Technique

Consolidation of felt material to create either flat or three-dimensional fabric.

Materials

• Felting wool
• Wool yarn
• Felting needle
• Hot water
• Soap

Wet Felting

1. Arrange the felting wool into desired design in a thin layer
2. Pour hot water and a little soap onto the wool
   note: soap softens the fibres
3. Rub the wool to close the gaps and consolidate them
4. Leave the finished piece to dry
5. (optional) Shape the piece into any form with the felting needle

Results

Needle Felting

1. Bundle up felting wool or wool yarn into a ball
2. Poke them with the felting needle
3. Poke more
4. Just… keep poking

Results

Nuno Felting

1. Arrange felting wool or wool yarn onto the fabric
2. Poke them with the felting needle
3. Poke more
4. …you know the drill

Results

 

Reflection

Wet felting is quite arbitrary especially when using multiple colours, but the plus side is that you can look at it from either side and have totally different patterns. Nuno felting on organza is a lot more controlled, so I tried doing finer details. But if I were to pick my favourite, that would be needle felting! I like the repetitive motion required – it’s quite calming and therapeutic – but still requires a bit of attention from time to time to ensure that the shape stiffens up efficiently.