Felt Good

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Felt Good

Felt Good is a research and exploration into pine needles, an over abundant natural forest waste to develop products using its fibre.

The pine trees constitute of the majority of the forest in the northern hill states of India. Every year from fall till summer, they shed their leaves that cover the forest bed choking the earth beneath. Since these pine needle are an excellent fuel to the fire, thousands of forest burn every year in Himachal Pradesh itself.

This research project is undertaken to dwell deep into the properties of this material to create solutions that pave the way for products that are 100 percent biodegradable, anti fungal, and make it the material of the future.

Felt good is about extracting fibres to create hand felted(no binding agent, pure fibre) products of everyday use for the masses. It aims to root itself as a local craft in the hill states to sustain not only the ecosystem but also the economy.

Each product has been handmade by local artisans and dyed using local natural forest products. The end result: a collection that has been made locally, using local raw material, to sustain both the local ecosystem and the economy. All the pine needle waste generated during the process was processed into paper using natural binding agents to create a unique packaging material.

By maximising the utilisation of this abundant material, felt goods aims to minimise the harm pine needle does to the environment. The entire production process is designed to be self sustaining to generate zero waste and to bring forward better solutions.

The Pine Needle fibre are dyed with natural dyes extracted from local plants and spices.

Hand Felted body scrubs, that are anti-fungal

The pine needle fibres show many similarities to the coir fibre, one such is its moisture absorption capacity. The pine felted mats allow for easy growth of plants and also easy uprooting.

The felted mats can be used to grow micro-greens at home as it doesn't require the seeds to be sown in the soil but merely sprinkle on the surface of the felted mats. It also promotes the growth of plants by absorbing water and preventing the topsoil from drying out.

Behind the scenes: Felting tools and natural dye bath

Behind the scene : Some natural dye exploration samples

All the waste pine needle fibre generated during the fibre extraction and felting process was collected and processed into paper using natural binding agents. The paper can be further used in the packaging industry to make egg packaging, fruit packaging, honeycomb cardboard, etc.