Felt Ing Materials

8/12/2019 Felt Ing Materials

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Felting materials

Fe ltis made from wool and is a result of two properties of wool fibres: they are kinked

and they are covered in tiny scales. This helps the fibres stick together, especially

when friction is applied. Felt is basically wool that has been agitated hard enough

for the fibres to shrink into each other and mesh together. Anyone who has shrunk a

favourite jumper will be familiar with the process but it can be done in a more

controlled way by plac ing unspun wool in layers at right angles to each other,

wetting it and applying friction. Fleece doesnt felt when it is still on the sheep and it

is more or less completely waterproof. This is because the wool fibres are also

covered in a greasy substance called lanolin that stops the wool from matting

together and keeps water away from the skin. This lanolin needs to be removed by

washing with soapy water.

You need w oo l top s for felting. This is wool that has been washed and carded but

not spun. The breed of sheep makes a huge difference. Merino is the easiest to felt

and is very fine. It comes in many colours and it takes the dye very cleanly so the

colours are bright and c lear. Norwegian wool is also easy to felt but tends to be a

bit more fibrous and colours are softer. Other materials, particularly if they are fine

like silk, can be added but they wont make a felted fabric by themselves so wool

must be the main fibre used.

It is possible to use f l eecebut you need to wash and card it first. Blackface wool is

no good for felting but breeds like Shetland, J acobs and Hebridean are a ll worth a

try and can be very attractively coloured, though they will work better if you mix

them with another fibre like merino or Norwegian.

To make a flat piece of plain felt

1 Place a piece of bubble wrap on your work surface. It should be a bit bigger

than you want your finished piece to be. It is a good idea to put a towel

underneath to protect the work surface and absorb some of the liquid from the felt.

2 Grab the tops between the fleshy part at the base of the thumb and the

middle fingers and pull gently to get a length (usually 4 or 5 inches) of fine, well

dispersed fibres.

3 Lay these pieces of wool beside each other, all running the one way. Overlap

each row by 2 cm or so.

4 Put another layer on top, running at right angles to the first row.

5 Add a third layer, again running at right angles to the row below.

6 Add a very generous squirt of washing up liquid to a litre of hot water and

spray the water gently over the wool until it is evenly soaked. It is best to use an eco

product, such as Ecover, to reduce damage to the environment and to your hands.


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Soap helps the water soak into the wool more effectively and stops it sticking to your

hands, so lather your hands with soap if the wool sticks.

7 Place another piece of bubble wrap over the wet wool and press down

gently, rubbing it so that the water soaks evenly into the wool and all the layers are

wet and flat. Add more water if you need to.

8 Keep rubbing over the top of the bubble wrap, using more pressure as the

wool starts to felt together. It helps to use some soapy water on the bubble wrap so

that you can move your hands easily over the plastic. Check to see that the felt is

not becoming crumpled and is still wet. If there are loose, dry-looking fibres then

add more water.

9 Keep rubbing until you can push your fingers over the felt surface and the

fibres dont move apart from each other.

10 Keep rubbing a bit more.

11 Pick the felt up, squeeze out the excess liquid and throw it hard against the

inside of the sink. Do this a few times to shrink the fibres together and strengthen the

felt.

Adding a pattern to the felt surface

There are several ways of adding pattern to felt.

You can add a simp lepattern to the dry layers of wool by using small pieces of wool

tops and arranging them on top of the wool. It is best not to be too ambitious with

this method. Flecks of colour, lines, squiggles, dots and blobs are best.

To get a more de ta i ledpattern

1 Draw the image you want.2 Lay the wool out on a piece of bubble wrap on top of the drawn image. Use

wool to pa int the image below. Roll dry wool between the hands to make

thin sausages for lines or dots and blobs, but dont make them too thick (see

note below). Use a little bit of soapy water to help control the wool andplace it more accurately. Use thin layers of wool for patterns on top of the

main outline, so if for example you want a robin, make a bird shape in brown

and add the red breast, eyes, beak etc. and place on top of the basic

shape.

3 Soak the whole pattern and gently place another piece of bubble wrap overthe top. Rub gently a few times, then flip the bubble wrap - wool sandwich

over, peel off the bubble wrap from the top (originally the bottom!) and flip

the pattern onto the dry layers of wool (after step 5). Then follow the

instructions for plain felting from steps 6 to 11.


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Prefelt

Another method is to make a piece of felt but using only 2 layers at right angles and

following the instructions to step 8, i.e. before the wool is completely felted. Patterns

can then be cut from this prefelt, which are then placed on top of the layers (stage

5) and felted as normal. If you want complex images this is a good method but

works best if you make a paper pattern first, pin it to the prefelt and cut around it.

You can add more pattern on top of the prefelt (but see note below). It is possible

to buy prefelt (from Twist Fibres, see below).

Thing s to w a tc h

Be very careful when soaking the whole piece of felt so that the pattern is not shifted

by the water. Also be very careful and pay particular attention to the detailed bits

of the pattern when you start rubbing the top layer of bubble wrap. Once the

pattern is felted in it should be quite firm, but this may take quite a bit of carefulrubbing first.

Thick, chunky bits of wool will tend to felt into themselves rather then into the base

felt and will end up as lumps on the surface, which may not be attached and will fall

off easily. On the other hand, if the pattern is too fine it will shrink into the base and

can disappear. This is the sort of thing that takes practice, but is worth being careful

over. Prefelt is a good way to make patterns but if it is too well prefelted it wont

mesh into the background.

Fixing and finishing

If small bits of detail fall off in the felting process then they can be added again

when the felt is dry. Also bits that havent stuck well to the background can be

felted dry. However felting needles are needed and it is easy to stab yourself with

them so this is best done by an adult. Felting needles have tiny barbs on them that

catch the wool as they are pushed through the layers and mesh the fibres together.

Place the felt over a piece of polystyrene or foam and stab the needles through the

fibres into the soft surface below.

You can also sew edges of prefelt that havent felted in properly. It can be effective

to use a contrasting colour yarn to make an attractive edge.

It is possible to resoak the felt and rub it between bubble wrap if the pattern hasnt

taken well. However this wont work if the base felt has shrunk and is densely

matted.

Quantities

Wool tops are sold by weight and the cost depends on the fleece type. Merino is

usually the most expensive. A rough estimate of quantities for a piece of felt 30cm x

30cm is about 80 to 100g of wool for the base, plus small quantities of colour for thepattern.


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Felt Ing Materials