FELT FROM THE HEART
Contact:-
Tamara Gelashvili
Beautiful architecture and autumn trees!
“Education
for democratic citizenship promotes stable and harmonious relations among
communities and fosters mutual understanding, tolerance and peace. An education for a humanistic and
international society provides young people with self-respect, respect for ways
of life, opinions and ideas different from ones own, tolerance for others, a
commitment to the process of democratic processes. The spirit of tolerance for other nations and different religious views, scientific schools
and philosophic outlooks has always been the firm base of our University
life. We have always been devoted to our
traditions of respect for people of different nationalities, religious beliefs,
traditions and ways of life.” [Dr. Vakhtang Sartania, Rector, taken from Prometheus Tbilisi 2000]
Alana at the ‘Bazaar’!
When
reading about
‘When God was giving out land to the people of
the world the Georgians were busy feasting and making and merry and turned up late! God told them that he’d given all the land
out and there was none left. Not to
worry, the Georgian’s invited God back with them to continue their feast and he
had such a good time that he gave them the land he was saving for himself!’
I fell in love with
Arriving by air I saw some of the beauty of the
“Due to
its geographical position,
Today, the people are suffering from a poor economy
and times are not easy but this has by no means diminished their good will to
others or their determination to survive and still smile through difficult
times, showing an inner strength to learn from that is perhaps connected with
their long standing strong Christian beliefs!
Jvari, Church of the Holy Cross, overlooking Mtskheta
Where a
church has stood since 545 – 586 AD.
Mtskheta, where the green river from the mountains meets the brown river from
The view
from Jvari
Mtskheta is the ancient capital of
“According
to tradition, after the crucifixion of the Saviour,
Christ’s robe fell to the lot of the Jews from Mtskheta. Rabbi Eliaz brought
it to Mtskheta with him. At the city gate he was met by his sister Sidonia, who had already been initiated into Jesus’
teachings. She took the Saviour’s robe into her hands and was so moved that she
fell dead on the spot. Sidonia clasped the Saviour’s
robe so hard to her bosom that nobody dared to wring it from her hands, and she
was buried with it. Essentially, this
event, the burial of the Saviour’s robe in Mtskheta, is the beginning of the history of Christianity
in
Statue of Vakhtang Gorgasali
and the castle,
The capital of
“More than
1400 springs of thermal mineral waters make
The region of ‘Racha’, photo thanks to one of
the students!
“Georgian
people have created original and national art, at the same time preserving and
developing all the traditions. One of
the ancient kinds of Georgian art is the textile manufacture. In the life of the Georgian people,
especially the mountain districts, together with the production of the felt
cloak and cloth, felt handicrafts played an important part. Sheep’s wool of high quality from Tushety served as a raw material for the production of
cloth and carpets. Making every new
pattern of felt, experts created still new and new compositions, and colours varied and enriched ancient design. In the composition of Georgian felt carpets
was reflected the reality surrounding man – the world of animals and plants,
different things connected with the life of the people, with his agriculture
and nomadic way of life.” [Taken from, ’Georgian Decorative Thick
Felt’, N. Tsagareli, 1972]
Rafael Akperov from Eldar
Mamed-Zade’s shop
There is a fine tradition of weaving, in ‘gobelin’, ‘pardaggi’ and ‘kilim’ styles showing both great artistic skill and amazing
patience! This shop has a beautiful
collection of antique carpets, kilims and saddlebags,
to name only a few, some of which are for sale!
More examples of Georgian art can be found at Manana’s site http://www.mananaart.ge
Included in my introduction to
Statue based on one of Pirosmani’s paintings
“The most
remarkable of self-taught painters, is perhaps the wonderful Georgian painter Nico Pirosmanshvili. Like all genuine popular art, his technique
blends ancient traditions with imaginative representations of living
reality. Despite his simple techniques,
his paintings showing the old pre-revolution
Traditional dancers at the Pirosmani festival
THE
PROJECT
After spending almost a week being spoilt, shown the
city and surrounding area and countryside I eventually began the project with
students from the university in the felt workshop of Tinatin
Kldiashvili. I
had never worked with students of university level who were already making felt
as part of their studies. I knew that
this workshop would be different to the others and tried to be as flexible as
possible, keeping to their motto, ‘Don’t worry, Be
happy’!!
The main difficulty facing us was the lack of
language. Once again I was left wishing
I could have learnt Georgian in an hour, and so had to depend on everyone else
to translate my English. It is amazing
that we managed to communicate as well as we did, and a credit to both students
and teachers for their patience in trying to understand me. We were lucky to have the help of Ekkaia Tskhovrebova whose English
was great and she was a constant help to me, she translated into Russian and
from there we could translate into Georgian, phew!
Traditional style balcony opposite the felt studio!
As the students already knew a lot about felt making I
started with sculpture work and showed the basic techniques of making tassels
that can be snakes or balls that can be birds!
It was
great to see how different everybody’s bird was even though we followed the
same methods!
For the second project we made slippers. A suggestion from a friend who was interested
in making them and a good idea as winter is on its way!
After
having made so many slippers I had given myself a long break from making them
again. However it was really fun,
especially when we got our feet wet!
The end
result looked great!
We used
the method of making a design from half felted pieces so that I could explain
how we would make the panel!
Drawing ‘Svaneti’
“Svaneti, a highland region in the north west Georgia, with
‘Svaneti’s main street’, the Inguri
river, cutting through it, and villages resembling swallows nests, is set high
in the mountains. Crystal clear mineral
waters gush from the heart of the earth through deep gorges. You can hear the clashing of horns of dueling
ibexes, black cocks calling to each other, and the enchanting warbling of
birds. You can revel at the sight of
flowering mountain meadows – a romantic sight indeed! In winter Svaneti
is a veritable fairy land.” [Taken from, ‘Under the Svaneti
Skies, 1983]
As well as drawing individual pictures we made good
use of preparing the pictures for the panel, straight onto a sheet of paper the
same size as the panel.
To help
make some of the fine detail I introduced the students to the magic of felting
needles. These helped to keep the detail
in place while the design was turned upside down on the felting cloth. This is ‘Shatili’
another region of
In keeping with the
theme of old
Once again
the picture was then laid upside down onto the cloth for felting.
Traditional
designs for carpets were put onto the border along with a drum, which would
usually be shown on the carpet!
The
background gave us the mountains of Svaneti, the
lower hills as seen from
Georgian
wool is quite coarse and it was easy to make a thick panel from only a few
layers!
The next
day we covered the wool with very hot and soapy water.
Because of
the awkward shape we first rubbed the wool to flatten it. Some used a net to help keep the wool in
place.
Once we
had flattened the wool we could roll it up for the real work!!
Once again
without the help of the students this would be VERY hard work on my own!
It was a
fast and furious rolling team!!
A bright and
beautiful Old Tbilisi and representation of
As this teaching was different from the beginning and the students were studying felt making, I decided that for the final project it may be better to teach them all how to make the ‘mask’ or relief work that people find so interesting. It seemed to be a more useful project than all working on one piece again!
I chose the form of a Rooster as the piece to demonstrate and would help with whatever they chose to make if it were different.
First I gave a demonstration as that is the easiest
way to explain something, especially when I don’t speak the same language.
Making the
Rooster.
Finished
‘relief’ Rooster!!
Some of
the students made 3D mushrooms, one made a 3D duck, another made an eagle in
relief and another made a white rooster!
To show
another possibility of the technique I also made a ‘Sun mask’, this was a favourite with some especially!!
THANK YOUS
First to Tamara Gelashvili who has been in contact with me since last year, organizing it for me to be here and work with students to complete this part of the project. She gave so much of her time to the project and to making me comfortable and welcome.
To Tinatin (Tina) Kldiashvili who
supported my work, introducing me to the university and students and providing
everything and more that I would need for the felting, and feasting!!! What beautiful singing too!
To Lilia (Lika) Romashka and Ekkaia (Ekka) Tskhovrebova
for opening their house to me at a minutes notice and making me welcome and at
home! For all the help with translation
and computer technology I must again thank Ekka.
As always to the students who helped to inspire and make the panel, without them it would not have been possible!
I hope I
can return the welcome one day to any or all of you, who have been so amazingly
generous and warm with friendship for me!
My home
shall be your home!
To contact
me:-
To go to
the main project web site:-
http://www.oocities.org/alanafelt