by Audrey Anderson
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Recently, a group of women settled into DTL’s Community Room to learn how to felt a sunflower. A kit containing everything needed to complete the project was placed at each seat. Within minutes of gathering, the helpful and encouraging instructor Janell Scannell of the Pop Up Art School got the participants started.
According to feltingart.com, felting is “the most ancient form of textile art, and [it] predates weaving and spinning techniques.” In our time, felters “use the basis of the ancient techniques with modern style, flare, and technical adaptation to raise this craft to the level of fine art.”
Each felter was given an embroidery hoop filled with green background felt, a foam block, felting needles, bright pink finger protectors, and various colors of wool to use in completing her project. After a quick introduction, Janell moved around to the tables one at a time to demonstrate how to create the brown center of the sunflower. The felting needles had a hook at the top to use as a handle. At the bottom of the needles, several barbs served to integrate the wool fibers with the background felt. By poking the needles through the wool and felt and into the foam block positioned at the back of the hoop, the barbs attached the wool to the background and also flattened the wool on the surface.
Next, Janell showed people at each table how to roll and poke the sunflower petals of yellow wool mixed with a small amount of red wool for an accent color. Once the felters got a pile of petals done, Janell showed everyone how to create the green leaves and the darker brown seeds in the middle of the sunflower.
At the conclusion of the workshop, participants discussed their feeling that the art of felting, new to several, was therapeutic. They found it to be relaxing and said that it didn’t require great concentration and counting, as knitting and other crafts do. It was possible to enjoy chatting while working on a felting project. Also, it was low risk: If a section of the wool they felted didn’t look right, they could easily take it out and redo the section.
Former art teachers and practicing artists, Janell Scannell and her business partner Lisa Walker have run the Pop Up Art School for nine years. The business offers over 2,000 art programs to libraries, senior centers, after school programs, and corporate events. They also offer Art-to-Go pre-recorded projects for ages 7 to adult. The Pop Up Art School will be back at the Dover Library in the spring to present a Pokémon drawing program for kids.
