Walk on Wool - The most epic workshop of the year

The day before we started this Masterclass, I announced it on instagram as the preparation for the most epic workshop of the year, and I was not wrong! The plan were three days, that ended up going up to almost five extremely demanding, both physical and technically. Luckily for us, that’s exactly the kind of workshop we love offering!
As I said before, this is a very demanding class, but also very rewarding. For those that had never felted before, it is a bit of a crash course on felting, but also a deep experience they’ll never forget. For those with experience, it was useful to understand how intense the physical part can get and also to start diving in on the inherent complexity of Felting, that so many times is done in a simplistic way (not “simple”, please note).
The beginning was quite soft, planning, measuring and weighing wool, but it quickly became intense, with a lot of water, soap and muscle. All of this for long, long hours. The intensity increased until the heavy machinery came out, like those sanders and hammers. Felting all those wool layers is no play, but all five participants handled it.

How did the idea for this Masterclass come about?
If you met Ana Rita de Albuquerque, you have probably seen her wearing a certain pair of boots made of felted wool, sculpted in one piece, with no seams. When asked about these boots, she always explains that the base technique is the one from the Valenki boots. The story that is told is that these boots kept the feet of the russian army warm and dry during the nazi invasion, allowing for the victory of Staline over Hitler.

To create her boots, Ana Rita adapted the traditional technique of the Valenki boots and mixed it with a few technical elements of the traditional portuguese shoemaking and contemporary rubber soles. These boots are waterproof, extremely warm and also comfortable, because they are sculpted in one piece according to the size and shape of the feet that will wear them.
For being such a specific technique, we decided to organize ths special masterclass, during which Ana Rita taught several felting and sculpting techniques to create a unique pair of boots!

The next edition already being planned, so if you want to know when it will be happening, please subscribe to our newsletter!
A few more photos of this workshop are available here.