Tactile Therapy

Overthrowing the patriarchy with felting

Have any other “authors“ of substack noticed that a post is now called “an article“? Bad mistake. It makes me feel like I’m writing something serious. Worse, it probably makes the already entitled-feeling incels and dudebros think that they are sharing something intelligent, when in reality it’s just a lot of made-up science and hate. I’m well aware of the horrible people that are profiting off this website, and while we can’t really get rid of them from any internet platform, the least substack could do is not make them think that they are serious writers/journalists. At the end of the day, this is just blogging. I think they should change the post button from “article“ to something way sillier. Like “sharing a lil thought“ or “ramble“ or “give your 2 cents“. Hate speech should not be considered an article.

Anyway, imagine if all those people (most of them men) were forced to take up crafting for a month. They could choose the craft themself of course, like crochet, embroidery, paper mache etc. They would just have to do it every day for one month. Oh - and it would have to be with textiles. No metal- or woodworking or other crafts that are normally perceived as an acceptable male hobby.

I think if men discovered the joy and deep focus you can get into with a tactile craft, the world would genuinely be a more chill place. There’s actually a great mini-documentary on Netflix about a bunch of inmates in a max security prison who have discovered quilting. They might be in there for horrible reasons, but creating a community around making blankets seems to have genuinely improved them as people. It’s just very cool to see. I recommend:)

Now that I think about it, the crafts that boys are encouraged to do from a young age often involve hitting, breaking, carving and just generally using heavy-duty machinery. Meanwhile girls are guided towards creating things involving soft materials and working with fine detail that builds patience and fine-motoric skills. It also creates a space to share thoughts, feelings (and gossip) while doing something with our hands - ultimately making a stronger bond between each other. Does this change us? I don’t know, it’s just an observation.

Either way, I LOVED textile crafts ever since I was small. Sewing, crochet, embroidery, knitting - I’ve done it all. But most of all, I have always loved needle felting.

When I was 8 I felted this computer. Thanks to my dad for taking a photo of it at the time.

The sort of hyper focused flow state I can get into when I felt is like no other. Forget drawing, I just love punching wool with a needle. Locking in on a felted piece makes my thoughts disappear and touching natural materials like wool is somehow just very soothing. Hence me calling it “tactile therapy“.

Unlike many other crafts, it is also relatively fast and easy to learn. You don’t need any prior skills and with a few tips, you can get a nice result very fast. You can also be just as perfectionistic as you want - something that is very appealing to me as a renowed perfectionist. The only thing keeping one from achieving a perfect felted piece is some time and dedication. I know all this because at this point I’ve held two (informal) felting workshops for my friends and coworkers.

workshop for friends in 2024.

Wait… do you even know what felting is?? A handful of you have probably tried it before, but for those of you who are unfamiliar - it’s basically creating pictures/figures/fabric using wool and a special needle (and/or soapy water). The needle has upward ridges that push the wool into itself, making it sturdier, and by repeating this very vertical punching motion fast you can get some very nice results. You can do both 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional felting. Personally I’ve been really obsessed with the latter.

I think it clicked when I made these two lizards. I was teaching my friends to felt and the easiest way to start is by doing it 2-dimensionally on a piece of felt-fabric. I made these two guys and then realized I could also put pearls on them!! It was just so fun and I was (still am) so happy with the result.

So far I’ve worked on several pieces similar to this. I have a vague theme goin on with animals living through modern times. It’s not very deep, but like with the computer that I felted when I was 8, I think it’s cool to mix the feelings of our time with such a timeless craft. Fears with fabric and anxieties with wool - it kind of makes it all sink into the work and disappear between the fibers.

Maybe it’s not strange then that felting has helped me through several hard periods of my life. Passionate readers of Notable Finds will remember how I lost a friend as a teen - not to death (as far as I know), but by losing all contact with her from one day to the other. I had made a felted version of one of her fictional characters, who had become very dear to me. Not gonna lie, I had imaginary friends when I was young, and that character was one of them. I carried the toy with me and spoke to it in my mind. I didn’t know how to express my feelings in words, but articulating them to this character made things make sense to me. You might be thinking - wow what a loser - but honestly when it comes to bettering your mental health then whatever works, works, right?

I stopped talking to the imaginary friend a year or so after the whole thing, mostly due to finding some genuine human connection haha. I actually stopped felting for several years. Last year though, my dog died, and I felt so devastated and heartbroken that the only thing that could help me was this:

I put him in my pocket when I went about my day, and held him in my hand when I missed him the most. It just helped.

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… I could go on about this forever, and I will probably talk about felting in a future newsletter, but for now I want to show you this:

I made stickers of one of my most recent felted pictures. I changed the colors slightly so they would pop more and I’m overall very happy with them. I’m planning to sell them at Copenhagen Comics later this month, so come find me if you can. Or if you’d like one of these and you’re in the area, just send me a DM;)

Here’s the original felted picture by the way.

Also - me and a friend of mine are planning on doing a mini-exhibition together around August. If it works out I will have all my felted pictures up on the walls and you can come see them. Maybe you can even touch them if your hands are clean! But I’ll tell you more when the time comes.

Til then, I’ll finish with a heart-felt goodbye<3