Featured Artist

 

Ruth Walker felts colorful, highly-textured accessories by hand from fine, award-winning handspinner’s wool fleeces grown in Missouri and Colorado. After the lanolin-rich wool has been scoured and carded at a local carding mill, Walker dyes the wool, and includes yarns, locks, and silk in the dyebath to provide coordinating texture and color. She intends her pieces to be fun and stylish, yet seriously functional: the use of the finished product is suited to the properties of the felt, and the felt is suitable for the product.

A combination of closely-related hues yields an article of complex coloration, some element of which is bound to go perfectly with one’s requirements. All dyeing is done on-site; therefore specific colorways may always be ordered to suit.

Sheep’s wool fleeces chosen include Merino, Romney, and their crosses for the body of the felt, while others (Wensleydale, Blue-faced Leicester, & Lincoln) contribute lustrous locks for integral embellishment. Silk organza as well as handspun & commercial yarns may also be felted in. Fleeces are selected from sumptuous wool raised for discriminating handspinners, scoured, permanently mothproofed, & richly colored with dyes of excellent wash- & light-fastness. Natural, subtle wool colors (silver, grays, browns & moorits) are also featured.

• All orders are special orders! Each item is individually constructed & as such is unique. Exchanges may nonetheless be made to suit your requirements.
• Unique identification is felted into most items along with a logo, making each not only a signature piece but also possible to later create a matching item.
• Hat size will hover around Women's or Men’s Medium (22" or 24”) unless otherwise requested. Shrinkage / stretching instructions are on web site.
• A laminated tag on each item includes a simple, friendly discourse on care as well as words about felt.
• It is the nature of wool to be water-resistant. The hats will shed water in the rain before they ever soak through, without water-proofing agents. They also hold & return to their shape very readily. All items are spot or hand-washable; balls are machine washable & dryable.

Walker, a former Research Specialist at the University of Missouri, worked for many painstaking years in biological research, but now vastly prefers to generate results that are both usable and pleasing. Her consistent goal is technical excellence in felting, coupled with interesting color and texture combinations. Indeed, her inspiration comes from the interactions of the colors and textures with which she surrounds herself. In addition, out of respect for the beauty and function of the wool itself she feels her work must attempt to do that wool justice. Integral embellishments of yarns, rare-breed wool locks, and silk fabric are recognizable textural elements, and are frequently accompanied by knit cords, felt beads, or wild handspun bands. And it all works.

Descriptions: Colorful, highly-textured hand-felted wool accessories which take advantage of the warmth of wool and the toughness of felt. Embellishments, including silk fabric, various specialty yarns, and rare-breed wool locks are wet-felted directly into the items taking advantage of the propensity of the wool fibers to entangle. To achieve a variation in hat styling, the hatbands that nest in the brims may be removed and worn as collars, and the brims themselves may be adjusted up or down. The hats may be worn in the rain, they may be crushed in the suitcase: wool sheds water & remembers its proper, steamed-in shape. The bags are felted to be tough. Each contains at least one pocket felted in. The pincushions will accept pins and needles, felted as they are from coarser wool. Tea cozies make beverages seem almost hotter than when they began, through the superior insulation capability of wool. Great Balls o’ Felt are fun for throwing about, for juggling, and for babies who are enjoying texture, color, and sound; they are also machine-washable and -dryable.

Ruth’s felted works have won numerous awards, including the 2007 Taos Wool Festival Champion Garment. Her work is for sale on Madison Avenue in NYC, in Asheville, NC, and at the various juried shows in which she participates throughout the year. She is an avid teacher, coaching 1 day events to one week courses. Current and past events can be seen at www.feltmaker.com

Ruth Walker, Feltmaker
3716 Joan Ct.
Columbia, MO 65201
573-815-0485  
e-mail Ruth Walker, Feltmaker
www.feltmaker.com

 

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