The Trail of Wool workshop took us to the island of Cres where we had the opportunity to get acquainted with the biodiversity of the island of Cres, the crescendo tradition of sheep farming, the use and processing of wool and the life in the rural island communities from different angles and perspectives.
By choosing such a topic, we wanted to bring different kinds of crafts to the children and encourage the creation of a creative space to gather different generations for engaging in social work, exchanging experiences and spending quality time together.
Eco Center Beli was the first station where we, with an excellent guide, discovered in which way griffins, sheep and humans are connected in the circle of life. Along with the island biodiversity exhibition, we had the opportunity to browse through the ethnological collection showing the rural way of life on the island.
As our second destination we have chosen Ruta Association and its leader Vesna Jakić as an example of innovative exploitation of traditional wool resources. Aside from the practical work of wool felting, we had a chance to talk with Vesna about how she started with felting, is it a demanding job, and what is the value of manual work.
We continued the same story in Lubenice, a small but very famous place on the island of Cres. The Museum of Shepherding was founded there by a non-profit organization Rural Island Group. The valuable work of Mario Šlosar and other members of the group resulted in a collection of tools used for traditional sheep breeding. In the museum collection we saw traditional tools for shearing sheep, wool processing, sheep’s milk processing and final products such as clothing, footwear and musical instruments. In addition to the museum section, the Museum also has a gallery where we continued to practice felting with Romano Fanagel.
We rounded out the tour by talking about the value of different crafts and their reinvention in today’s modern era.
Within the workshop we visited:

• Eco Center Beli, whose main goals are the protection of griffins and cultural heritage of the island of Cres. In the center there is also a recovery site where injured or poisoned griffins recover or heal. In addition to the eco center, there are seven well-equipped eco-friendly trails and a permanent exhibition dedicated to tourist and educational visits.
• The Ruta Association in the city of Cres, which aims to preserve the original values and to improve the social, cultural, ecological and tourist identity of the island of Cres, in accordance with the program of sustainable development of the island
• Museum of Sheepbreeding in Lubenice – a nonprofit organization that tries to preserve and revive various forms of everyday life in the peninsula Pernat, in the eastern part of the island of Cres.