Yellow Felted Backpack by Deborah Dumka

19 x 25 x 17cm 

fibre 

This handcrafted boiled wool felt backpack is both functional and one of a kind. While the design remains consistent, each backpack features its own unique colour palette.

Artist Statement 

"My handbags begin as explorations in colour and form, reflecting my love of the dye pot and interest in reproducing gentle organic forms of the natural landscape, hoping to evoke some emotional response and connection to each unique piece.

I also explore the potential of the wool material from which they are made, transforming over time the basic patterns I have developed to examine the outcome on the final form. My handbags are fabricated from hand dyed wool yarns (excluding black and some greys), knit to original pattern shapes, pieced together by stitching, adorned with some crochet details and completely configured prior to felting. I use the washing machine method to transform the insubstantial raw handbag into the thick, enduring functional object. Once dried, the felted handbag is complete. Except for one style with a compact plastic buckle, everything about these simple bags is wool, the cavity, the closures, the handles and straps.

Handbags are containers to transport and protect items we consider essential to our activity outside the home."

Deborah Dumka is a textile artist who has worked with wool in one form or another for many decades. Her professional practice began after completing the Textile Studies diploma program of the Anna Templeton Centre, St. John’s NL. She has lived the major part of her life by one ocean or another and finds inspiration for her work in the intersections of water, land and sky and in the relationship between humankind and nature.

Deborah works from her home on the edge of a small island in the Salish Sea of British Columbia.