Create light-as-air felt shawls with rich surface, beautiful drape and artistic character

In this course, felt artist Alisa Bordo shares her approach to cobweb felt: how to spread fine wool into a delicate web, build luminous surfaces with fibres and silk, control shrinkage, create ruffles and fringe, and develop shawls as small colour collections. This is a classic Felting Academy archive course, originally recorded in 2020 and now added to our course library for its lasting practical value. The filming style belongs to an earlier period of online teaching, but the technique, material logic and studio experience remain beautifully relevant.

Three shawl models — three design directions

You will create three different cobweb shawl styles: a soft ruffled shawl with silk, a richly decorated artistic shawl, and a more restrained unisex scarf with fringe. Each model teaches a different balance of wool, surface, shrinkage and wearability.

A fast and elegant cobweb layout method

Instead of laying out small wool shingles, Alisa shows how to open, stretch and thin a full length of wool top into a delicate, airy web. This method is efficient, expressive and ideal for light scarves and shawls.

Real studio workflow

This course is not only about one project. Alisa shares how she prepares materials in advance, separates dry and wet stages, works in collections, and organizes production for art markets and clients.

About the course

Cobweb felt is light, open and expressive. It can have thin transparent areas, delicate holes, soft edges, ruffles, fringe, shine, matte texture, painterly colour transitions or a more minimal unisex look. In this course, Alisa teaches cobweb felt through three complete shawl projects. You will see how the same basic idea can lead to very different results: romantic, dramatic, elegant, restrained, colourful or neutral. The course also goes beyond technique. Alisa speaks as a working textile artist who has made hundreds of scarves and shawls for German autumn and Christmas art markets. She shares not only how she felts, but also how she thinks: in collections, colour stories, material boxes and repeatable studio systems.  What You Will Learn You will learn how to create an airy wool web from fine merino tops, work with multicoloured wool blends, combine wool with silk fabric, add viscose and decorative fibres, and full delicate cobweb felt without making the surface hairy. You will also learn how different materials affect shrinkage and drape. The course includes three different shrinkage situations: a silk-supported ruffled shawl with moderate shrinkage, a more decorated shawl with stronger shrinkage, and a unisex scarf with fringe that may shrink significantly more. You will discover how to use an electric sander if you work with one, and how to adapt the process if you prefer not to use it. You will also see carding techniques for viscose, colour planning, collection building and finishing methods.

Meet Alisa Bordo

Alisa Bordo is a felt textile artist based in Mannheim, Germany. For many years, she has created felted accessories — scarves, shawls, wraps and hats — with a distinctive sense of colour, texture and wearable elegance. Cobweb scarves became an important part of her studio practice and art-market work. Every year, Alisa creates one-of-a-kind pieces for German autumn and Christmas art markets, developing not only individual shawls, but whole colour stories and collections. In this course, she invites you into her working process: how she chooses materials, prepares fibres, builds surfaces, organizes her collections and creates light, expressive felt shawls that are beautiful to wear and realistic to make.

Curriculum

9 Chapters · 9 Lessons

  1. 1

    Introduction to Cobweb Shawls

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Materials and Equipment

  2. 2

    Creating the Cobweb Wool Base (Shawl "Harmony")

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Creating the Cobweb Wool Base

  3. 3

    Building the Decorative Surface

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Building the Decorative Surface

  4. 4

    Felting and Fulling the Cobweb Shawl

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Felting and Fulling the Cobweb Shawl

  5. 5

    Creating the “Flamenco” Shawl

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Creating the “Flamenco” Shawl

  6. 6

    Creating the Unisex Scarf with Fringe

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Creating the Unisex Scarf with Fringe

  7. 7

    Supplement: Working in Collections

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Supplement: Working in Collections

  8. 8

    Working with Color

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Working with Color

  9. 9

    Preparing Decorative Fibres with Carders

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Working with carders

Create your own airy cobweb shawls

Learn Alisa Bordo’s studio method for light felt, rich texture and wearable textile art.

€75,00

Join the course