Felt backed Fleeces is based in the West Country between Somerset and The Cotswolds.

Each fleece is lovingly created by SOPHIE HARRISON a felt maker of over 25 years who creates her felt textiles and wearable art pieces in her Somerset studio.

With a love of wool and traditional craft., Sophie feels passionately about the environment and the waste of this precious commodity here in the Uk . Always being offered fleeces from farmers who didn’t know what to do with them, she came across this fantastic method of turning a raw fleece into a rug , while causing no harm to the sheep but keeping the soft fluffy texture and warmth of a sheepskin without the horrible chemicals for tanning leather and happy sheep that remain in the field.

Each rug is “Wet felted” by laying brushed wool on the back of the raw fleece and then shrinking the wool fibres with soap, hot water and friction. This is hard work done by hand , it demands a lot of muscle and then heavy wet fleeces are brushed and washed multiple times until clean and fluffy.

Each fleece is unique in colour and quality. Sophie likes to source her fleeces from small flocks , many local to her in the West Country where she can meet the farmers, visit the sheep and know their names if possible.

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