Straightening Out the Wrinkles

Dear Reader,

This past weekend, I taught a felt making class. One of the keys to success in making nuno felt—felting wool into a loosely woven cloth—is to avoid stretching the cloth. The process involves encouraging tiny wool fibers to move into the little, bitty spaces of the cloth and create minuscule knots on the other side.

Here’s the rub. As the wool starts to do its thing, tiny little wrinkles begin to appear in the cloth. So what do we do with wrinkles? We smooth them out of course. Except in this case, we want the wrinkles. The wrinkles are evidence that the wool is attaching itself to the cloth. Have I mentioned that it’s a weird and magical process?

Sometimes, we just can’t help ourselves. It’s so automatic to smooth out the wrinkles that we don’t even know we’re doing it. Maybe I forgot to emphasize that this process requires wrinkles. We want the wrinkles!

As the workshop continued, I noticed what I was doing with my own hands. I was moving the material toward the center, creating wrinkles along the way. Ah, a new motion. Focus on the new action, rather than trying not to do the old, automatic thing. Noticing and learning along the way.

I wonder if we might find a way to celebrate the wrinkles in our lives, even the wrinkles on our faces. They’re evidence of the nature of living. And living is worth celebrating.

Here in the U.S., Thanksgiving is on Thursday, so our routines have some wrinkles. More people at the grocery stores, more cars on the roads, a lot of hustle and bustle.

In the midst of all this, we’re still doing our Tuesday online Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lesson. It’s still Free/Pay as you wish.

If you’d like to work with me privately, you can Book an Appointment for a Feldenkrais or Coaching session, or for a free consult. You can even set up a time for a private, or semi-private felting session. Or you can simply reply to this email and let me know what’s most interesting to you.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!