What is the technique?

Felt is a non-woven textile that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or synthetic fibers such as acrylic. There are many different types of felts for industrial, technical, designer and craft applications. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can vary in terms of fiber content, colour, size, thickness, density and more factors depending on the use of the felt.

What are the relevant materials needed for the technique?

• Felt(wool or acrylic)

Wet Felting

• Warm water
• Soap

Needle Felting

• Felting Needle
• Sponge or foam board

Nuno Felting

• Fabric
• Felt sheets

How to achieve the technique?

Wet Felting

1. Lay the felt out into desired design.
2. Pour warm water and soap onto the felt and start scrubbing.
3. When you feel that all the felt are properly intertwined together, wash off the soap and leave dry.

Needle felting

1. Pick out the felt of desired colour and start poking it with the felting needle to shape it until it is firm enough. Can be done on the sponge/foam board or not depending on the shape desired.
2. Repeat step 1 until desired product is created, making sure the poking is even in the process.

Nuno Felting

1. Prepare a piece of fabric/felt sheet and felt.
2. Layout the design onto the fabric using the felt, and use the felting needle to poke it into the fabric. Making sure not to poke too hard or big holes might be created on the fabric.

What are the uses and applications of the technique?

This technique could be use to created accessories, toys, wearables, etc.

Photos

Samples showed in class

Preparing for wet felting

Adding warm water and soap to the design

After scrubbing, washed clean with water

Needle felting experimentation

Own personal reflections

This technique is very tough and hard to achieve what is expected of the final outcome.

For wet felting a lot of movement is expected while scrubbing which changes the original design.

For needle felting, lots of time is required to shape the felt and to make it into desired shape and design, and the shape is greatly affected by amount of felt used and the way of poking. Keeping the thickness of the felt even throughout is especially tough.

For nuno felting, it is very similar to needle felting, however it is slightly easier because majority of the time the final outcome is flat, and thus multiple felting needle could be used at the same time to shape the felt, which help to hasten the process.