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The Papoose Story
NAMASTE!
By Renske Carbone.
It all started many years ago, when I had some first-hand experience of felting.
Felting is the bonding together of wool fibres, using hot water and soap.
It is a deceptively simple process, with astounding possibilities.
As my business grew it took me away from my first love: textiles.
Other concerns; running a business, learning to export, dealing
with staff , working out what the customers really want, ate up
most of my time, traveling for work, moving and trying to have
a life, took the rest of the time.
But, deep in my heart, the passion for textiles still simmers
and in May 2006 I had an opportunity to indulge myself.
I took a trip to Nepal, the land of mountains and clouds.The monsoon
just started, so there were lots of clouds. The weather was a
nice escape from wintry Melbourne and I was lucky enough
to see the top of Mount Everest above the clouds on my flight in.
I was made very welcome and worked for ten days together with my
suppliers who I had met at a Tradeshow in Europe earlier in the year.
Rashmi was one of the girls working directly with me and her
kindness to me will be long remembered. Rabin, brother of the
boss, also worked hard with me to get all our samples done.
Maheswor makes copious notes to keep track of my many demands!
These girls are being located to a brand new building, still under
construction while I was there. They are making Felt Balls, their
colourful outfits complementing the brightly coloured felt. They wear
the masks to stop breathing in the fluff from the felt.
Colours of Australia in Nepal!
Less than ten years ago, there
was no felt industry in Nepal, now there are many manufacturers
making a living out of this craft work.
My own preference for hand crafted products keeps leading me back
to professional craft producers. Understanding the processes
involved helps to be creative in product development.
As with all our products, colour is of the utmost importance.
This face-less girl is waiting for completion and will be part
of our new Papoose range.
The sewing room was kept busy too as all stitching is done by hand.
There are different techniques to decorating felt items. One way is to felt the
decoration into/onto the item, another way is to applique the shapes on.
The stitching adds another decorative element.
As many items are for kids to play with, I steered away from using
beads and I wanted to make sure all deoration was securely
attached to the object.
The backyard doubles up as drying room, parts of flowers and other
objects are layed out to dry, making an interesting patchwork of
colours.
These girls are making our flower rings. The bit around your
finger is made separately, before being felted onto the petals
of the flower.
Hot water, soap, some netting. The netting prevents the wool
from moving too much and keeps the shape together.
The felt maker gently rubs the soap into the wool, occasionally
splashing hot water on top. It is important to agitate the wool in
different directions for even distributions of the fibres.
Other items are cut from sheets of felt made before.
The difference between commercial (synthetic) felt
and handmade wool felt is enormous: the feel and
look and therefore appeal is totally different. The wool
takes the dyes beautifully, a warm and rich vibrant look
that the synthetic stuff just doesn't have.
As is not unusual, I had a lot of excess luggage to take
back with me. I had the big checked bag, the suitcase, the other
suitcase on the right side of the picture, the basket and
the parcel with the mats (between the boxes). Thai Air
was very nice and only charged me for 10kgs, I had 70kgs in total!
Even luckier, the large checked bag got lost for one day
and was home delivered the next!
My first products are getting made as I write this
and will be available soon.
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