Felt Underfoot in Grand Rapids

Oh my, to have the chance to work with / for Janice Arnold as she puts this felt piece together is so much fun! Jone and I went there early this morning . We cleared the area of chairs and tables, measured the dimensions, measured the grid and awaited Janice. We were her "chalkers" for the lay out. Jone and I had to leave at noon, but I am going back up in a few minutes and I'll take more pics of the process. I wanted to stay all day but just had to get some orders shipped. There were wonderful feltmakers there when we left, Mary Wallace and Deb Lueders from Wisc., Dawn Edwards from Feltsoright.com in Michigan and more were on the way. Just wanted to share some of the photos....so far!

These photos are not in order, obviously! You can see the lay out and the swing dancers that showed up at 8:PM to start to dance the wool. It was amazing to see so many people there to take part in the event. Janice was definitely tired, but you could see the joy on her face! She did a very good thing. I hope the memories last a long, long time for her. I know they will for me!

This is the article published by the paper about the event:

Felt Under Foot Artprize Dance - Breaking a World Record

A Community Felt-Making Experience (and experiment) by artist Janice Arnold - creator of Chroma Passage at GRAM.
Chroma Passage has been in the top 25 piece of art since the opening of Artprize.

When

:Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 10am - 10pm
Where

:Rosa Parks Circle and Grand Rapids Art Museum
Note:

Join artist Janice Arnold as she prepares to create the world's largest piece of handmade felt on the Maya Lin Ecliptic at Rosa Parks Circle, in Grand Rapids for Artprize.

Beginning at 9:00 am, Janice will begin to draw the chalk pattern for the Felt lay-up on the Ecliptic . At 10:00am she will begin laying down raw wool fibers ( over 70 pounds) on the center of the Ecliptic, assisted by other Felt artisans. The wool she will use is from local sheep and has been donated from local farmers. Throughout the day Janice will continue the lay-up process of wetting the fibers, and inviting the GR community participants to walk on the wool - to start the felting process. Community participation in the wetting and felting process is encouraged. Ms. Arnold wants to help everyone learn the traditional process of making Felt and be a part of making a piece of art for Artprize.

In the evening, around 6:00 pm, Janice will be joined by the Grand Rapids Original Swing Society . Swing Society dancers will help continue the felting process, through the agitation and pressure of dancing on the wool!

There will be live sheep on hand around 7pm!

Over the following days (Weds, Thursday Friday) Janice will continue the process by shrinking the Felt piece (on GRAM's terrace, just outside the Chroma Passage windows. Again the community is invited to come watch and help her scrub and shrink the wool to complete the final step of making wool into Felt. The goal is to wrap the center exterior column of the GRAM with the finished piece of handmade (footmade!) Felt sometime on Monday October 4th.
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