Hole-istic Compensation: Needle Felted Infills For Losses in Fulled Wool

Abstract

This paper outlines the fiber art technique of needle felting adapted to compensate for loss in fulled wool textiles. The fiber art method uses a single barbed needle to entangle wool fibers for applying felted designs to fabrics and for creating threedimensional shapes. As a loss compensation technique for textile conservation, the infill is needle felted onto a secondary support, which can be physically attached to the object or attached to a mount or lining to create a passive infill. The appearance of the needle felt mimics the texture of fulled wool, and the depth of the felt can be adjusted to the depth of the loss. Case studies of three conservation treatments performed at the National Museum of the American Indian describe variations to the basic technique, including the use of different types of wool and substrates, methods for obtaining a suitable infill surface, and color compensation.