Felting for the fearful...

Last night I went back for a second felting session and I thought you might like to see a little of the work we did and how we did it.  And as I have managed to sprain my ankle this weekend which has curtailed my mobility and crafting, I am also putting my flower up as my Handmade Monday entry... with grateful thanks to Wendy who does this every week... what a star!  Do go and take a look at the various makes that these clever crafters have completed over the last week.


We were all indulging in wet felting and started by choosing what we would like to make in our two hour session, a felted flower or scarf moving on to using more complex techniques with a resist which holds the two sides of your felting apart if you were making a bag or an all in one flower.  We then chose from the luscious colours of the merino tops... these are what you would use if you were going to spin your own wool.  I defy you not to find a shade you like!

Felting is a process of layering and matting the fibres to hold together using teased fibres, hot water and soap.  You can see in the pic below, various shade of merino together with some silk threads to give softness and contrast.

And if you have the imagination you can even add in beads (!) light fabrics - the sparkles are on a net fabric which has been trimmed to make the centre of a flower.  As long as you overlap the "foreign" objects to catch them, they will stay in place.

Bet you are all wondering what the bubble wrap is for... well you use that to agitate the fibres.    You place the fibres on the wrap as you lay them out and then thoroughly wet all the fibres with a warm water and soap solution and place another layer on top, then more soap and water and start what I can best describe a deep tissue massage to mat the fibres together.


Next stage is wringing out the soap solution and rolling up to shrink with a bamboo mat... messy but your hands will never be cleaner!  Then off to rinse with hot water to remove all of the soap solution.


Here is Jeanette Trim (in the centre) showing a couple of classmates how to style a finished flower... check out the flower on her scarf.

And here are a couple of the flowers which my colleagues created.

I made something a little different, a flower with a resist (an solid pattern piece around which the felting is done) and when the felting process is completed you cut it out to reveal the swirling pattern inside.

And for a first go, I am pretty chuffed... especially with the stamens and the way that the stem looks as though it belongs to the flower.

So there you go, my FO Friday make for Ravelry - let me know what you think?