Felting (Felting) - workshops, techniques and photo ideas for beginners.

Behind the beautiful term of felting lies a sea of positivity, the ancient art of felting with non-woven wool.

You need to follow some simple rules to make a luxurious souvenir with your own hands: a trinket, a figurine, a toy, a brooch. How to do it and what can be created?

The following will be examples of crafts and detailed consideration of all the subtleties of basic techniques.

What is felting and how it works

If earlier masters of felting relied in the work largely on trial and error, the rules and tricks were passed from mouth to mouth, today felting has a scientific basis.

So, today you can buy high-quality processed wool in a variety of colors, while previously the choice was limited mostly to the natural palette because of the high requirements for the dye pigment, its durability, the ability to neutralize and replace the natural. But that's probably all there is to felting scientific. The rest is tradition.

A little bit of history

The art of felting is over 8000 years old. A long time ago, people noticed that wool has the ability to turn into a dense material. If sheep and camels were capable of intensive shedding like many other animals, cats and dogs, they would be able to roll themselves comfortable carpets and sleep on them. But their wool is specially sheared for industry in animal husbandry. There is no provision for shedding by nature.

The wools have a special structure of the outer chitin sheath. It is uneven, very strong and has scales. The scales, one by one, connect the wool in a dense clump that can be broken, torn to shreds, but difficult to unravel.

Since this property was surprising, the wool was mainly used to spin yarn. Only in the 16th century the first felting workshops opened. And the first equipment for felting was designed as early as the 19th century. Non-woven wool by felting today make clothes, shoes, household items, paintings, souvenirs.

Popular felting techniques

There are two main trends in this applied art:

• dry felting;
• Wet felting.

But watercolor felting or wool felting and nunofelting are also popular. These are varieties of wet felting techniques with their own specific features, which allowed them to separate, to become independent directions.

What is needed to master these techniques is to learn the basics of felting as such. These techniques, by the way, often have to be used at the same time when working on any thing, so all should try, assess the advantages, disadvantages, choose what to your liking.

To work we need the following materials:

• colored non-woven wool;
• a set of special needles for felting;
• foam rubber sponge;
• soap;
• water.

It is difficult in felting to learn how to form quite dense wool balls without damaging them at the same time. You need to work carefully, take your time.

Colored nonwoven wool can have different composition, processing, and it will take even an experienced master to get used to it to understand how much to twist the felt.

When you start working with angora or sheepskin, it is better to work only with it for a while, and then buy alpaca or merino, learn to work with another type of wool.

Needles for felting are sold in a set and differ in thickness, length, have their own numeration for easy replacement, selection. One will be more convenient to hold in your hand, to work, the other will not.

It is important to pay attention to this. You can try different needle numeration. Personal feelings, conclusions are as important as the instructions for this or that product.

Machine felting is more precise, economical and perfect. Handmade is still a creative process and sometimes you have to break the rules, go outside the box to invent, invent, create, reveal new aspects not seen before.

Foam sponge will help a beginner in the work, and soap and water will be needed for wet felting. What is the difference between the methods, what are their features, this is the next thing to understand.

Dry felting technique

With felting, a flat or volumetric element can be pieced together. Volumetric parts are made by dry felting. There is nothing complicated about it.

The wool must be pierced with a needle. There are notches on the felting needles which will pick up the wool and tangle it tightly. The chitinous shell of the wool is as strong as a crab shell.

It will provide a hold, turning the nonwoven skein into a high-density fabric. The needle will press the lint, so the product will not be volumetric, but flat.

The piece is created as follows:

• tear off a piece of wool from the skein;
• give it the desired shape;
• pierce with a needle and entangle the nap, until a dense material is formed.

You can make small and large parts. And to be comfortable to work, you can also use foam rubber.

The technique of wet felting

After soaking the wool in a soapy solution, you can begin wet felting. The necessary volume will be created due to the fact that the wool, once wet, will become flexible, springy.

Water will restore keratin, micro and macro fibrils. The soap solution seals the chitinous surface, reduces brittleness with gradual drying, and glues the nap.

Parts are created as follows:

• Pinch off some wool;
• and then shape it into the shape you want;
• moisten it with a soapy solution;
• Let dry and proceed to create the next part.

Since you can make virtually anything from non-woven wool, you have to use both methods of work. They can be combined, giving a distinctive texture.

Flat, volumetric parts and mixed must also be joined together into a single composition. This is done with normal thread and needle or parts can be welded one to another by wet felting.

Wool watercolor

The basic concept of the wool watercolor technique is a sea of color, subtle shimmering. Wool watercolor is used to create paintings, carpets, decorate some things.

Wool of different colors is used, which is placed in a very thin layer with shimmering. It looks like the most real paints on the artist's canvas. Then, by means of wet felting, the wool pattern is transformed into felt.

The technique of nunofelting

Nunofelting is used to decorate other materials. The wool is placed on the gauze. Then, by wet felting it is turned into a felt appliqué. Then it can be welded to the selected base.

Beads by Felting

Ornaments made by hand by felting, are original and will compete with any other, already available at home in the arsenal. It is a costume jewelry, which will appeal to a person who appreciates tradition and originality.

To work you need wool and some yarn. The wool can be used in one or more colors. The jewelry is made as follows:

1. The yarn should be coiled loosely into approximately equal balls. They should be slightly larger than the beads that will make up the ornament, or the same, since wool is not only prone to piling, but also to shrinkage. At the end of the work, the beads may shrink by 15-50%.
2. These balls should be wrapped with a small amount of wool and begin felting.
3. At first the beads are dry felting, pierced with a needle. Then a little more wool is wound and dipped into the soap solution.
4. After that, they must be pulled out and gently squeezed. Then put them on a towel and leave on the radiator to dry, or put a heater nearby.
5. When they are dry, they can be strung on a cord, decorated with other colors of felt in the form of painting, patterns, drawings.

Volumetric figurines

A medium-sized figurine, an excellent toy for a child or decoration for a shelf can be made from wool and foam rubber. For example, a house, a clock with a cuckoo. To do this, you should:

1. Cut out the base of the desired shape from foam rubber.
2. Wrap the parts with wool, making the background first. In the case of the clock, for example, you must first take brown wool. Then make over the background of brown felt appliqué dial, hands, a window for the cuckoo and herself out of wool of other colors. In the case of the toy house, you must first take white or light gray wool, make the walls. Then graft the red roof and windows, doors, chimney.
3. Felt all parts using dry felting technique.

Micro and nano dimensional figurines of felt

A house, a clock are large objects, stable figures. Thanks to this, they are highly visible on a window sill, a shelf. But also a small keychain or a very small figurine of felt can be made. For example, you can felt a chicken, a cat, a sheep, a penguin, a fox with a height of 3-5 cm.

Small size allows even from the remnants of wool to make a beautiful souvenir.

The body, paws, and tail are dry-cut first. They are made small, smaller than the figurine will be. Then all parts are sewn together and covered with a new layer of felt. But it can already be welded in a wet way, forming the exact contours of your favorite handicraft, creating volume.

As a result, the sheep will be really fluffy, and the cat can have a fluffy tail.

A complex silhouette, facial expression, habits and movement can also be recreated. It's a challenge, of course, but it's doable. If you take not foam rubber, but sintepon, as a basis, it will be easy enough to do, because sintepon is softer and perfectly holds the shape.

Felting is a great fun and useful activity. Decorate a hat, make a rug, a doll, jewelry is not a problem. It is easy and will be something exclusive at your disposal, an amazing thing that no one else has. The masterpiece will fill all around with joy: everything is possible, few goals are unattainable.

Photo ideas of things made by felting in wool