hand felting


i have been on the hunt for a special type of thick felt (wool felt i have finally found out recently) that will almost or will stand up on it's own). i have this big idea and need this special type of material. well yesterday "voila" it all came together, although it is going to be a bit of work. the felt you find in fabric stores is just too flimsy and synthetic for what i want to accomplish; and so i have called wholesaler after wholesaler, upholsterer after upholsterer and no luck. so i ran into the perfect felt (already made into something at a craft store) and was told it was hand made with roving wool. what is roving wool? after googling and googling, it didn't look like i was going to find anything local and would have to order this unknown fibre online. but "yay" i ran into some yesterday! i just bought a little bag and it wasn't the color i want to do my project with, but at least i can have a go making a little bit to see if it'll all work out. here's a tutorial i found on handfelting that i'm going to try. now i'm off to find my bamboo beach mat. stay tuned.

Jan Halvarson

5 comments:

joy madison said...

ooooh, cool! I can't wait to see what you come up with. I haven't found handmade felt to have a lot body, but if it does what you need than cool!!! I have a combo 55% wool felt from JoAnn's fabric that has a pretty stiff...but you can only get it at the BIG joAnn's I've heard!

Jan Halvarson said...

if this doesn't work out - i'm coming to big joannes? where is it?

Anonymous said...

I used that exact tutorial to make a cushion last year. But I didn't quite have the right type of wool. It worked, but my bamboo mat disintigrated before I was finished. It's quite a lot of (hot) work. Good luck!

lisa solomon said...

ooohhh.... looking forward to this!!

andrea said...

ooohhhh, I'm so excited for you...! and can't wait to see what you create...