First book "Veltinis" is now in English!

FELT by Viltė Kazlauskaitė | Make Your Own Book

My first book "Veltinis" that was published in 2008 and then revised in 2010 (in Lithuanian) is now available in English for your iPads as an eBook! You asked for it, and here it comes - Felt by Vilte Kazlauskaite. Revised English edition, 2014. Print copies are also available for order on Blurb

Rustic felt on the cover

Felt and natural dyeing by me on the cover of Lithuanian People magazine, worn by beautiful Lithuanian actress Egle Jackaite and her sons. Photography by Viktorija Vaisvilaite.

The idea of the photographer was to create rustic and cozy image of the family members. For this I chose delicate silk, cotton muslin, wool, spun silk embroidery and natural dyeing and improvised eco printing of the garments. I used madder, cochineal, alkanet, walnut and young alder collected from my yard.

Cyprus workshop 2014 - registrations being accepted now

September 8-14, 2014. Cyprus. 

The search for Identity.

This is not a regular felting workshop, rather a creative journey in search of authentic identity in felting textures, forms, and using natural colours.

What are the main traits of creativity? How does creativity work for us?

Can we define self? How do we draw parallels of our characteristics of self and our creative language?

What influences authentic self expression and imitation?

What is there in the colour? What do we base our selection of colour on?

These are the theoretical questions we will try to explore together during the workshop.

During the practical part of the workshop we will explore different felt textures as a personal language, looking for possible alterations to match our authentic identities.

We will explore felt’s characteristics as lightness, heaviness, density, transparency, drape and stretch through fiber dynamics.

We will learn to make a flat body prototype pattern to be used as a reference in altering patterns and creating interesting forms. We will also analyze specific forms and their application, such as full circle, double circle, triple circle, etc and different pattern inserts.

You will then design your own wearable piece referring to all the practical and theoretical experience lived through the workshop.

We will also explore natural colours – mordanting, extracting colors, modifying them and applying colours in a creative way of mixing and matching different tones and different plants. We will practice an analytic method of natural dyeing plan and the choice of materials depending on it.

Info and registration: viltess@gmail.com

Birds make great sky-circles. Madder red

“Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall and falling,
they're given wings.” (Rumi)
A dress comes when it's time for it to come. The dress with idea of circles came to my mind about 2 years ago when reading poetry by Rumi and imagining the whirling dervish. I just took a more feminine shape of the circle in my opinion.

nuno felt dress: wool, silk, flax, fresh water pearls

natural dyes: madder

Glimpse of the process

Another shade of madder

nuno felt: silk & wool. natural dyes: madder

Red & snow

nuno felt dress: wool & silk. natural dyes: madder

Little felt lace dress

nuno felt: silk, wool. natural dyes: madder

Feedback

I have been reorganizing some photo albums today, and looking through past comments. I really love to receive feedback, especially the one that consists of more than one word. It gives you a sense of how others perceive your work and you can check if you do succeed in revealing the things that you want others to see. And I am very happy when I know I am... Just a few comments from some of you that I reread today and enjoyed as catching an essence of my work. Thank you!
Amalthee Créations: women's body as a landscape ...great work of ART !!
Kristel Krynberg: Fashion with character!
Suzanne Petzold Higgs: Vilte, your work leaves me breathless or in a constant state of looking for the words that describe the intrigue, feminine mystery and ethereal beauty of your work
Fabienne Dorsman-Rey: had to come back and look at it again... ethereal quality of the angel, between Heaven and Earth
LaLa! Monde: Beautiful. My first thought went to that wonderful feeling when you're slowly waking up, still balancing between a nice dream and awakeness

Ballerina dress

It was one of those personally very special projects – designing a dress for my so beloved ballet dancer Beata Molyte, performing Anna Karenina in a dance play by my beloved choreographer Anzelika Cholina (ACH theater).

photography by Svetlana Batura