Felting

felting wool

Posted by k!m

About

okay so this is my first attempt at making a "how-to" guide so id like to say sorry in advanced if its not helpful at all (im actually rather horrible at explaining things xp)

buuuut i think this is really simple and i hope that this might help or give you guys an idea of how to felt.

soo without further ado...

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You Will Need (3 things)

  • Wool Roving
  • Something Like Styrofoam Or An Actual Felting Block
  • 1 Felting Needle

Steps (11 steps, 30 minutes)

  1. 1

    first off you need to buy a felting needle/tool
    i dont suggest buying just the needles
    because accidents happen and these needle are extremely sharp!

  2. 2

    oh and no you cannot just use any plain simple needle to do this
    (trust me i tried xp )
    felting needles have special barbs in them which help the tiny wool fibers to interlock with eachother

  3. 3

    next you need a felting block
    or
    if your cheap like me ;]
    then find a styrofoam block
    but make sure its big enough
    because this is like our base that we're gonna be stabbing with our needle.

    you dont want to break a needle by stabbing it into the table

  4. 4

    last thing you need to buy now is the roving wool which you can find at your local crafts store

  5. 5

    ok so now that we have everything
    get wool and pull a piece off
    (not too big not too little this is just a practice thing)

    then place it on your felting block

  6. 6

    with your needle you start to stab the piece of wool in a vertical (up & down) motion

    *try not to stab at an angle because this could break your needle

  7. 7

    once you've stabbed most of the wool
    flip it over and stab it some more

    it doesnt look like anything yet but once the fibers start to lock into eachother it begins to get a bit more stiff

    *dont stab it tooo much
    remember you want to be able to still pull it off your block

  8. 8

    just keep stabbing...
    just keep stabbing...

  9. 9

    as your stabbing away at that piece of wool start to bring/pull the edges into that wool-y center
    im not sure how to explain this :/
    but its like your sculpting the wool with the needle
    bunching the wool into a somewhat more solid shape ?

  10. 10

    when you have a pretty solid shape take it off the felting block.

    it looks fuzzy with stray fibers right?

    this is what i do:

    for a flat piece - rub your hands together until its warm and then rub the piece between your hands..until its warm
    it smooths most of it down

    for a 3D-ish shaped piece - just use a small pair of scissors and cut the fuzz off

  11. 11

    finished!

    you can make these into any shape you want, any size, any color

    if you have any questions comment/message me and i'll get back to ya as sooon as i can ;D