mikrós organismos – felt hanging

Felt hanging

mikrós organismos
(greek for micro organism)

100 x 35 x 12 cm
Felt hanging (Ceiling) – 2 sides

Wet felting, nuno felting, resists, various 3D surface design techniques, embellishment and stitch. Materials are merino wool, heavy cheesecloth, hand-spun yarn, hand-blown glass and wadding.

Inspired by a father whose life revolved around a microscope, I am also fascinated with the extreme microscopic view of the tiniest living things. In particular, the view of the ultra-structure of a micro-organism under an electron microscope which reveals intriguing oddities and mysterious characteristics.  Due to their almost colourless appearance, they have an alien-like structure with flagella and undulating surfaces . While seemingly inanimate to the naked eye, under the lens, they defy this illusion.

There are larger photos with more detail of construction in the gallery below.

Initial layout merino on cheesecloth

Laying out prefelts on top of Nuno felt

Layering of prefelt flaps with resists

Prefelt flaps and inclusions on front prefelt Nuno panel

Tail pieces with multiple vanes and wool cord

Back view with single large glass ball

Back view with felt over large hand blown glass ball

Closeup of front with balls and inclusions on front

Front view

Hanging in gallery

Construction

While this piece has a lot of elements going on, my hope is that they portray the primitive structure of a micro organism. I use a fine merino roving on cheesecloth to create a pre-felt and then apply the flaps, balls and foam pieces. Using resists and temporary tacking to keep the bulky elements in place, the fulling is done separately on each piece as a result . The 2 pieces are stitched together, filled with wadding and the tail then attached. Maybe I won’t do piece like this again, but in the end, I think it is especially relevant to the theme of the exhibition.

In addition to 70+ other exhibits, Micros organismos is an exhibit in the 2016 Perth felt exhibition MACRO|micro.