Chantal Cardinal

About moi...

I realized early on that my way of discovering the world is with my hands, by touching. With "le touché", I have spent a lifetime expressing myself by making everything I can starting by sewing clothes (at the age of 8), painting canvases, shaping ceramic,...building things, but my favorite, is to repurpose and transform things. Hence the ahha moment with felting.

Photo by Rennie Brown

By discovering the ancient art of felting, I found a medium that will keep me busy for the rest of my life: painting with fibers, draping, sculpting, massaging the mostly wool fibers and falling in love every time with nature's renewable gift. Furthermore, connecting with local farmers to source my medium from ethically minded folks.

I am instinctively drawn to this medium as I am drawn to all the patterns and textures found in nature: repetitive yet unique and magical. Endless patterns like wood grain, leaves, rock shapes, mineral striations, rippling water,... Nothing is ever the exact same, yet it is very familiar and pleasing to the eye.

With felting, I can play with textures and 3-dimensional possibilities. For me, it is mainly about discovering the magic of the process (using wool, water, and agitation to bind into a material), to play with it, to give it a direction, and let it go. It's a very analytical approach to a natural outcome. It's a labour intensive process, that allows time to reflect and fills a piece with the energy from my hands which transforms into whimsical artifacts to wear or use, hang on a wall, walk on,... but mostly, to fully enjoy the feel of it and its uniqueness.

FELT à la main with LOVE by CCard is about making connections, literally and metaphorically, the labour of wool binding together and the relationships and artifacts created along the way.

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