Eleanor Stanwood has
feltmaking in her blood. Her ancient
ancestors made felt in Mongolia and over hundreds of years their
nomadic tribe migrated Westward eventually settling in Wobova
Poland. Her grandfather emigrated from Poland to the US.
Fast forward to the 1970's... Eleanor found her ancient calling while
living in Vermont. She learned how to sheer sheep from a
wonderful old Vermonter named Bob Burroughs from Wells River, and raised her first flock
of sheep in Waterbury Center, Vermont. In 1978 she moved to Sonoma County
California were she became director of livestock at the Farellones
Institute in the town of Occidental.
While sheering sheep in small
farms around the north coast of California Eleanor noticed a lot
farmers didn't know what to do with their wool. She considered
this to be a waste of a valuable renewable resource and started to do
something about it. Working with the now defunct USDAWool
Research Laboratory and wool processing mill in Albany California, she
started
processing wool from small farms into batting that could be used for
wool comforters and other important and useful products.
In 1980 Eleanor settled back
east on the Island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of
Massachusetts. Eleanor and her husband David worked with Belgium
feltmakers who owned some of the few textile mills in New England who
still run wool in their carding machines. Together they came up
with a formula for making just the kind of lightly felted 100% wool
batting that Eleanor had envisioned. This thin durable and
springy batting was marketed under the Company name of "Heartfelt" and
quickly became renowned as one of the finest fillers for high quality
hand made quilts. With this new product Eleanor also realized her
dream of making the world a better place by supporting sheep, open
land, and the use of wool in comforters.
Her comforters were made with
beautifully hand stencilled duvet covers and a wool batting
inserts.
The stencil design depicting a wandering grapevine was created by her
sister Jeanne. One of these "Vineyard Comforts" ended up in the
Clinton
White House with a personal and heartfelt thank you from Hilary Clinton who
encouraged Eleanor to pursue her dream of keeping land open with sheep
and promoting the use of a truly sustainable alternative to Oil based
textiles for the production of products that are valuable to our human
culture. The biggest problem she ran into with wool comforters is
that
people who sleep under them don't want to get out of bed in the
morning!
Eleanors true passion shifted
from comforters to the production of felted pieces. She developed
a technique
were colored wool overlays are "punched" into colored batting with a
small
needle punching machine. (This is a small version of the
production
machines that produce her 90" batting.) These strips of
wool were
then wet felted to produce striking embossed effect.
Many generations of Vineyard
kindergardeners also experienced the magic of laying out colored wool
and
seeing it punched into a durable nonwoven fabric. Another interesting side note
stems from Felt making parties at the Stanwoods with friends and
visitors during the quiet and mild Vineyard winters of the 80's.
Her husband
David was noted for his multicolored felt balls which he often split
like geodes and worked into matching light weight earring discs or
ornaments. His
technique was to use a barbed felting needle in one hand while working
various colored wools into desired shapes with the other hand, then wet
felting with heat and pressure to lock and densify the felt
shapes.
During one of these visits he introduced the technique to a friend from
Northern California named Ayala Talpai. Ayala was sparked
by the
creative potential of hand needle felting and went on to publish her
book called "The
Felting Needle - from Factory to Fantasy" that spawned a whole
new craft industry based on
felting needle techniques. Ayala's website is: http://www.fiberfanatics.com
Over the years Eleanor has collaborated with fashion designers on
various felt making projects. Eleanor recently lost the help of
her associate who was dying her batts
as part of the preparation for her felt pieces. So Eleanor
learned how to use Prosion dyes to create a colorful variagated
effect. This new style of dyed felt is the basis for her current
product lines.
Eleanor's most recent collaboration with felting mills in East Germany
have yeilded a new product line of bracelets.
These fashionable, sturdy and light weight accessaries are truly high
fashion.
For more information contact Eleanor Stanwood 508 274 9244
