What is felting and how to quickly master it

Send

Felting or felting is called a special and interesting technique for working with wool. This type of needlework allows you to create amazing patterns on fabrics and finished products, toys and decor items.

@fetreno_toys

What is felting?

The essence of the technique is the repeated piercing of wool with special needles made of hardened steel, with the help of which the wool fibers are tangled and fixed in the product. As a result of this technique, the wool is compacted, takes on a shape and a conceived image or figure is obtained.

torange.biz
For this type of needlework, only natural raw materials are used - camel and sheep wool.

How did felting come about?

This method of processing wool has been used for a very long time. The first felted products appeared over 8000 years ago. According to legend, the felt was received in the ark of Noah. Among the great many different animals in the ark were also sheep. They molted, the wool fell to the floor, where it became wet and stamped with hooves. As a result, the wool turned into a felt carpet.
Felting received great popularity among nomadic peoples; they not only made clothes and shoes in this way, but also most things for the home.

@merino_wool_lana
In Russia, using the technique of felting wool, warm insoles, shoes, carpets and hats were made. This is how valenki appeared, which are very popular now.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first machines for felting wool appeared in Russia, and so began the mass production of products using felting technology.
Today, felting is gaining more and more popularity among needlewomen who want to create amazing wardrobe items and unusual decor with their own hands.

What is necessary for mastering the technique

To learn this type of needlework, you need to select materials and prepare tools. You should also know that there are two main techniques of felting: dry and wet felting from wool.

Preparation for wet felting

@sofaelcheva
If you want to create paintings, bags, carpets and other large, but flat products, you should familiarize yourself with the technique of wet felting. Before work, the wool must be moistened with a soap solution, then the material is carefully laid out in the necessary order on a polyethylene base. Directly, the process of felting is performed with hands.

While working on a product using the wet felting technique, they use:

• a rigid net (sometimes they take a mosquito net or a veil);
• Felting mat, rubber or bamboo mat;
• air bubble film.

@ mary_jay77
When the fibers are mechanically processed, they smoothly intertwine with each other, as a result, on a polyethylene basis, a uniform, one-piece flat web is obtained, which is subsequently used to create various products and decor.

Wet felting scarf: master class

What you need for dry felting

The technique of dry felting or dry felting allows you to create bulk products.
For such work, a special needle is used with slightly noticeable nicks, it is affected by wool fibers.

@toys_orlova
In this way, toys, dolls, decor items, as well as all kinds of “warm” jewelry and accessories, appear from the master’s hands.

Dry felting brooch: master class

As additional supplies in felting, shreds of fabrics, ribbons, buttons, beads and any other decorative elements are used. Also use thin wire or a finished frame, dyes and Moment glue.

Dry felting: the main stages of felting

@handmade__perfection
Having familiarized yourself with the basic methods of felting, you can try to make a simple toy with your own hands.

You will need:

• non-spun wool of different shades to create individual elements of the craft;
• felting needles of different thicknesses;
• substrate;
• crayons or dry paints;
• tint brush

Dry felting toys: a wolf from a fairy tale

First of all, a sketch of the future product is created. After this, the wool is prepared, it is kneaded in different directions until a homogeneous mass is formed.
How much wool is needed depends on the size of the toy. During the process of felting, the amount of raw materials will decrease by 2–3 times.
After this, you need to take a thick needle and begin to dump the wool into a small round ball, forming the necessary outline of the product with your fingers. Then you need to go to the needle of medium thickness. At this stage, the main thing is to make the product as uniform as possible in density, without any internal voids.
Next, you need to grind the surface using a thin needle.As a result, a surface of smooth and uniform structure should form.
First, large parts of the toy roll around - head, torso. Then smaller ones - paws, ears, tail.
In the manufacture of symmetrical elements, it is imperative to prepare an identical amount of wool so that they are the same.
When all the parts are ready, they are connected to the body. To do this, choose the most successful position of the elements so that they are located symmetrically to each other.
Eyes, nose, mouth are usually made with beads or buttons that can be glued or sewn neatly.
The final stage is the use of tinting, which gives forms of expressiveness. It is necessary to make a crumb out of chalk and use a dry brush to apply powder to a place that requires more expressiveness.