Sacred art workshop
An Introduction to Wet Felt-Making with Susan Mills & Sara Palumbo
Sunday, May 18, 2025
1pm-5pm Eastern Time
Bowdoin, Maine
Take some sacred and creative time for yourself this May! Join Susan and Sara for a soulful and interactive workshop where you will learn the felt-making process. Your time with be guided to create a small, seamless medicine bag, an altar piece, or a wall hanging.
what do i need?
An open heart, a curious mind, and your own hands.
Readiness to engage your creativity.
A journal and a pen.
A stick and/or object you would like to incorporate into your felted piece (if this calls to you).
An object or image for inspiration.
A bath-sized towel.
No felting, art or meditation experience is required!
Susan and Sara will provide all the felting tools you will need to create your piece of art.
How will this WOrkshop flow?
Sara will open the workshop with a guided meditation to ground you into the space and support you in partnering with the spirit of your creativity. You will then have time to journal and sketch inspiration that you received in your meditation.
Susan will then guide you through the process of wet felt-making through a teaching and demonstration. Then it will be time to start your piece! Susan and Sara will be there while you are creating to offer support, advice, and laughter!
How To Prepare.
Start to look at inspiring images, sketch out design ideas, talk with your compassionate guides (if that’s something that you do), take a walk in nature for inspiration, collect objects and images to bring with you to the workshop to serve as inspiration, and / or collect items from nature or an item you would like to incorporate into your felted piece (like a stick, feather, crystal, bead(s) or jewelry piece).
What’s Included.
Five hours of workshop time with Susan & Sara- guided meditation, teaching, and felting demonstration with continual guidance.
All felting supplies.
Snacks, tea and seltzer.
The workshop investment is on a sliding scale~
$125 - Supporter- This rate applies if you are in a place of economic abundance, and by selecting it, you are helping keep this offering accessible to all.
$95 - Standard- The standard rate applies if you are in place of relative economic comfort and allows for this offering to be sustainable.
$65 - Reduced- This rate applies if the standard cost is out of reach for you financially at this time and helps this offering to be sustainable.
$35 - Donation- This rate range applies if the reduced cost is out of reach for you financially at this time and represents an equitable energy exchange to provide balance in your participation in this workshop.
Count Me in!
What is felting?
Felt is the oldest textile fabric, dating as far back as 6300 BC. It is created from wool or other animal fibers that are densely matted together. Felting predates spinning, weaving or knitting, and for centuries, this non-woven fabric has been used for yurts, blankets, rugs, hats, boots and clothing. Some of the oldest pieces of felt have been found in tombs and burial grounds in Siberia, Scandinavia, and Germany. Theory holds that cold climatic conditions of these areas helped preserve the fibers through time.
Modern felt-making utilizes almost the same techniques that have been used for the last 8,000 years. The creation of felt using traditional techniques requires wool, water, soap and two hands. Wool is laid out in layers alternating from vertical to horizontal alignment in each new layer. Hot water and soap are added, and agitation of the wool rovings causes the layered fibers to interlock.
Susan and Sara use different tools including a hand-sander to interlock the wool rovings. They also incorporate different found objects from nature and the man-made world to enhance their pieces.