WORKSHOP WOOL FELTING: HANDCRAFT YOUR OWN UNIQUE SHEEPSKIN
When:
OCTOBER 1, 2025 10.00 – 17.00h
Location:
SOEST, NL
Led by:
BABETTE LEERTOUWER
Price:
250 euros, incl. VAT
Incl. sheepskin to take home
Incl. lunch, coffee & tea
Max. 11 persons
This workshop will be in Dutch
Discover the art of fleece felting.
On a nostalgic farm in Soest, we gather to learn and craft a beautiful sheepskin through the traditional wet-felting technique.
Working with raw, untreated wool from a freshly shorn Dutch sheep, you will craft your own vegetarian, handmade, and completely unique sheepskin.
Bring your muscles, it’s a real workout, and wear old, comfortable clothes. Fleece felting is a messy but wonderfully authentic craft! You’ll need to be in good physical condition, as we work on the ground in the grass, overlooking the wide-open polder. And don’t forget to let your bare feet feel the cool, fresh grass.
The fleece felting workshop includes coffee or tea and a delicious lunch. There’s plenty of time to connect to other women.
This workshop is limited to 11 participants. A table is available if working on the ground is difficult.
Sheep’s fleece Felting
Sheep’s fleece felting is a technique in which you create a vegetarian sheepskin by felting a shorn fleece onto a wool base using warm water, natural soap, and friction. The sheep happily continues its life and will provide wool again next year. In the meantime, the sheep graze our heathlands, eliminating the need for machines that scare away wildlife, damage the soil, and burn fuel. As they graze, they also fertilise the land naturally with their small hooves and droppings.
Our heathlands are currently overrun by invasive plants caused by excessive nitrogen levels and these are exactly the plants the sheep love to eat.
The advantage of a vegetarian sheepskin is that it can always be washed in a washing machine (wool cycle) and still contains a small amount of lanolin, which even gives it medicinal properties.
Traditional sheepskins have a leather backing, which means the sheep was killed. The skin is then tanned in vats containing strong acids and chemicals to remove blood and flesh. This process is often done in low-wage countries, where workers operate without protection and later suffer severe health issues. In many cases, the chemical waste is dumped into nearby rivers.
Fleece felting is a sustainable process, using local wool that is often considered a by-product. Let’s honour this technique and material, and keep the craft and knowledge alive!
About Babette
Babette developed her love for nature at an early age, growing up on her grandmother’s farm. She still cherishes returning to the basics of slow living, caring for plants and animals. Babette learned the timeless wisdom of sustainability in its purest form. Working with natural materials, barefoot on the ground, using her body and hands, is a raw and intimate process. It connects her deeply to the essence of life.
In addition to being a textile artist, she’s also an activist. Her wool creations serve as a protest against the depletion of our planet. We need more craftsmanship, starting at the source of our materials. Everything begins in nature, not in a factory. The designer becomes the farmer.
Her wall art invites you to feel and experience; your senses must be engaged. Here, you can explore solutions to today’s greatest challenges. Let us surround ourselves – and our interiors – with living materials. You wouldn’t sit in a parking garage for pleasure; too much dead material. Choose life.
To sign up: click below. Just send us, ‘Yes, I’d like to join’ and we’ll follow up with further details asap.