Spied at the Craft Fair: Hairy Animal Hats

Origin: The London Craft Fair recently displayed these crazy awesome felted hairy animal hats, made from Sussex wool and alpaca fleece. They’re simultaneously scarily lifelike and functionally impossible, making them all around fun.

They’re each handmade by Barbara Keal, who “loves felting because it it such an immediate and physical way of making, it is also very environmentally clean. The wool hasn’t travelled far and warm water and olive oil soap are the only other ingredients apart from my own energy.”

She was inspired by the “wild and motley looking crew of herdwicks, hebredians and others kept to maintain the downland environment. I desperately wanted to wear their wool, feeling it would be one way of making myself a part of that landscape, so I approached the Shepherd and felted myself a dress using a mixture of their fleeces.” 

Check out more at Barbara Keal, and read the original article at Treehugger