What is felting?
Felting is a quick process that gives the maker lots of creative freedom to play with colors and textures.
The wool fiber of choice for most artisans is merino. It's soft enough to be turned into accessories like scarves, hats and other wearables that touch skin. For bags , slippers or rugs more "hairy" and stronger wool fibers are preferable, like Gotland or Icelandic.
Don't be mistaken - wool yarn is not the same as wool fiber, although it could certainly be used for embellishment!
Step by Step
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After laying the wool fibers out on a tray or bubble wrap, soapy water is added to aid in the felting process.
In the next stage of rolling or rubbing, the wool fibers tangle together creating a fabric that looks like thick cobweb. The individual fibers hold onto each other, but are still very fragile.
Next, the thick material is shrunk a great deal, between 30-50%, by vigorously agitating it using hot water and lots of elbow grease. In fact one might think that a felting class is both a creative fiber activity and a fitness class rolled into one!
Finally we shape it, block it or iron it, depending on what the final project requires. Voila!
