FELT INDUSTRY: Shire Library

Felt is an amazing material - its history, properties and uses are unparalleled amongst textile materials and even today it could replace many of the synthetic materials in common usage. It is well known that the Mongols revered felt and attributed magical powers to it as witnessed by the totem felt dolls that they hung outside their tents. It also had widespread use throughout Asia and Russia and it was thanks to pioneers like Michael and Veronika Gervers and Mary E. Burkett, who travelled extensively through Turkey, Anatolia and Iran searching out felt makers there, that the extent and skills of these Eastern feltmakers have come to light. All the rich variety is shown of this craft, from pictures of feltmakers in Turkestan, the coat of arms for the Worshipful Company of Feltmakers here in the City of London, to the finishing processes cropping the surface of a felt polishing bob or the pilgrim step, a roller for milling sheet felt. Here are the devilling machines, the combing actions and stripper rollers, the Royal George Mill near Oldham, an etching of the Crown Mill at Mitcham, Baltic Mill in 1950 and Richard Ashworth, a leading feltmaker of the Rossendale Valley. Technical drawings, colour and archive photos, posters, maps, the book records the history, personalities and impact of the felt industry and explains the re-emergence of felt as an eco-friendly, sustainable material for the modern age. 56 page Shire paperback, colour.