Born and raised in Washington DC, I moved to Boston and graduated from Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts with a BFA. I went to Helsinki, Finland, looked at Architecture, mostly Alvar Aalto, and did lots of weaving. Came back to the states and went to Virginia Tech for my Masters in Architecture. I practiced Architecture in DC, then moved to NH.
Weaving with its structures and interesting fibers held my attention until I saw an amazing felted shawl in 2001 that had been made in a class taught by Polly Sterling. It pulled me in. I had found my material, my medium. I work with silk and wools, mostly merino. I dye most of the silk fabrics in my studio but I buy the merino dyed. My felt pieces are not pre-structured, meaning that they are NOT knitted, stitched, woven or glued. I use a method called wet felting. A wool fiber, like a human hair, is composed of a shaft covered in overlapping scales. When the wool is exposed to a change of PH, I use olive oil soap and water, the scales open outward and then with agitation, the fibers entangle with each other to form a mass that can not be separated. My process involves rolling, throwing, rubbing, and shrinking to end up with a sturdy or fragile piece of felt depending on my desired outcome. I love the feel of the felting process from laying.
Tinka Pritchett -Tinka Designs-Studio 440-1 Front Street-Rollinsford NH 03869