Among varieties of Kazakh folk arts and crafts felting occupies a prominent position. Origins of this art date back to the end of the Bronze Age. The Kazakh culture is the direct heir of nomad traditions that evolved in the prairies for almost three thousand years. The art of koshmovalyanie [felting] of the Kazakh relates to household crafts and, at the same time, to artistic crafts as felt cloths were exported to international markets. Felting is making a non-spun textile of natural wool and creating high-class works of art from it. Felt production is a major part of creative activities of the Kazakh ethnos, that is determined in the first place by dominating prevalence of sheep, foundation of nomad way of life, and consequently abundance of sheep wool. Felt served as the main external cover for yurt carcass. Yurts of wealthy people were usually covered with white felt. Felt articles, due to quantitative volume, played the leading role in traditional everyday life of the Kazakh people. Usually, felt production involved mutual help of female relatives, neighbors and friends. It was both social and collective creative activity accompanied by humorous traditional songs, couplets, rituals, food and games. Before getting to work, people would slaughter a mutton and ask for blessing from God and the goddess of fertility, the ancestor of female crafts. Almost all the process of making felt was accompanied by magic rituals. Felting began with preparing wool.

• published: 29 Sep 2015
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