Felt Making

Felt making

Felt is a type of non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibres. There is a variety of felt, some are very soft, other are tough enough to form construction materials. The good thing when working with this material, its easy to manipulate into any shape or size and can be found in any colour. Felt can be used transformed between different categories, such as jewellery, different  and clothing. Felting is both a 2d and 3d form of art. It can create completely different outcomes when using them in other categories. 

 

Coloured felt                   Adding colours to original                         Adding shape & form


To create my felt piece i first started with the basic method called wet felting; this is where the natural wool fibre is stimulated by friction and moisture. The fibres within the felt tend to bond together and form a cloth as the water and friction causes aggravation to the materials. I started by laying down a reasonable size of bubble wrap and layering up my fibres in a cross hatching technique to ensure that each piece combines together and bonds properly. You have to repeat this process 3-4 times for an opaque outcome.

I placed netting over the felt to helped when dribbling small amounts of water over the material to bind it together, i then swept over a bar of soap across the netting and then firmly rubbing my hands over it to manipulate the materials into bonding together, you repeat this step on the back of the felt piece and then place it into a bamboo matt which increases it to form together.

I then rinse it out in cold water, place it back on the matt and drain all the access liquid buildup inside the felt, the more i rolled out the material in the mat the more of a cleaner finish it will create. 

To add imagery to my work i manipulated and teased he fibres to create detail, this technique was good for the illusion of branches and nature etc. You add in extra imagery by working with it when its wet. 

Being inspired and looking into the intricate detail produced by Moy Mackay  i wanted to ensure that i capture all detail and have a clean finish, to do this i left my felt to dry and once complete i went in around the added imagery with a felting needle and sponge pad. I focused on getting the loose tacky bits neatened up and more defined. I continued poking all the fibers in until i was happy with the overall outcome. 

I decided to add detail by hand stitching. i started by testing out a few techniques such as back stitch, blanket stitch, imagery and flowers. I started by adding in small stitch illustration to give off an illusion of flowers. I found that with this style to make it look interesting you need to do a bundle of them scattered, with a mixture of sizes and colours. I chose to do this around selected areas i think looks interesting,                  

Equipment List-

• Felt fibers
• Bamboo mat
• Bubble wrap
• Soap
• Warm water
• Embroidery Thread
• Sewing machine
• Embroidery needle
• Dry felting needle