part1      part 2part 3

Felt products are popular in Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Canada, Australia, Europe. The International Felt Academy was established in Germany, and later its branch opened in the Netherlands. Her students travel every year to the countries of Central Asia, to the historical homeland of felt, to study the traditions of felting. Abroad, feltmakers unite in associations that organize training, organize specialized exhibitions, sales of felting materials, popularize the art of felting, help develop and promote the business of their members and perform other important tasks. In 1984, the International Felting Association was established in the UK. Since 1986, it has been publishing a quarterly magazine "Felt Matters", which publishes materials and book reviews on techniques and technologies for making felt. In 1998, the Filtti Felt Association was formed in Finland, uniting more than two hundred craftsmen.

In Russia today, feltmakers create trade unions of local significance or are members of industry associations, such as the Association "Folk Arts and Crafts of Russia", with the assistance of which the successful project "Felt Festival" was implemented. There is a Guild of Feltmakers at the Moscow Chamber of Crafts. The Creative Union of Felt Masters in St. Petersburg is very active, which has been holding the annual art felt exhibition "New Life of Traditions" since 2009, and the FeltFEST International Felt Festival since 2013, as well as organizing other events. Since 2017, a specialized felting magazine "Felt Fashion" has been published in St. Petersburg.

Until recently, Russian feltmakers did not participate in exhibitions held abroad. In 2016-2017, the Soul of Felt exhibition was held in several European countries, where more than 50 masters from Russia and other Russian-speaking countries presented their works for the first time. In September 2016, a demonstration of felt products was held in Siegburg (Germany). In November, the exhibition unfolded in Amsterdam (Netherlands), and everything ended in January 2017 in the Italian city of Prato. Artistic works made of felt by Russian masters occupied several halls, which were visited by thousands of fans of this type of applied art. Participation in the exhibition of Russian-speaking felters allowed European colleagues to get to know the successes of our masters more closely. For them, the Russian felting school has become a real discovery.

Despite the fact that the modern Russian felt school has a relatively short history, it is considered one of the fastest growing in the world. A lot of felting studios are organized all over the country. Well-known and experienced craftsmen working in various techniques conduct master classes, both teaching beginners and improving the skills of their colleagues, passing on unique developments.

Unfortunately, the scope of the journal article does not allow us to list all the felting masters who make their invaluable contribution to the popularization and development of this type of creativity, we can mention only some names: Alexander Pilin, Lara Soboleva, Elena Smirnova, Elena Selezneva, Irina Zaitseva, Lidia Tskhovrebova, Anastasia Mironova, Irina Spasskaya, Natalia Shcherbakova, Lydia Utenkova, Lyubov Rudometkina, Nina Dvoretskaya, Elena Panasik, Nadezhda Kuzmenko and many, many others.

In schools, at lessons on Home Technology, teachers who have been trained in felting, pass on their experience to students. Some textile institutes are already beginning to introduce the subject of "Felting" into their curricula. However, today officially there is no such profession as a feltmaker. And this is due to its insufficient technological development and little experience in practical implementation.

The creation of clothing and felt products requires not only talent, but also painstaking work, great diligence, since this is completely manual production, excluding industrial scale. Therefore, at the moment this amazing material remains without due attention from major clothing manufacturers. Do not forget that the raw materials for felting are not cheap. Therefore, felt clothing is quite expensive, and despite its increasing popularity, it is unlikely to become mass.

Nevertheless, this material has a great future. Felt is interesting to craftsmen, there is a demand for it, scientific developments have appeared that facilitate the understanding of technological processes, explain the behavior of this material, patents have already been obtained in the field of felting technologies. This, of course, gives reason to believe that felted items will soon occupy their niche in the sector of low-volume eco-friendly high-end clothing.

Photo: works by masters E. Selezneva, L. Soboleva, A. Mironova, L. Tskhovrebova, E. Smirnova, I. Zaitseva, N. Dvoretskaya.