Felting: Wet & Dry, Spring 2025 Journal, Out Now!

May 12, 2025

Surface Design Association is excited to announce Friends with Fiber, our Spring 2025 edition of Surface Design Journal. This issue of Surface Design Journal highlights the material and cultural qualities of wool and the practice of felting across the world…It would seem that no matter where you are located in the world, wool and the practice of felting continue to be celebrated as both cultural heritage and part of a sustainable future.” –Elizabeth Kozlowski, Surface Design Journal Editor

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Here’s a preview of what you’ll discover:

Fibres of the Future by Sanskruti Shukla: “Recently, in Chuba, a remote Himalayan village in Sikkim, India, hand-felting has become more than just a craft for the Gurungs, a tribal community; it has emerged as a tool for resilience, cultural preservation and future-making. The Gurung community has seen its relationship with land and livelihood evolve over time.”

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A Cloak of Red, Slow as a Carpathian Rock by Marisa Espe: “Váradi’s artistic practice pays homage to the labor of sheep farming communities past and present, including her family, whose origins are rooted in the Carpathian Mountains. Carpathian Mountain sheep occupied an essential role within their communities as providers of clothing, shelter and sustenance for generations of people through their wool, meat, milk, fur, skins and tallow.”

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Reviving Namda (Felt Making) by Sadia Kausar: “Much has been documented about the people of Swat, Pakistan and their crafts but little has been written about the ancient craft of ‘Namda,’ an Urdu name for felt. Namda can be traced back to the Mughal period when it was revered in Southern Asia, for both its utility and aesthetic value. ”

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Enmeshed Tendrils: Felt as Land by Michelle Wilson: “‘Forced Migration,’ a storytelling map that emerged from years of archival and relational research, is notable for the complete absence of a grid. Instead, the ground is veined with red needle-felted waterways, the lifeblood of the earth and the only landmarks for orientation. The ground is made of dense cream-coloured wool felt, an imbricated density of fibres matted together using pressure, moisture and friction rather than woven.”

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Exposure: A Gallery Of SDA Members’ Work: “This edition of Exposure spotlights seven amazing SDA members working in a variety of felting techniques. From wall hangings to suspended works to work installed in nature, each artist’s work reflects their own unique way to felt.”

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In The Studio: Wool and Worth by Holly Guertin: “Wool felt is an extraordinary medium. It is arguably the oldest form of fabric known to man and the process is so simple it can often happen by accident. Fabled to have been discovered by chance when shepherds padded their shoes as they pastured their sheep over large swaths of land, felt happens when wool is saturated with warm water and agitated, most effectively with soap in the mix. ”

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In The Studio: Feltscapes : : Lichens by Flóra Carlile-Kovács: “I had two approaches to represent different species of lichens. For the leafy-shrubby ones I used a plethora of hand-dyed silk fabrics, arranged in tiny pleats to provide depth, rich texture and allow light to play with shadows. Silk fibers provided a soft surface and subtle shine for the crust-like lichens, and I sculpted organic shapes by using some principles of differential shrinkage in the felting process.”

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In The Studio: Inspiration of Fruits by Yelena Beliaev: “Produce was always at hand, and I found their likenesses to be diverse and constantly challenging. The stages of understanding the material and learning new techniques is never ending, but after gaining confidence, I moved to a new level where I could speak to the world through my work.”

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First Person: Come Together by Chantal Cardinal: “Creating this close to 300 square feet window installation was an intricate and transformative journey that spanned more than a year, from the initial submission to the final installation. The project began with an artist’s call for a public art installation to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The ACT Arts Centre, a cultural hub in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, just 45 minutes from my studio in Vancouver.”

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First Person: Archeology of the Body by Robert Mertens: “The language of anthropology resonates with me, specifically reflexive and contextual-based archaeological methods. My series Archeology of the Body examines the body as an archaeological site. Archeology is the study of human history and prehistory; within this framework I explore notions of artifacts, midden and ancient forms of text. These works are all composed of raw wool and ungalvanized steel and are either woven or crocheted and felted.”

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Made Aware: ReKnitted by Zoé Lapostolle: “The inspiration for this piece first came to be in the sweater aisle of my local thrift store. It was a place I scoured near weekly, being obsessed with collecting vintage wool knitwear. Throughout these trips, I kept coming across felted sweaters, most likely the consequence of an untimely trip in the washer or dryer. Stiff as cardboard, these pieces weren’t going to sell, seeing as they had shrunk.”

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Community Collaboration: Felting as a Social Practice: Connection, Resilience and Community Engagement by Marcelo Martins: “The primary goal of our felting workshops is to create a safe space for free expression and dialogue, enabling participants to explore their emotions and contribute to a collective creation. Our interventions foster interpersonal connection, encourage mindfulness, and enhance emotional resilience.”

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Curatorial Perspective: Percussive Legacies: The World of Possibilities in Felt by Erin Dowding: “The title of the exhibition, Feel the Beat, is a play on the percussive nature of felt as a textile. Felt is constructed from a process of rolling, agitating, beating and pounding wool fibers in a rhythmic fashion so that they mat together to create a unified piece of cloth. Feel the Beat: Felted Textiles succinctly spans millennia looking at felt’s ancient roots as a material formed for protection when made into clothes and tents, to its role in conveying cultural identity through the continuation of traditional applications, to its use today as a celebrated sustainable option for industry, arts, architecture and apparel.”

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Spotlight on Education: Felting Futures by Jyoti Kalyanji, Dan Collings and Finn Godbolt: “Against this backdrop, industrial design students at Auckland University of Technology in Aotearoa, New Zealand are introduced to digital felting as part of a suite of technologies in a textiles research facility. The felt loom is presented as an additive fabrication technology, and locally sourced wool fibre as a key ingredient. Responding to the need for increased consideration of the materials we choose to work with and the environmental and social impact of both their production and their life cycle of use, students are encouraged to engage with hands-on material explorations. ”

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On Display by Lauren Sinner, Surface Design Journal Managing Editor: Spotlights five amazing exhibitions currently on view at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of Craft and Design, and Denver Art Museum. 

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To buy a copy of Felting: Wet & Dry, go to the SDA Marketplace, or you can check out a free digital sample on our SDA Journal page.