Farm Shop and Domestic Industry

FELTING  WITH  NORWEGIAN  TIMBER  HORSES

 Mongolian carpet felting with horses......!

Six years ago, when I first read about it, the idea instantly captured my mind. Since then I have devoted all my spare time developing and adapting methods and constructing equipment according to different Norwegian wool qualities, horses and geographical possibilities.

• In Gunilla Paetau Sjøberg´s book  “Tova”, issued at LT in Stockholm in 1994, you can study the original felting process in pictures on the pages 33 – 37.

The issue is,  that Mongolian landscape is very different from Norwegian landscape ......
Mongolia has miles and miles of flat steppes, typical for  Norway is uneven ground .

The horse must keep the felt constantly rolling for several hours to make thick, solid carpets, and in  Norwegian  landscape that requires a wagon with stiff shafts , designed with a special grip system for attaching the felt roll.

The wagon makes it possible to make curves and turns and to drive up and down hills.

In Mongolia felt makers simply attach the roll of felt by long ropes to the horses, ride straight ahead for several hours, make one turn and ride straight back again.

My first prototype felt wagon was screwed and welded together from the front shaft and wheels of a condemned Morris Mini with the help of a very nice and creative neighbour who is a mechanic.....
This prototype was a big step ahead, and I made several nice carpets with it, but the final breaking through came two years ago , when the idea of combining timber wagon and felting wagon struck me.
We breed traditional Norwegian forestry horses on our farm, and we use them actively to take out timber from our own forest. If you want to see pictures, and read more about the Norwegian forestry horses, see our websites www.midtskogen.no  , choose the English menu and the button Horses.

In our region of Norway we have very strong traditions in forest work with horses, which were done on a large scale to feed the sawmill - and paper industry from 1900 - 1940. After the second world war horses were used to pull timber on a large scale till around the 1960 ies, when advanced forest machinery took over. The use of horses in forestry, though, never quite died out in Norway, because of our landscape. Advanced forest machines and ordinary tractors cannot be used everywhere. The use and breeding rate of the traditional Norwegian forest horses are strongly accelerating, a great part of the Norwegian forest area beeing owned by farmers, the properties are rather small, and the costs of hireing forest machines are rapidly rising. They also make great damages in the forest ground, which are expensive to repare. Astonishingly, horses prove to be far more effective and faster compared with a tractor when used for taking out small trees after thinning out the forest.

We are most lucky to have a very skilled equipment maker for forestry with horses in our region. We use his timber wagons, see picture 1, above, and on the next picture you can see the result of our co – work, the combi felt – timber wagon. The bow with the winches can be lifted off and replaced with a bar, to which the grip system for the felt roll is attached. This new design was tested thoroughly out during the felting season 2002, and proved perfectly fit for the purpose. Our next project was the design of a multiple grip system, to which several felt rolls can be attached at the same time, and this was tested during the 2003 season, and has proved to be superbly fit for the task, and very effective, we are now able to produce lots of felt at the same time with two rolls at the same time. We will probably also add one or two rolls more, we have strong horses.........

We ride the horse while pulling the felt roll, but it is also possible to attach the grip system with the roll to a wagon, and drive the horse.

This way of making carpets is perfectly fit for using wool from our Norwegian mountain sheep, the “spelsau”, which has a two components wool, the inner wool is soft, with fine fibres which felts easily, and the covering wool consists of long, coarse fibres, which do not felt, but the are armed into the felt by the inner wool.

The spelsau wool appears in a number of decorative colours and shades, and the carpets get solidly firm, but yet soft, and the long, loose fibres on the surface make then look almost like multicoloured fur skins.

Our carpets, between 2 and 4 metres long and 1.60 broad, have become very popular, we have a lot of cold floors in Norway, and the look of these carpets fit very well in with the style of wooden interior, which is very common by us.

The method can be used for felting from all kinds of wool, you can even use the worst waste wool, though it is not exactly fit for the surface of the carpet...........

From whipped wool we produce, in addition to floor carpets, equipment for horses, as saddle pads, horsecloths, saddle bags and cloth for packs, big outdoor signboards for house walls, and we even produce cloth for making outdoor shelters in the forest.

One  can also use carded wool, that gives a smooth surface. From carded wool we produce felt cloth, which can further be used for a number of purposes, or thinner, separate carpets used as wall cloth, table cloth, etc.

We start felt work as soon as the snow has melted off the fields, usually after medio April, and keep on until snow comes back, after medio October. Most of the forestry work is done on the last snow in March and April, and on the first new snow in October till December.

In the winter months I make ordinary felt work by hand, I spin a lot of yarn from our sheep for hand knitting, and dye yarn, felt and wool with lichen and bark.

We welcome visitors for workshops and courses, which can be ordered for families or groups. You can also visit us as a tourist, if you want to explore Norway, which I strongly recommend.

On our farm we can offer you accommodation in rooms, cabin or apartment for short or longer time.

We keep a number of different domestic animals, and you can choose among several leisure time activities.

Visit our websites :  www.midtskogen.no

If you want to know more about wagons and equipment for forestry and felt work with horses, visit:

www.ulvins-verksted.no

DYING OF WOOL, YARN and FELT

 Lichen, bark, mushrooms and flower plants are used for dying wool, yarn and felt without using chemicals.

EXHIBITION

 There is an interesting exhibition on our farm: Traditional woolwork is presented in a pedagogical exhibition, showing different kinds of wool-producing animals, all kinds of traditional wool-work prosesses, and a large specter of products made from wool. We also present an exhibition of creative woolwork for sale, these are all handmade on the farm.

COURSES, LECTURES and GROUP VISITS

 Courses, lectures and group visits can be ordered. These can be arranged as day visits or be combinated with lodging.  

FARM VISITS

 Guided walks on the farm is possible, we will guide you personally and you can take close contact with the animals if you wish. Price: NOK 40 / person. Minimumprice per visitgroup: NOK 200