Clothe yourself with inspiration through felting

A felting workshop at the farm:

Last week three young women came to the farm to do a felting workshop.  Only one of them had done any felting before.  All three had a keen sense of colour and artistic flair, as well as an attitude of joy and discovery.

They chose lattice scarves for their project. They started with a base colour in a Merino-Silk blend and chose accenting colours from a basket of roving.  Each scarf project contained 3 to 5 colours.

Laying out the wool-silk roving:

The merino-silk roving was laid out over bubble wrap and tulle fabric.  The roving was stripped into narrow bands and the scarf was designed during the layout.

Wetting out the scarves under tulle.

The tulle was folded over top of the lay-out, to keep everything in place while the project was wetted out.

A spray bottle with a mixture of natural soap and water was used to thoroughly soak the wool.  The wool needed to puddle a bit to make sure it was well wetted-out.

Then each woman massaged her scarf, through the tulle, to begin the felting process.  When you can no longer pinch up lose fibers from the surface of the project, the tulle can be removed and felting begins in earnest.

Rolling and cleaning up the edges with needle felting.

Once the tulle is removed the project is rolled in bubble wrap around a pool noodle and rolled over the table at least 30 times.  Progress is checked and the project is rewrapped as necessary to felt it completely.

Once its unrolled, the project is thrown down on the table top at least 30 times to complete the felting process.  Edges that are loose are secured with needle felting and the project is complete.

The end of a satisfying workshop.

Workshops at Joybilee Farm are custom designed, private workshops with a minimum participation of 3.  You gather some friends, call ahead and book a date that is convenient to you.  We set up the workshop and teach the skills you want to learn.  You learn new skills and take home a finished project to enjoy and remember your time at Joybilee Farm.

Additional supplies are available in the studio gift shop or online (coming soon) so you can practice and perfect your new skills.

If this is your first time here, look at the Purple Sheep page to see what this website is about.

Back to you:

What’s your favourite felting project?  Did you find anything difficult in the felting process?  What was your biggest felting success.  Leave a comment.

Inspirational and instructional Felting Books for your at home library.

This is one of my most favourite felting books.  It gives instructions for beginners but majors on intermediate techniques.

Felting Fashion: Creative and Inspirational Techniques for Feltmakers

This book is strictly for inspiration.  There are no instructions, just picture plate after picture plate of creative, limit pushing designs from felt.

500 Felt Objects: Creative Explorations of a Remarkable Material (500 Series)[

Fabulous felted scarves has instructions for beginners and projects for more advanced felters to make 20 different felted designs.  A great start to felted fashion.

Fabulous Felted Scarves: 20 Wearable Works of Art

Beginner instruction books:

Uniquely Felt

Simply Felt