Felting materials

Felt is 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 placing 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 wool tops 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 clear. 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 fleece but you need to wash and card it first. Blackface wool is
no good for felting but breeds like Shetland, J acobs and Hebridean are all 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.
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 simple pattern 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 detailed pattern
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 paint 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 and
place 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 over
the 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.
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).
Things to watch
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 careful
rubbing 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 the
pattern.


Ruth Atkinson
September 2008
Suppliers
Felt is becoming increasingly popular and it is getting easier to find feltmaking
supplies. These are the suppliers I have used. There are many more (including
www.scottishfibres.co.uk).
Twist Fibres
88 High Street, Newburgh, Fife, KY14 6AG
Tel: 01337 842843 enquiries@twistfibrecraft.co.uk
www.twistfibrecraft.co.uk
Twist have a wide range of materials for all sorts of fibre crafts. Their shop is small, so
they have a limited range of colours but it is a great place to browse, choose the
colours you want and ask questions.
Wingham Wool Work
70 Main Street, Wentworth, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S62 7TN
Tel: 01226 74926 wingwool@clara.net
www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk
Wingham wools have an enormous range of colours and fibres and have an
excellent mail order service. They can also produce batts (large pieces of carded
wool that can be used as the base for felting without having to do the initial laying
out).