Maker's Story

Natalie studied tourism, then ended up at a travel agency where she enjoyed working for five years, then held various administrative positions before ending up at a women's fashion company. Here she progressed from order administration to customer service and ended up EDI where her function was automated.
A nice 'kick in the butt' to turn her hobby into her job. Because since 2010, Natalie got in touch with sheep's wool and has been running felting workshops on weekends. This has since grown into a wool empire.

Draumr portret van Natalie Wool

I find it amazing that wool coming 'from my own backyard', as a result of my actions, turns into a cool functional home accessory.

The Process

Raw shorn sheep's wool comes straight from the pasture into Natalie's workshop. This raw wool is first worked with carded fleece, water and soap and by rubbing, the carded fleece adheres to the sheared fleece. This felting process takes several hours before the hooks of wool adhere to each other. A lot of water is involved! Depending on the sheep, some wool is thirstier than others.

Products

Q&A

What motivates you to make?

Wool is a wonderful product to work with. It motivates me that the wool is 'from my own backyard' and becomes a cool functional home accessory. I only use wool from Dutch sheep to transform into my vegetarian sheepskins. My mission is to show that we can stop killing sheep for a beautiful home accessory.

What and/or who are you most inspired or influenced by?

My own flock of sheep made me realise that a cool product doesn't have to come from the shop, but straight from my own backyard. With no major impact on the environment. Only with water and soap and my own muscles, a sheepskin comes to life - that inspires me.

What is your unique approach to your craft and how have you honed your skills?

By felting a lot, I become more and more dexterous with wool the more I work with it. Also at the selection process beforehand, deciding which raw wool is suitable to become a rug saves a lot of cleaning work. sometimes even impossibly soiled wool can be used!

What is your defining or proudest moment as a maker so far?

That I got to be featured in "The Flow" magazine.

What is your dream project?

Processing all of Dutch sheep wool. Not just into vegetarian sheepskins, because there are too many of them, but also to convert the remaining wool, which is now burnt, into plant food. My new mission is to dissolve the Dutch wool mountain!!