What am I inquiring into?

For my free inquiry project, or “passion project,” I’ve chosen felting – you know, the fuzzy fibre art. I struggled with committing. I was also curious about delving into the youth climate strikes, into gardening, or into textiles more generally. In the interests of getting started, though, I am choosing felting and moving forward, trusting that the process will lead me where I need to go.

Where did this come from?

A few years ago, I hitchhiked through the Kootenays and met an accomplished felt artist, Jennifer Cookson, of the website Felt Me Now. I looked her up more recently on Instagram, and became more and more engaged by her small felt creatures and creations. When I saw that she was offering an online course on felting, I decided to take the plunge! Well, I applied too late to receive her kit of materials, but she kindly provided the shopping list and access to the videos for the course.

Where am I going?

Ok, instead of figuring this out from scratch, why not use some pre-existing materials, right?

Our instruction in “Ed Tech” as we are calling it showed us this 4-page resource from the Pacific School of Inquiry and Innovation:

PSII-inquiry-guide-fillable-blank1

If I understand correctly, this guide is meant to help students develop their inquiry and learning plans. Here’s a screenshot of “Step 1” of the resource.

My initial questions, based on interest/curiousity around felting include:

  • What is the practice of felting like? – Is it easy? Hard? Frustrating? Fun? Quick? Time-consuming?
  • What is the historical and ongoing practice of felting among First Nations communities in the Pacific Northwest?
  • Would felting make for a good medium for the secondary school art classroom?

Sneak preview into next week

I’ve actually already visited a store in Victoria for materials, and it was great! So look forward to photos of the shop, and of my report out from actually digging in and starting to felt.