The ancient art of felting, which seemed to be forgotten, is popular again today. Interesting felt gizmos can be purchased in some stores. These are exclusive products that you just want to take a closer look at.
They make clothes, shoes from felted wool, roll thin but warm scarves, handbags and even jewelry. Felting (felting) has become a popular hobby that develops imagination and creativity. Mastering this art is not at all difficult. All that is required for this is a special barbed needle, wool of different colors and a porous sponge or foam rubber. From these simple materials, real masterpieces are sometimes born.
Perhaps the most famous and widespread felted wool products are felt and felt boots. Felt is produced industrially, but real felt boots can only be handmade.
There are two ways of felting - dry and wet. Beginner fellers usually start with the dry method. The easiest way to understand felting is to make some beads. Felting of any product begins with the formation of a part: from small beads to large parts of clothing. To do this, it is necessary to tear off several parts from a piece of wool, each of which is rolled into a small loose ball. Then the bead or any other part must be sealed. To do this, the part is placed on a piece of foam rubber and carefully pierced many times with a special needle. The punctures are applied very close to each other, entangling the wool as much as possible and fixing the shape of the product. As soon as the wool has been matted so tightly that it has ceased to deform and creep into fibers, the bead is ready. After that, the product can be decorated by rolling strips of wool of other colors to it, sewing on beads or rhinestones. Dry felting is commonly used to create small decorations or toys. For larger products, use the wet felting method.
The wet felting technique is more complicated and time consuming. It will require bubble wrap, fine mesh cloth, wool, and soapy water. First, a template of the future product is cut out of a dense material and placed on a film with pimples. Overlapping small strands of wool are laid out on the prepared template, covered with a net, moistened abundantly with thick soapy water and gently rubbed with your hands to mix up the wool fibers. If it is necessary to make a drawing, then the strands of colored wool are first applied over the main background and slightly fixed with a serrated needle. Felting wool with your hands for a long time, so experienced needlewomen have learned to use brushes with stiff bristles and even grinders for this purpose.
The felting technique can also be auxiliary, for example, with its help you can create elements of decor and ornaments - printed designs on curtains, sewn applications on pillows.
After the wool is well matted, excess soap is expelled from it. Then the product is arranged with a contrast shower to wash off the slippery solution from the fibers, and at the same time to consolidate the work done. The felted object is dried, after which the work on it is completed. This technique is used to make scarves, bags, slippers and even paintings. If you want, anyone can become a creator, because both an adult and a child can learn felting. Several evenings spent on this exciting activity will pleasantly diversify your leisure time and add something new and unusual to the collection of toys, clothes or accessories.
