Wet Felting Course

Aaarrrrrggggg! Summer Holidays!

Ahem. Sorry.... just had to get that off my chest! I have been trying to write this post for 2 weeks now, but everytime I settle down to it, some little person comes in and needs a drink, some food, an argument dispute settling, etc!

BUT.... a couple of weeks ago I went on a wet felting course at our local Art Space centre run by a fab lady called Lizzie. Now, I've been wanting to try wet felting for ages, so I was SO excited.

In the course description, along with the supplies we needed to bring (towels, plastic bags & lunch) it said we could choose between making a hat, a bag or a pair of slippers... all 3D felt items, with no sewing involved. Now we're talking. I really hadn't got a clue how the 3D shapes were made so I spent all week changing my mind what I wanted to make.

When we got there (there were 7 of us taking the class) Lizzie explained a bit about felting, the materials used, how to get started, etc. So initially we all made a single strand of felt. I wanted to turn mine into something, so I made two little ones as bracelets for Seren & Patrick. Once I understood the principles behind how the roving tops felt together I tried making some beads and then I made myself a bracelet, which I added some sparkly thread to when I got home. The sunset felt below was a practice piece, which I added some silk threads to, but I wasn't keen on the end result, so I'm going to use the side that doesn't have the silk threads.

Then we moved onto making soft felt (which is what the sunset coloured piece in the pic above is) this is roving which has been felted a small amount, so you could still pull the fibers apart. The reason for making this was to cut out some shapes from the soft felt, to be added to our final 3D piece. If you over felt the soft felt piece then it won't felt into the final piece as all the fibers will have meshed together too firmly.

The top left and bottom right pieces in the collage above show the soft felt and the other two pics, show how the soft felt is used in the final piece.

Here is my heart, cut out from the soft felt and added to my bowl (which was the 3D piece I finally settled upon)

So to add the soft felt to the bowl (mid felting) I had to place it on the side I wanted it to end up (which had to be the bottom otherwise the hole for the bowl would have been cut into the heart) and add a few bits of roving around the edges of the heart and then carry on the felting process. I think it looks rather like a tutu at that point!

And finally, after a lot of rolling, soapy water and with slightly achy arms, here is my finished bowl!

I really really really enjoyed the course and have decided that I'm going to attempt to make some felt pictures with the kids... they'll have to be fairly abstract but I think they'll love it!

Now, obviously I've not gone through the whole felting process here, but if I can get the kids ones to resemble something recognisable I will do a tutorial on it.