Felt making

Felt making.

Felt is a textile that is produced by the matting, condensing and pressing of fibres together. Felt can be made by natural fibres such a wool or synthetic fibres like acrylic.

The making of felt:

• First you gather your equipment (the list is below). Lay you sugar paper down on a flat surface, then place the bubble wrap on top (bubble side up).
• Next take your wool tops and pull out the end fibres, place them in a square each piece facing in the same direction. Build up until it becomes a dense layer. Then repeat the process but with the fibres going in the opposite direction. Make sure you cant see the bottom layer.
• Build up 3-4 layers with alternating directions.
• Then place a mesh netting over the wool, sprinkle warm water over the top of a netting then with your soap bar gently rub in the water. 
• After this use your hands to message the soap and water into the fibres. If need be add more water so no area of the wool is left unsaturated. Then turn over the piece and continue the message process (the bubble wrap acts as another pair of hands messaging the other side of the wool)
• Repeat this process until the fibres bond together. Then you can place it on the bamboo mat.
• Roll up the bamboo matt and rub the matt between your hands, similar to how you'd start a fire with a stick. Continue this process until all the fibres have bonded. This rubbing process shrinks the felt piece so don't worry as the square becomes smaller. 
• Once done rinse off under cold water. Then wash up your equipment. 

Equipment list: 

• Merino wool tops.
• Warm water.
• Soap.
• Bubble wrap.
• Netting.
• Bamboo matt.

Adding colour:

• To add colour to the felt repeat processes 1-2, except instead of using the same colour wool top you can choose a different colour, so when you layer your fibres you can switch between the colour.
• Then continue and use the same method for making felt to finish off the piece.
• This then leaves you with a different coloured felt piece. 

Adding shapes: 

• For adding shapes and form, repeat process 1-3. On the top layer of the fibres you can begin to make forms and shapes.
• To make the shapes take the wool and cut shapes out of it and place it on top of the layered fibres, you can do this with different coloured fibres to make the shapes stand out. 
• Another way to make shapes is to use the same process when layering the wool fibres. To make the shape layer the wool in the design of the shape but make sure the fibres are facing the opposite direction to the layer underneath. 
• Then continue with the felt making by following the original method.

Colour mixing fibres:

• This process is known as carding. A carder is a wooden brush that is covered by fine wires set into a rubbery base that's mounted on to the face of the carder. 
•  You take two different wool fibres and place one colour on half of the left carder and the other colour next to it, each fibre has to be facing the same way. 
• You take the right hand carder and draw it down the other carder in a brushing motion. this transfers half of the wool onto the right hand carder. 
• To mix the colours you swap the brushes around so opposite colours brush together, you do this until you have achieved your desired colour.
• To remove the coloured fibres you take the left hand carder and brush it down the right hand carder this places all the fibres onto the right carder.