The Mossy Make: Textile Tufts & Pompoms

The Mossy Carpet is an artwork inspired by moss and made by many people.

Thousands of individually made pom-poms and textile tufts adorn fleecy felt from Dartmoor, creating a beautiful mossy carpet. Each pompom represents someone’s small attempt to make the world better for all of life.

We hope this artwork will be inspiring, comforting, hopeful, fabulous and friendly, showing that together, we can make something magnificent. Make your own textile tufts and pompoms to join in!

Creative activities help us to slow down, have better conversations, imagine new things, have fun and feel more connected.

We’ve learnt so much on our journey exploring mosses, we know there’s even more to find out. We encourage you to start by looking closely to real mosses for inspiration as you join us in making this epic artwork.

The Mossy carpet on display in a Devon field. Photo by Jim Wileman

Create a moss-inspired textile tuft

There are many ways to make a textile tuft for the artwork. You might choose to crochet, knit, embroider, plait, pompom, tuft… or something else!

This video shows you just one way to make a simple mossy tuft pompom. We’ve chosen to do it this way as we enjoy the affect when many of these tufty pompoms are stitched alongside each other.

We’ve also found that this technique works well as it’s fairly quick, accessible and uses less wool than a traditional ball pompom.

Creating a larger piece

Have you found that you’re a prolific pompom maker?

Are you part of a group each creating moss-inspired elements to add to the carpet?

This video runs through how you can create a mossy section to be added to the carpet artwork.

All you need is a piece of fabric (reused & repurposed), wool or yarn, scissors and your own creativity. Your piece should be no more than 60cmx60cm and please don’t buy anything brand new, use the materials you already have or visit a charity shop or your local Scrapstore for supplies. Full instructions on the short film or contact hello@artandenergy.org for details.

Send us your creations

Post

The Art and Energy Collective,
PO Box 961,
Exeter,
EX1 9DF.

Drop off

We have drop-off points at:

  • Plymouth Central Library

  • Plymouth Scrapstore

  • Exeter Phoenix

Bring

You are also welcome to come and join us at any of our upcoming events. Bring your creations along to add them to the carpet, or drop them off with our team and we’ll get stitching!

Thank you for joining in! Now you might like to…

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Mossy Activities and Makes

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Tell the tardigrade messages