Wet Felting

I signed up for a WI course on Wet Felting.  I can’t say it is something I have yearned to do but as an addition to a craft persons list of skills it seemed like a good idea.  I have been known to admire items in shops and galleries and wondered how they were made.

The list of items to take included a bamboo mat, I forgot about this until 2 days before the course.  So I thought I would make one, as the Sushi mats in the supermarket were far too small, but they did sell bamboo sticks.

More internet searching found a good example of the art.

My word it’s a lot of knots.  Three rows, systematically tied so it that it does not fall apart.

Had a read the brief better I would have realised that a 50cm x 50cm mat was required.

Immediately upon arrival my mat was deemed too small, and I was issued with another……Ho Hum.

We were asked to take a picture to use as a starting point for the pictures we were to make.  My dad took this picture in the Trough of Bowland.

First you lay down an old towel, then the bamboo mat,then one layer of netting (folded in half so that you can fold the other half over the picture), then if your picture is landscape view you layer a white bottom layer of wool across the mat larger than your finished picture, as it will shrink.

The wool is in long sausages and you literally pull pieces off and lay them down.

The next layer is put on vertically, so we add sky, hills, river etc.

Finally the third layer is finessing the final features.  I added sheep at this point but they came off in the next process.

Pull over the top layer of net.

Pour/spray hot soapy water over the whole thing and rub the picture with your fingers.  This will sud up.  The rubbing makes the wool felt together.

Roll the whole thing in the bamboo mat and start to extract the water.  Rub, rub, rub, roll, rub etc etc.

You can reshape your picture between rolls as it get distorted hence the removal of the sheep/undistinguishable blobs.

Sadly myself and a few others had accidentally been given silk wool for the base layer which does not felt.  So I eventually had to remove most of the base layer after the rest had felted together.

Its amazing how rough you can be with it after this stage.

When I got home and it had totally dried I used needle felting to add more sheep and define the landscape a bit.

From a distance it looks pretty good.

At the end of the day we made flowers using the same technique.  But instead of rolling you literally rub the flower after wetting and it shrinks beautifully and takes other colours.

A poppy is ideal for this.  The felted ball is a ball of wool wetted and rolled until it comes together.  They charge a bomb for these in shops.

The daffodil was less successful, as I cut a petal too few.

I also made a blue flower which I gave away.

Excellent day again, the WI run great courses for very little money.

I can see me using this technique to add texture to other projects.