Today’s my last day at Titanik. The Darkness workshop will go on for another week, though, with Reiska, Timo, Simo Helenius and others. Finally it will end up with an exhibition in the yard of the public library, just across Aura river.

Thunder and rain reached Åbo/Turku yesterday – just after my last writing. I will not accomplish the felting of the large bell here and now, since it needs to be done outdoors and preferably in warm weather.
However, the smaller, experimental piece turned out quite well.
I start the day by giving it a nice shave, using a shepherd’s scissors.
Then I set to finish my things here, packing the car for going to the ferry.

If I leave something behind, it means I’ll be back some day.

http://www.arte.fi

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.

http://www.arte.fi

On Friday, June 19th, Midsummer’s Eve – Juhanni – is celebrated in Finland. The day is cold and rain is in the air, city’s almost deserted. I keep working darkness. Because of the low temperature, I decide not to do the actual felting, just prepare for the making of the bell. Wood sculptor Timo Nenonen helps me in trying out the equipment.

Reino keeps company, while I build the shape by filling wool from the bottom (which will eventually turn out top), spiralling out outwards and upwards and making sure that fibres are criss-crossing so as to keep together well when felted. Finally, I insert the inner bag filled with saw-dust (kindly provided by Timo) which is meant to keep the material fixed in shape while felting. But for the time being, I leave it there.

‘Darkness’ workshop is going on at gallery Titanik, in the heart of a Northern midsummer’s abundance of light; right now it’s almost 10 pm and still daylight outdoors. Reino Koivula, my appreciated colleague, non-organizes the event which develops graciously.

Darkness workshop at gallery Titanik; photo by Reino Koivula

I’m the last to leave the gallery, having figured out a possible technique to make three-dimensional bell-shaped pieces of felt and now making the equipment for it. Today’s accomplishment was another carpet, striped in lighter and darker gray and measuring 1,0 x 2,4 metres, later to be cut and shaped by Reino.

Today, the first felting was done at gallery Titanik by the bank of Aura river in Åbo/Turku. Wool from värmlandsfår and gutefår, two old Swedish sheep-breeds, was used. Two ewes of värmlandsfår, Stina and Brita, had provided us beautiful dark brown/black fells which were successfully turned into one flat, thick piece of felt measuring 1,1 x 1,5 metres. Moreover, we did some experimenting on three-dimensional felting with gray-black gutefår wool.