Dry felting is a way of handicraft, with the help of which soft toys, souvenirs, jewelry and other voluminous things are created from wool. The technique is simple and perfect for those who are just trying their hand at needlework.
Tools and materials
The dry felting technique has its "official" names - filtznadel, felting or felting. The process consists in the fact that the wool fibers are compacted, entangled and dumped into a felt mass. For dry felting, special tools are needed - barbed needles. In addition to the needles, you will need a foam sponge so as not to accidentally injure yourself with the needle (dry felting needles are very sharp) and not spun wool.
If the product is bulky, you can fill the inside with a synthpon - natural wool is expensive, but it will come out cheaper. Only the shell can be made of wool, and the base is made of padding polyester.
Wool shrinks when dry felted. When rolling, its volume decreases by about a third, therefore, it is necessary to purchase material for the product in a volume that is three times the size of the future product.
Technics
The outlines of the product are formed from the required amount of wool. If it is a bead, a loose ball rolls up. Then the product is placed on a foam sponge and a needle with notches is stuck into it. The ball constantly turns over so that the needle sticks in different places. The wool fibers in the ball, clinging to the serrations, begin to get tangled, and the ball becomes denser.
Larger needles are taken first. When the product is sealed by half, they are replaced with thinner ones. Sticking needles, using force and from a swing, should not be. And it is imperative to put the product on foam rubber, in no case do not work on weight. When the ball is very compacted, the needles should be inserted strictly perpendicularly, as the thin needle can break or get stuck in the wool.
You should start working in the dry felting technique with simple things. Beads are most suitable for this. But if the product consists of several parts, then first all the parts are rolled separately, and then, with the help of a small piece of wool, placed between them, they are rolled against each other.
If the product must have increased strength (for example, a children's toy), it is better to sew the separately felted parts to each other.
Dry felting is good because if something does not go as planned, bumps or dents have formed on the product, this is easy to fix by rolling the right amount of wool on top. This technique does not require a large work space, complex tools and numerous materials. Multi-colored wool and a little imagination will allow you to realize almost any creative idea, and the dry felting process soothes and cheers up.
