Jean Constantine 

t. 01359 231955 | e. cphilipc@aol.com 

20 Heather Close, Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 3PX 

 

Jean has been a member of the Suffolk Craft Society since 1986 and a member of the International Feltmakers Association since its inception in 1984. 

 

Jean’s interest in Textiles began with her mother, who made their clothes as a child, and later developed her sewing skills through patchwork and quilting. As a rather shy teenager, Jean’s mother took her to some Adult Education classes where she discovered hand weaving. Jean went on to complete a Foundation Course at Ipswich School of Art and Design and then a BA (Hons) in Textiles at West Surrey College. It was there that she found Feltmaking and made quite large abstract pieces mostly by treading and rolling the fleece in the wet room and enjoyed a sense of rhythm whilst making felt. During the degree Jean learnt about fleece from different sheep breeds and using acid wool dyes to achieve a stable colour in wool. 

 

On returning to Suffolk Jean became inspired by the Suffolk countryside and enjoyed taking photographs of animals and birds, mainly observing their quirky characters and began to create decorative felts. 

 

Jean strives to make peaceful interpretations using wool fibres as the main ingredient and using the simplicity of the wet felting technique. The dyed fleece is prepared by carding where she particularly loves the blending process to achieve the desired colours. Several layers are built up together with inlaid yarns and pre-fleted shapes, and then hardened by pressing and rolling. In this way the colours intermingle to produce a solid mass of texture, onto which hand embroidery is often added as a final embellishment to enhance detail.