Felting, in pictures.

Had a brilliant group session yesterday where the children made their own felt.

A fabulous selection of felting wool - so many brilliant colours and the wool is really really soft.
Start by taking strands of felting wool and lay it horizontally (to make a rectangular shape, or whatever shape you wish) onto a half folded towel covered with a tea towel . Take more strands and lay them over the first lot but now vertically. A third layer of strands are layed on top horizontally. This is the base. It can then be decorated with wool or further strands to form a pattern

Cover the finished layers of felting wool with another tea-towel. Pour warm water over the tea-towel and rub soap over it too. Then begin rubbing the wet and soapy tea-towel all over quite firmly with hands and fingertips (taking care not to rub so hard it moves any design you've created on the felting wool). Continue to do this for about 10 minutes, adding more warm water and soap as needed (wetter the better it seemed). You are looking for a flat and sturdy piece of felt before moving to the next stage. Don't forget the edges!

Carefully unfold the towel and refold over the tea-towel. Roll up the towel, tea-towels and felt into one tight roll (secure with rubber bands at each end) and begin rolling along the table until the felt is further bound together. When it's ready, rinse and lay out to dry.

Katie's felt.

Ben's felt.

Everyone made lovely artistic pieces. I especially loved this heart made by one of the teenagers.

Some of the lovely felt creations by the lady who ran the session and her son. I so want the little grey dog! Making these little animals, butterflies etc. is pretty easy too, apparently. Using felting wool and a special pin to literally stab the wool until it is firm enough to hold it's shape.

Think we'll be doing some more of this.