Visitors to Chantal Cardinal’s studio will immediately notice the large chair suspended from the ceiling. But it’s not made of polyester or other synthetic fibers. Instead, the former Montrealer created the piece entirely by hand, using a wet felting process to bond wool fibers together and create a hand-woven felt.
“When I first opened the studio here, I basically wanted to sit people down and start talking,” Cardinal told Vancouver.
The felt chair has been in the Art Factory’s East Vancouver studio since the 2017 East End Cultural Tour. Cardinal smiles and says it has been tested on hundreds of people of all sizes.
Like other felt artists, Cardinal creates practical and wearable pieces. Through her design company FELT à la main with LOVE, she also creates elegant works of art. These include colorful wall hangings that have the added benefit of absorbing sound.
“There are no limitations to my art form,” Cardinal said, “so I can make sculptures. I can make them flat or three-dimensional. They can be as big as a chair to sit on or as small as jewelry.”
A few years ago, Cardinal won a public art commission for Vancouver’s Surrey Centre branch. She created a vibrant felt piece, “Blooming with Collective Hands,” using wool from an Abbotsford sheep farm.
This was a turning point. She went from buying rolls of processed wool to visiting farms, attending wool auctions and shearing events to extract the fibre.
“It takes a lot of work,” Cardinal said, “but the rewards are much greater and you can understand where the material comes from.”
“I help shear and sort the sheep, and sometimes I even help the shearers drive the sheep away, but that’s my husband’s job because he comes to help.”
She brings the wool to her studio on Industrial Avenue and lays out the fibers on a large workbench. She then winds the fibers into a carding machine to create a beautiful batting that is then turned into felt.
“Basically, to make felt, I had to make all these connections,” Cardinal said. “Once I put them in the combing machine, they’re nice and straight and combed in one direction.”
With water, agitation, and wool fibers, a magical process called “wet felting” occurs to bind the fibers together. Adding a little dish soap can make this process easier.
“The more you stir the piece, the more it shrinks, turning into a solid ‘material’, even if it’s very thin,” she explains. “It’s very strong because it’s not woven or knitted. Even if it breaks, it won’t unravel.”
She notes that different breeds of sheep produce different types of wool. For example, Gotland sheep in Sweden have beautiful, curly wool. Icelandic sheep also produce wool that is very soft to the touch. The same is true of Romney sheep, which are common in British Columbia.
One of her largest public projects is a magnificent 300-square-foot, 12-panel window designed for the ACT Arts Center in Maple Ridge.
When Cardinal lived in Montreal, she never thought she would become a felt artist. At the time, she was a competitive soccer player. By trade, she is a fashion and costume designer in the film industry.
She discovered felt art when she walked into Funk Shui on Granville Island and asked if they could rent a studio. Owner Jessica de Haas offered her a job.
“I’m used to making costumes, working on movies and anything that has to do with costumes,” Cardinal said. “And in this case, you get to make the material yourself. So it’s pretty exciting.”
She left a year later to open her own studio because she wanted to spend more time experimenting with fibers. During the 2020-2021 school year, Cardinal hosted workshops for more than 200 Richmond students through its Artists in the Classroom grant.
In addition, she also took part in the East Side Arts Association’s Create! Arts Festival.
“I do a lot of workshops in my studio and a lot of workshops in the community,” says Cardinal.
She also enjoys collaborating with other artists on her work, such as working with an upholsterer on a felt lighting project and a second felt chair.
Felt is considered the oldest fabric in the world, having originated in Turkey as early as 6500 BC. The non-woven material has also been used for thousands of years in Central Asia, including as a building material for yurts.
Last year, Cardinal joined two other Vancouver-based craft artists on a trip organized by the Taiwan Crafts Research and Development Institute. In Taiwan, she says, she was “blown away” by the amazing craftsmen who worked there, including weavers of bamboo, banana and reed fiber.
Some of the works by these Taiwanese artists are currently on display at the Island Tribute exhibition at the Granville Island Marine Art Centre this weekend. It’s part of Vancouver’s Chinese New Year celebrations this month.
“Processing banana fiber, bamboo, or reeds is a labor-intensive process, similar to the painstaking process I go through when preparing my own wool for felting,” Cardinal says. “I feel like my work is influenced by the craftsmanship I learned in Taiwan.”
To learn more about Chantal Cardinal’s work, visit FELT à la main with LOVE. Follow Vancouver on Twitter @VoiceMedia and Instagram @VoiceMedia.
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We Are Canadians Too was founded in Vancouver to raise awareness of underrepresented arts groups. The wave of awareness continues to grow and inspire us all.
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We Are Canadians Too was founded in Vancouver to raise awareness of underrepresented arts groups. The wave of awareness continues to grow and inspire us all.
We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of Xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. With this recognition, we express gratitude to the Indigenous peoples who still live and care for this land.