Filtration is a special handicraft technique. The main material for creativity in the felting technique is the fibers of thin, untwisted wool. Felting allows you to get volumetric toys, felt cloth, panels and paintings, jewelry and clothing, interior decorative items.
Craft history
Felting or felting wool is an ancient craft that arose when people noticed the ability of wool to thicken due to felting. The resulting felt fabric in its ability to retain heat was not inferior to the skin, therefore it was actively used in the manufacture of shoes, clothes and even dwellings. Felted wool products have not lost their former popularity in the countries of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia. And the famous Russian felt boots are not only a souvenir loved by tourists, but also durable winter shoes in many remote snow-covered corners of Russia. Felting has acquired a second life in the last decade, becoming a fashionable trend in design.
Wet felting
Wet felting is the most common method for making felt products. The wool is placed on a pre-prepared pattern, taking into account the shrinkage of the product within 30-40%, moistened with a soapy alkaline solution and rubbed, crumpled and rolled for a long time. In a wet state, the scales of wool fibers open and firmly fasten to each other. This method is appropriate when making clothes, panels, slippers and hats.
Dry felting
When it comes to creating volumetric figures based on a cylinder, cone or ball, dry felting is preferred. The method is based on dumping the hairs with a barbed needle. When done correctly, a homogeneous and very dense felt material is formed. Therefore, it is more often used in the manufacture of paintings, jewelry items, toys.
Nuno felting
The name of the technique comes from the Japanese for "cloth", although the method is rooted in Australia. At the end of the last century, a method was developed for piling wool onto fabric. For this, the finest wool and loose fabric are used, which allows the wool to pass freely through the fibers. As a result, a completely new, unique fabric is formed, which is later used to create bags, clothes, paintings, home textiles.
The main thing is wool!
You can get a high-quality and durable item only if the wool is correctly selected. Among all the variety of attention, combed ribbon and carding are worthy of attention. Combed ribbon is a long, neat bundle of hairs, carded is a bundle of tangled fibers, wool wool that is also easy to pull apart. The finer the wool, the better the product. In Russia, wool for felting is produced by factories specializing in the production of yarn.
