Lena is a feltmaker, artist & teacher
Welcome to a world of luxurious fibre, wet felt, vibrant colours and endless amazing possibilities created with lots of love, wool and silk. A thirst to create something unique took me on a textile draped journey of designing and stitching clothes to freeform knitting and crochet and finally landed me in the magical world of felt making taking needle-felting and then wet felting classes with a multimedia artist Jane Frazer.
Feltmaking became a cancer survival and after cancer recovery strategy first in 2011. The felting process allows me to paint with wool becoming a real meditation for me. I am surrounded in my studio by vibrant colours of the softest merino wool, luxurious silk, viscose, bamboo fibre, cotton, starchy linen, baby alpaca, and many other interesting fibres and fabrics. Playing with these fibres and fabric allows me to create unusual and exciting textures. Using hand dyeing techniques allows me to indulge my art, blending and mixing a wide range of beautiful colours.
I am inspired by Mother-Nature, by vibrant fabrics, magnificent architecture and pictures painted by great artists. I carry a camera and a sketch book to gather ideas for my next project, whenever the muse strikes! My name is Lena Archbold, and I am a textile artist, a feltmaker who loves to create bespoke, one-off ‘wearable art’ garments.
I specialise in the design and creation of garments and other accessories using different felting techniques. Nuno Felting is one of my favorite, which uses pure silk or cotton combined with finest merino wool and other fibres. This creates a bright gossamer of colours and shading that is a delight to wear.
I have been concentrating on growing my feltmaking membership Felt With Lena while creating online classes regular. Sharing my love, passion and skills with others empowers me to push boundaries in feltmaking, upcycling, and other textile techniques further while enjoying company of similar minded people around the world.
Runs online feltmaking school
Felt With Lena and
creates from her studio at
Arts Centre Washington
