Week 4: Felting and Applique

Felting is the process of turning loose wool fibers into fabric through fusing each of the individual strands of fibers. The two methods we were taught in class are needle felting and wet felting.
Needle felting is more suitable for smaller-scale projects or for detailed work. Or even for adding on additional decorative elements to an existing wool product. Wet felting on the other hand, is more suitable for more large-scale projects, as you can produce in one go. However, one thing to note is that wet felting may not allow the artist as much control, as during the rubbing process, details might get lost. However, this can allow the artist to create a more natural “gradient” in their works.

My samples from class:

My felting samples. The two balls are actually samples for my final project.
Applique

The mushroom is made using a combination of wet felting and needle felting. The body of the mushroom is actually hallow (It lives on my desk now and is home to my paper clips) and was created using wet felting technique. I later when back in with a needle to attach more wool fibers to the areas that felt like they were a little thinner. As for the cap, it was created using needle felting.