Darkness workshop at Titanik; three photos by Reino Koivula
In Åbo/Turku, the Darkness workshop continues, and, returning from Venice, Reiska and I join in again.
One three-dimensional piece of felt is produced by using a smaller part of the bell-shaped textile form; the technique works out well, but the gutefår wool seems too coarse to make good felt. From now on, I will use only the wool from the värmlandsfår breed.
Today is warm and sunny, so I move outside to work. People stop to look, and some share their experiences of wool, sheep and feltmaking. I hear stories about felt soles being made out in the Finnish archipelago and sold in the town’s fishmarket; about coalmining in Australia and its fatal consequences for sheep; I hear memories from travelling in Kyrgyzstan as well as arguments for vegan activism. Somebody remembers his childhood, when clothes weren’t bought but made by the mother from hand-spun and handwoven wool – that was northern Finland in the 1940’s.
All these stories go through me, down into the whirl of dark hair I’m working.
Helena Hildur W. 