Two sisters from Maidstone have created a woolly world of people, animals and places - all having as good a time as possible...No wonder they're winning fans in the crafting world and beyond
Her Majesty is making a trifle. Foxy Lady, Funny Bunny Girl and Cat Woman settle down to watch TV. Lori is finished, ready to fly off to America.
The mice are horrified that the Felty Towers banner came down in a storm. Mo and Flo do a bit of housework (vodka to hand).
It’s the wayward world of Woolly Felters, played out daily on social media from a terraced house in Maidstone.
Woolly Felters is at once a creative studio, a business and an alternative reality, made entirely from ‘bundles of fluff’ by sisters Roz Dace and Judy Balchin.
They create animals, people, pictures, scenes and storylines from wool fibre using a technique called dry felting – sending a notched needle in and out of a coloured cloud of fluff tangles and compacts the wool and results, surprisingly quickly, in solid, tactile shapes, which can be sculpted into figures.
Each stab of the needle also gives a satisfying crunch, like walking on snow – no wonder needle felting is soaring in popularity in the world of decorative arts.
"Because it takes a long time to make something, it’s quite therapeutic," says Judy. "It’s a rhythmical thing you’re doing, and while you’re creating, you’ve got time to let your mind wander a bit. It’s a really lovely, calming thing to do."
Both sisters have spent their lives in the arts. Roz was editorial director of Search Press, the Tunbridge Wells art and crafts publisher, and Judy, who studied graphic design at Maidstone College of Art, has published some 40 books on different arts and crafts.
Roz discovered needle felting at an arts fair some ten years ago and immediately commissioned a book on it. Later, the sisters attended a workshop (by Gai Button, the Gillingham-based needle felt artist). Roz says: "We made two little poodles and we thought, wow, this is amazing, from this bundle of fluff, we made this. So we started exploring."
They began by creating felt pictures. Teddy bears then took their interest, and they published a book on making them – over 40 different sorts of bears because they don’t do things by halves. They’d retired from their respective day jobs by this point and realised there was a business here.
Woolly Felters has grown with the market. The sisters’ second prize-winning book (Needle Felting for Beginners) sold more than 40,000 copies, an astonishing number. They create online downloadable instructions for evocative figures such as Mother Earth and Father Time and smaller, simpler creatures such as their mouse or hare.
Their workshops are starting again; Judy takes on commissions (Lori, resplendent in a red dress with her dog under her arm, is a sculpted portrait of a woman in America who will be thrilled when she unwraps the package). They travel the country, going to shows or giving interviews.
"We didn’t want to do something that was boring or stressful,’" says Judy. "We wanted fun; we’d worked hard all our lives, and we wanted to get together and do something that had a light-hearted feel to it."
"We’ve achieved it,’ says Roz, ‘through the look, which is very stylised but actually says sisters – we’re a sister act, really."
Enter Mo and Flo; the alter egos.
"They promoted the business for us," says Roz. "They were naughty, drank vodka and ate chocolate and went clubbing, had boyfriends."
Judy says: "It was quite nice to do it that way because instead of saying all the time, we did this, we did that, we just put a picture of Mo and Flo in Birmingham up at a show with a vodka bottle in front of them saying, they’re having a fantastic time away from the studio, and we’d always be the ones at home working beavering away behind the scenes while they were out having a good time."
Judy continues: "We are professional in what we do, but it’s a lot of fun; it’s very laid back."
Roz: "We’ve got the excuse of being woolly, which is where our name is so good."
"We couldn’t think of a name,’ Judy picks up. ‘We were going to be the Felt Floozies and the Felt Flossies, and we were on the way to Peterborough one day, and we always talk so much in the car, we got lost because you go past the turning, don’t you? Well, we’re always doing that, chatting away, went the wrong way, ended up somewhere we weren’t intending to be, and Roz said, “It’s really woolly again, isn’t it?” and we just looked at each other and said. 'Woolly Felters!’"
Their daily social media posts have seen the creation of entire worlds, such as the community of mice who live in Felty Towers, having a marvellous and naughty time during their Covid-imposed ‘miceolation’. The Queen’s been busy this year, of course, and Boris Johnson used to meet with Donald Trump – except they’ve had to retire the Donald as every time he appeared, he caused mayhem in the comments.
"You have to be diplomatic," says Roz. "The diplomacy’s really important."
"I think there’s room for a bit of naughtiness," says Judy. "It’s such a serious world, isn’t it?"
The sisters grew up in Cardiff. Judy stayed in Maidstone after graduation, and her sister moved to Tunbridge Wells to be near her, eventually moving to Maidstone itself. Now Roz is off to Somerset to live near her daughter and her growing family.
They’ll talk every day and continue running the business, which they’re developing with videos and a new book published next year where they’ll tackle dolls – a year and a half in the making, hundreds of project stages, hundreds of images, and characters ranging from the Queen of Hearts to a Silver Surfer.
"It’s hard work writing a book, it’s a lot of hours, but if you’ve got a passion you get carried through by your passion," says Roz. "You feel so positive about it because what you’re doing is a magical, wonderful thing and then, well, our audience is global, so it will go everywhere."
