Feetfelt kit

A whole day project -
an enriching experience
of walking (or dancing) in wool to create individually moulded impressions
of your feet.

Feet Felt Kit

£37 (for individuals)
Includes DVD, colour booklet, instructions, 200g Blue-faced Leicester wool, enough for 3 to 5 people depending on sizes.

Feet Felt Kit for schools
This is a whole day project.
Starter kit for 10 pupils £64
Extra 10 pupil portions £19.

Sheep are highly sustainable. In return for some grazing and careful husbandry they provide us with meat, wool, milk and leather. Yet, for the first time in history we are not using the wool fully; many farmers burn or bury their annual shearing as the clip is not worth the return in money. Some farmers are breeding sheep that don't need shearing, as this is increasingly being seen as an unnecessary expense.
The Feet Felt project sets out to highlight what I believe to be an urgent need to review our attitude to this valuable and locally available resource.

What's in the kit?

♣DVD: including art film of original project,
instructions, interview with artist
♣Booklet: background ethos for the project,
plus resources and teaching notes
♣Regional wool

Learning skills
♣Encourages collaboration
and physical activity
♣Enables understanding of fibre, transformation and a cross-
curricular learning approach
♣Promotes a wider understanding of sustainability

In recent years I went on a 200k hike across the Norwegian mountains with my sister and I was reminded of an old legend which tells of a weary foot sore traveller stuffing wool in his sandals and discovering felt. Wool is transformed into felt through friction and moisture, the perfect conditions inside my boots, so I experimented.

Over a series of walking weekends on Dartmoor 40 volunteers ceremoniously had their feet dressed in wool and took a walk. The result was 40 pairs of beautiful moulded Feet Felts.

On the winter solstice of 2007 I took all the Feet Felts up to the Moor at Shovel Down and chose a hut circle where I pegged them down with twigs. As the wool had come from a farm nearby, I felt it appropriate to "return" them to the land they came from, and wanted to make the connection between our contemporary culture and that of our ancient ancestors. It seems particularly poignant to have done this at a time when we are so concerned over our carbon footprint. Perhaps we should refer to our ancestors for some answers.

I used film and photography to capture the atmosphere of the dawn rising on the winter solstice of 2007, when the Feet Felt were blessed with a shaggy pile of hoar frost.

Two years on and you can still see some of the feet on Shovel down. Much altered by weather and time, some have almost completed their return. Some have walked off on their own little extended journey, but I know that one day they will give themselves up to the land somewhere.