Thinking of warmth and comfort in those sub-zero temperatures, I decided to line the inner layer of the space capsule with felt…. from Welsh wool from Jakob, Olly and Spot at Cwm Farm. Diolch!
My earlier attempts at felting didn’t go that well, so I called in an expert – Denise Morgan, who used to teach felting. She coralled a couple of others from our Welsh class, Liz and David, who helped with the carding.
It was brilliant to see the transformation of bags of wool into three beautiful pieces of felt. Such a tactile process, and I especially enjoyed the slapping of the felt at the end. Not sure if that’s an official step but it was certainly therapeutic to imagine we were slapping Trump or Boris.
Angie helped me line the walls with black paper ready for the exhibition: “Message to the Universe: This is Planet Earth”. It’ll evolve as we go along and will contain artwork from everyone who visits. They will create a piece representing what they would tell the rest of the universe about Planet Earth. Do come along and take part!
It’s getting close to Lift Off! and I’m starting to feel a bit nervous. Will the capsule make it? Will the communication system work? Will I remember how many times to orbit Earth before heading to orbit the Moon. What if the capsule can’t get up enough speed? What if it catches fire? Did the Apollo astronauts have similar anxieties?
Tomorrow I have 93 pupils from Ysgol Gymraeg Pontardawe coming to help. They’ll be doing a systems check and carrying out the paintwork.