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In the
summer of 2005 Jeanette visited Mongolia with 8 other Scottish felt-makers.
Jeanette became a camera-woman
& expertly shot around 12 hrs of footage of activities at the
International Feltmaker's Conference - the wildlife, the spectacular
scenery & the people..
The film is condensed
into 30 enchanting minutes in 3 chapters with professional traditional
folk music providing authentic atmosphere.
The film was launched
at the Royal
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh to coincide with the Felt makers exhibition
' On the Map' & was showing for much of January 2006. |
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| The Film is available for £13.30
incl p&p from Twist Fibre Craft Studio (Newburgh, Fife) |
| Images by Jenny Mackay
More images (by Lynn Ramsbottom) here
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The middle
& longest chapter documents skills exchanged between the Mongolian
and Scottish groups &
features a unique step by step demonstration from the shearing of
the sheep to rolling the felt behind a horse.
Other chapters document
fascinating aspects to this amazing country including wildlife,
daily nomadic life, celebrations and traditions. |
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some of the women from both Scottish
& Mongolian groups |
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This film
is a superb learning and teaching tool for all Felt Lovers & a
wonderful insight into a fascinatin g land. Now also available ‘Felt
Art of the Mongols ‘by Prof Luntengiin Batchuluun from Wingham
Wool Works, the book which served as the basis for information
for this film. |
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| All Images by Jenny Mackay |
| ‘Mongolia
the land of felt and wild horses’ by Jeanette Sendler |
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visited in Altanbulag, a community consisting of unemployed people
and nomadic families set up by Mrs Dorkjhand. |
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This
formation became necessary after the collapse of communism so
the herding families could support each other make pieces of
felt together and look after each others livestock. On our journey
we could see herds of sheep and Kashmir goats being taken to
new pastures.
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We
passed old wooden barracks, concrete derelict houses, high wooden
fences and amongst them 'gers'.
One could feel the nomadic presence of a people constantly on the
move.
On the road side we passed a number of cone like sculptures made from
stones and draped with blue fabric for good luck.
We overlook trucks, the round roofs of gers on top whilst inside they
were stuffed full of the collapsible wooden frames. |
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a temporary village of 'Gers'
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There
were endless roads, bumpy & pot-holed joining up somewhere, suddenly
forking and disappearing again in the distance behind the mountains.
Near the gers we could see sleepy dogs, friendly during the day, but
barking and fighting off wolves at night. |
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Wild Horses or 'Takhi'
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Behind the gers there were piles of cow and camel dung normally
used as fuel for cooking and warmth. There were eagles on the skyline
and again and again we passed colourful sheep and Kashmir goats
grazing on a sea of grassland.
Around
us were wide open plains where your eye could travel without any
interruptions. There were no signposts and only nomads would know
their way around in this sparsely populated countryside.
When we finally arrived, walking across the steppes was like walking
through a herb garden with the strong scent of thyme. We stayed
three days in Altanbulag village, where we shared our experiences
in Felt making with the villagers. |
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It was
an important encounter for both sides. The Mongolian felt makers were
keen to learn new methods to develop new products to support their
livelihood, and the Scottish felt makers wanted to learn about their
nomadic way of life.
Felt making had brought together two communities; few words were needed
to understand the felt maker’s language.
The idea is simple, wool, water and friction, a skill which traveled
along the Silk Road centuries ago uniting felt makers from the East
and the West generations later. |
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| SCOTTISH
FELT MAKERS IN MONGOLIA Jenny Mackay In
August 2005 seven felt makers and two brave husbands from Scotland made
a journey to Mongolia. This was a dream come true for many of them –
visiting the “home” of felt had been talked about on many
occasions. |
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Ann Ross, the Scottish coordinator, had been in touch with
the organizer of “The 10th Anniversary of the Mongolian
Felt-makers Association” in Ulaan Bataar and had arranged
for us to participate.
We
arrived just in time to take part in a slide presentation
and have some of our work hung in the Art Gallery beside beautiful
traditional Mongolian art felt and some interesting contemporary
work. |
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We
met Gunilla Paetau Sjoberg who was the guest of honour as she had helped
to set up the first Conference. It was particularly interesting to see
the imaginative modern felt work being produced as well as seeing the
influence of the traditional work.
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The next day part of the exhibition was transported to “Ghorkit
National Park”, a beautiful venue situated in the mountains
outside Ulaanbaatar. There we had a very moving Opening Ceremony in
the open air with the felt hanging in the trees, traditional musicians
and dancers in delicate felt costumes. |
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It was finished off with a demonstration of making felt starting with
the shearing of the sheep to pulling the roll of felt behind a horse.
….and that was just the start.
Stephan Doempke wrote a review of Dr Batchuluun’s book “Felt
Art of the Mongols” in an issue of Echoes and following an enquiry
from Jenny Mackay about where to obtain the book Stephan suggested that
he and his contact in Mongolia organize our trip for us. We sent them
a list of what we wanted to do. His contact is Dorjkhand who works for
“Duuren Sanaa” the Foundation for Supporting Traditional Handicrafts”.
Dorjkhand and her team of helpers were absolutely wonderful. They packed
so much in to our two weeks it is hard to believe. We met Dr Erdenetsetseg
who teaches felt making at the University and had a morning with Dr Batchuluun
amongst many other things.
The following are particular impressions from some of the travelers……
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| Mongolian Visit: Liz
Brown |
| There were many reasons for
wishing to go to Mongolia and studying the making of felt boots was a major
one. Ever since I was involved in the research and making of the Scottish
Story Telling Yurt Mongolia has fascinated me – it’s people,
it’s culture and especially it’s art work. |
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This
was a great opportunity. We never wanted to go as tourists rather
to share the knowledge of recent Western feltmaking and gain
a taste of the vast Mongolian heritage of feltmaking.
Through Dr Batchuluun’s book “Felt Art of the Mongols”
I learned a little of the traditional way boots were made and
especially the soling interested me.
It was a great honour for me to meet the Professor and discuss
feltmaking with him. |
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| Above:
Liz brown (left) |
| I learned
through museum visits and local discussions that the are many
types of Mongolian boots. Most of them are leather with felt
liners but the specific ones I wished to learn about was the
Torguud style. |
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| All the advanced
plans could not have foreseen the boot factory in Ulanbaator
closing for renovations the very period of time we were there
however we were shown the cashmere and needlefelting factories
by Dr Erdenetsetseg. |
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I had the adventure of a lifetime with many mini episodes
but the warmest memories are of the time spent in Altanbulaag
sharing time with the herdswomen and the local group of
women working with the Duuren Sanaa project. |
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The wide-open skies seemed to me to give the people an openness of
heart and spirit. Even without language we could communicate on a
deep level and many friendships have been forged from this experience.
The kindness and warmth I received from our hosts will stay with me
forever.
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The Scottish
group decided to support this group with raw materials for the coming
year, giving some income to the herds women and providing work for
the local village women. The uniting of these two groups of women
who are sharing skills will benefit the community as a whole. |
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Mongolia is a country
of vast contrasts but the knowledge and traditions of the ancient feltmakers
are within the hearts of the people of Mongolia.
Visit my web site on www.heartfeltbyliz.com |
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| Mongolian Stories: Alison
Brough |
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My reasons for being part of the trip to Mongolia were complex and varied.
I wanted to experience the landscape in reality, the vastness of it which
is so difficult to comprehend on TV or in a photo, the culture, a living
tradition stretching back centuries, learning the traditional felt-making
with the people and hearing their stories.
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This last
reason was very important to me because I am a storyteller as well
as a felt-maker and combine the two in my own work. I was able to
tell stories from Scotland to two groups of children during our
stay in. This included a felt story with handmade felt animals.
The children responded
by drawing and telling me stories from Mongolia which I recorded.
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| These are very precious and
will become part of a piece of work raising funds for two children's projects
we visited in Mongolia. The people were keen to share their lives with us
and made our stay memorable. |
| Someone asked
me the other day if I had 'come down' from my visit yet and I said
no because I kept being asked to talk about it and every time I relived
the whole trip again! An interesting twist to the story is summed
up by something a traveling friend of mine once said to me, that there
are basically three kinds of story in the world and all the rest are
variations on a theme. |
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The story I tell with
my felt figures and told the children in Mongolia is an old story
but from another part of the world.
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| After we had returned
to Scotland I was looking through a book of traditional tales
from Mongolia when I came across an almost identical story to
the felt one, with a few changes to characters and setting.
I will have to make some more felt figures but have a traditional
Mongolian story to tell now. Maybe I could combine the two?
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60a High Street
Newburgh, Fife
Scotland KY14 6AQ |
email: Jeanette
landline: 01337 841004
mobile: 07813 023607 |
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