MEET Susan Green: a felter, alpaca enthusiast, and self-described ‘arty crafty’ local who sells her unique artworks to and provides classes for like-minded individuals through the Hawkesbury Artists & Artisans Trail.
Having moved to the Hawkesbury from Sydney’s inner western suburbs with her partner Simon five years ago, she now runs Maple Lodge Alpacas - a side business that allows her to exercise her creativity by turning alpaca fleece into felted products.
They live in Maple Lodge, a strawbale home in Blaxlands Ridge, set on a 10-acre property where they keep 12 huacaya alpacas. Ms Green prefers this particular breed of alpaca over the longer-haired suri breed, though she sometimes obtains fleece from the latter to use as embellishments.
“I love the animals. They’re pretty, inquisitive, and an absolute delight to keep – and as a felter I love their fleece,” she told the Gazette.
“Unlike sheep’s wool, alpaca fleece doesn’t have lanolin, so the worst it has in it is bits of paddock and dust from rolling in alpaca-made dust bowls. You can shake it out and spin it or process it straight from the animal after shearing.”
The Maple Lodge alpacas are shorn once a year by a specialised shearer. The resulting fleeces are either produced into batts on site, or sent to a boutique fibre mill in Orange where they are produced into yarn, rovings and batts and sent back to Maple Lodge.
When producing her own batts, Ms Green feeds fleece into a specialised system called a ‘carder’, which rolls the fleece, and opens-up the fibres and aligns them, ready for either spinning or felting. The carder also allows Ms Green to blend-in different colours and textures, such as merino wool, silk nep and speciality fibres.
“At this point I can either sell the batt or use it myself to felt with,” she said.
“I put lots of different colours and yarns and silks into my batts - which I call ‘art batts’. They make a beautiful yarn if someone wants to spin it - or, if someone wants to use it to felt with, I’ve done the hard work for them.”
Maple Lodge Alpacas sells rovings in alpaca, merino and silk; sells art batts and finished artworks; and provides felting classes.
During her felting classes, Ms Green teaches her unique method of making felt, using a machine called an ‘orbital sander’ - which she says brings felting “into the 21st Century”.
While traditional felters hand-roll their fleece up to 1,000 times, Ms Green’s approach is much quicker and less taxing.
“To create felt, you need water, soap, and some form of agitation. I get my agitation out of the orbital sander,” she said.
“I lay-out the fleece in two-to-three layers, facing in opposite directions so they make a criss-cross pattern. Then I embellish it however I like - I could use silk, or any kind of yarn or threads. Then I wet it all down with warm soapy water, cover it with a piece of plastic, and felt it with my orbital sander.”
Ms Green makes a variety of arty pieces from her felt, including wall hangings, heart necklaces, baby blankets, scarfs, rugs, quilts and blankets.
“I tend to keep my felt really soft. I use the most beautiful fibre so that I end up with a beautiful, soft and luxurious felt,” she said.
“I’ve always been ‘arty crafty’. My mum was always arty and crafty, so I’ve always knitted and embroidered. Felting with the orbital sander is really quick. I could make a really beautiful one-off baby blanket far quicker felting this way that if I had embroidered on someone else’s blanket, and still have something really beautiful and unique.”
