{"id":1961,"date":"2018-12-15T08:07:55","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T07:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2018-12-16T08:06:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T07:06:01","slug":"the-fulling-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/the-fulling-mill\/","title":{"rendered":"The fulling mill"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I published a video I called A meditation<\/a>. In the video I wanted to pay a tribute to the meditative aspects of spinning on a supported spindle.<\/p>\n

\"Josefin
Spinning at the fulling mill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We shot \u00a0the video at a 17th century industrial site in Dala-Floda, Sweden. The site consists of, among other things, a number of water mills by a creek. One of the mills is a fulling mill.<\/p>\n

\"An
Kvarna fulling mill at Dala-Floda, Sweden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fulling mill<\/h1>\n

A fulling mill<\/a>\u00a0(vadmalsstamp in Swedish) is a water mill that people use to full, or felt, their woolen cloth to make a sturdy and windproof felted material, used for wadmal clothing. Times were hard in Sweden once and wadmal clothing was the only thing that kept the wind and the cold out.<\/p>\n

\"The
The door out to the mill wheel. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The typical cloth for fulling is a loosely woven woolen cloth. The cloth is carefully folded like an accordion and placed in a trough under the big fulling stocks. For the fulling to work you need to pour hot water on the cloth.<\/p>\n

\"Wooden
The fulling stocks and the troughs. Isn’t this the perfect murder scene? Killed by fulling. photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The water-driven mill wheel drives the stocks so that they beat the woven woolen cloth and thus full it. The trough is rounded in the bottom. In the front, the trough mirrors the shape of the stocks. This makes the cloth move around, thus allowing it to be evenly fulled.<\/p>\n

Fulling 6 kilos of cloth in the fulling mill takes around 6 hours. After the fulling is finished the cloth is carefully rolled up on rods to dry and re-rolled once a day until it is evenly dried.<\/p>\n

\"Behind
Behind the fulling stocks is the huge wooden milling mechanics. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fulling mill at Dala-Floda is one of just a handful of remaining and working fulling mills in Sweden. In the prime time of the industrial site in Dala-Floda the people in the area worked the mill \u00a0Monday through Friday. Today it is only worked a couple of times a year as far as I understand it. There is also a working fulling mill at Skansen outdoor museum in Stockholm.<\/p>\n

Skansen outdoor museum explains the fulling mill<\/h2>\n

Skansen outdoor museum in Stockholm has made a beautiful video<\/a> where they show and explain how the Skansen fulling mill is used. Even though the video is in spoken Swedish, I think you will get the most of the meaning of how the mill works if your Swedish is a little rusty. The last minutes of the video shows how you can full your cloth with your feet in a basin in the comfort of your own home. Fulling your cloth at home will take about 12 hours. Why not let the whole family join in!<\/p>\n

\"Josefin
Spinning by the fulling mill. Photo by an Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have a secret dream to one day spin a yarn, weave it, full it and sew a garment out of it. Even if I only get to full it by feet, what’s another 12 hours after a sheep-to-cloth process?<\/p>\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n

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