alpine wool that is modeled like plasticine!
This corner is at the end of a long line of Maori wool, I rarely get there. Of all the bergschafs, the gray one is the most beloved. I have always liked melange. I have the soul of an artisan, sometimes my hands simply cannot idle: so one day, I don’t remember which day, I took a couple of loops and started mixing colors, mixing with a hybrid, beautiful and beloved gray bergschaf.
She plucked strands from one Maori, then from another, mixed them with each other and with warm Alpine wool. On a piece of paper I wrote down 1/3 cobalt, 1/3 chlorophyll, then I took everything upstairs, to the upper floors, to the office and we discussed it together.
Coexistence test
Will it lie well? Hand combing did not give much results, but it was worth moving on to the second inevitable test: water + soap + great effort. For obvious reasons, this wool was scarce, therefore it was necessary to test it on a small scale. But here's a coincidence, it was in those days that I was working on one order, small containers.
I made a small model and a first sample. My first thoughts are: "Okay, you can work with this." Result: drier and more stable than the felt I get from the Maori; colorful, as I like, and a little softer. I'm a little methodical. I tried bergschaf at the bottom and color at the top; I tried to use the mix only from the outside; I tried to spread one fiber on the right side and another on the left. All this was good for me, I will never stop learning.
And suddenly the wool ran out, and I had to finish the last piece, so I had to use a different color. A chance came to my rescue, thanks to it, woolen containers with an expressive "neck" were born!
Happy end
Long live the meeting of the rough mountain wool of the Bergschaf and the most delicate and exotic New Zealand fiber, the Maori wool: let this union be colorful and long!
Eva Basile tips for perfect felting.
