Hazelmadeit-Felt (Hazel Ewart-Mills) Argyll, United Kingdom

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I am a felter working primarily with merino to create wearable and decorative pieces. Everyday hats through to formal hat commissions, wraps and bespoke pieces, vessels and wall art, all inspired by the forms and colours of the Argyll coast where I live. Every piece is unique as they are all laid by eye and made by hand, allowing the felt to follow its own innate form.

As a self taught felter, my practice comes from a love of fabric and an appreciation of the world in which I live. I tend not to draw out ideas before creating them, rather an image will form in my head of a form, possibly for a hat, or a representation of the sea or landscape. This could be simply the colours of the ancient stones in the landscape, often carved with marking by people long gone, or a more abstract concept on interlinking lives in a small rural community.

The felt , therefore is laid straight out of my head with my eyes dictating the placing of the fleece. To me it is like painting and the same colour rules apply as might with layers of water colour. Where colours overlap, they blend , forming a new colour of their own, the addition of a wisp of colour or light adding the just what is needed.

Hats and vessels are created free form. Hats get sized on a block but they are all simple crowns so the actual shape of the hat, may start as a concept in my head, but the finished form will respond to how the felt wants to bend and fold so that the process feels more like creating a piece of sculpture. I create hats that are designed to be easy to wear, they have a crown allowing the wearer to enjoy the hat without worrying about it moving, form and function.