Rolling the Felt

Wool felt originated from nomadic felt slice on grassland. Northern Shaanxi is located on the boarder and with the communication between nationalities felt slice gradually spread to northern Shaanxi. After being improved, felt slice finally turns into wool felt.

Northern Shaanxi is rich in wool, which provides quality material for rolling felt. Artists who roll felt are called felt rollers. Most of them inherits the career from their fathers and works as both a farmer and an artist.

The first step in rolling wool is flipping wool. Then pave wool, spray water, spray oil and spread bean flour on the wool repeatedly. Finally roll wool felt into a reel and bundled it tightly. Now the real rolling starts. After repeated rolling, felt embryo take forms. After the important step——washing felt, a wool felt is finished.

Wool felt is used to prevent moisture in summer and keep warm in water. For hundreds of years whatever happens to life, wool felt accompanying people on the plateau has always been an inevitable part of their life.