Panel, Composition (DH/WD/SI 001)

Claudy Jongstra is a contemporary textile designer who practices the ancient technique of felting. Since the mid-1990s she has created extraordinary felted fabrics for fashion designers such as John Galliano, Christian Lacroix, and Donna Karan, and for architects and designers Steven Holl, Will Bruder, Jasper Morrison, and Marcel Wanders. Jongstra’s fabrics have a raw elegance that comes from her use of materials such as wild silk, wild linen, and wild cashmere, as well as the special (and proprietary) techniques she has developed in her felting. Jongstra even goes so far as to raise her own sheep in the Dutch countryside and currently has a herd of 200, including the rare species of long-haired Drenthe Heath whose shorn locks she felts along with the straw and lanolin that accumulates on their hair. This textile by Jongstra is a prime example of felting, a technique that uses the application of friction, heat, and moisture to mat wool fibers together. The fibers are not spun or twisted, but are simply a mass of fibers lying indiscriminately in all directions. Two fabrics by Jongstra, Composition (DH/WD/SI 001), seen here, and Composition (SI 001), were both commissioned specifically for the museum’s collection. They exemplify not only the general range of felting techniques, but also the variety of Jongstra’s work. This textile is made of Merino wool, Drenthe Heath wool, and Wensleydale wool that appear to come directly from the back of the sheep.