Don't know why, but I am a sucker for a good piece of felt. For a long time, I tried to source some really thick felt slabs to use as cushions, then I wanted some hard felt floors. But it turns out not to be that easy to find.
When I saw this stacked felt stool by the Dutch design collective Gewoon on Kid-o's site, all my felt lust came back. With the exception of a few Joseph Beuys sculptures, this might just be my favorite stack of felt anywhere. And considering that a Beuys can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, $750 is probably just the right price for a 12x12x16 inch cube.
Felt Stool by Gewoon, $750 at Kid-o [kidonyc.com]
Check out other Gewoon designs [gewoon.nl]
Or you could DIY it for a lot less. MSC and McMaster-Carr will sell that quantity of industrial felt for $150-$300 (depending on what grade you buy). You can even mix the thicknesses and colors to get that stripey effect. Or buy white and dye it any color you want. And unlike most DIY projects, gluing up squares of felt is pretty damn easy.
I agree, felt is a cool material. It would be interesting to use it in a crib, maybe velcro backed so you could take the pieces off and wash them.
The interior of oki-ni (Japanese streetwear on Saville Row) was all stacked felt. It was amazing; huge pieces stacked at different levels (seating, display). The photos on their site don't really show it well. There was a feature in Frame magazine a while ago. http://www.oki-ni.com
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While at the Fabric Workshop (Philadelphia) last weekend, I looked at some in-process photos and production samples of a Rachel Whiteread piece that was thick (3"+) slabs of resin-injected felt that were then stamped with heavy bronze casts of plank hardwood flooring.
[ooh, I'd forgotten all about that Whiteread piece, thanks. -ed.]
I enjoy your blog, but this is my first comment. Since you are a "sucker for felt," you might already know this, but you can make it yourself. Pick up some old 100% wool sweaters cheap at the thrift store and run them through the washer with soap on hot 1 or 2 times. You can then either put the sweater through the dryer to felt some more or take it out wet and let it dry (which takes forever). This stuff probably wouldn't make a sturdy stool, but it's fun to see what happens to different sweaters and it's way cooler than the stuff you can get at the craft store.
More felt fun:
http://www.malooproducts.com/index_f.php
http://www.parkhausberlin.de/
Okay...yeah it's from the latest dwell
and only eight pages later:
http://www.fungandblatt.com/f_bp/index.htm