First, a couple of notes about wool tops (or roving). Your wool should be stored and handled carefully. To felt wool, bascially all that is required is moisture and agitation, so if your bag of wool becomes damp and is handled roughly, it will soon become matted and hard to use.
When pulling off a tuft of wool to use, keep your hands about six inches apart. If you hold too close to the point where you want the fleece to part, it will prove very difficult.
Never cut the wool – a blunt edge is difficult to felt in.
The best way is to just have a go! The basic principle is simple - by jabbing the barbed felting needle through your wool it gradually felts together by pulling fibres from below back up through the fibres on top. You will be making simple patterns and beads in no time but to make more complex items will take a lot of practice and learning from experience.
You can needle felt wool into any shape you want just by needling it on top of a dense foam pad or special needle felting brush or polystyrene pad. Corsages could be made this way – or decorations to attach to handbags etc. You would needle felt directly onto material if you wanted to decorate a jumper, scarf, cushion – the list is endless!
For tough work (perhaps needle felting onto a heavy, closely woven fabric) you need a thick needle and for fine detail you need a thinner needle. The lower the number of the needle the thicker it is.
Needles have small barbs that catch fibres to push/pull and entangle them. They come in different shapes and sizes – triangular needles have fewer barbs than star needles.
For beginners, a 38 triangle is a good all-purpose needle to use and if you want a smoother finish, use a 40 triangle in the final stages.
When making pieces that will need joining together, always leave the area to be joined very loosely felted (or leave loose fibres hanging) so that the fibres get a chance to entangle at the join.
Rosie Pink Diy Original Post
No comments:
Post a Comment