The craft of nomad shepherds, who once made household items and clothes from sheared wool, is once again of great interest to applied artists. Now these techniques are used to create modern fashion accessories, beads and toys, women's clothing and interior decorations. Felting from wool or felting is a simple and convenient form of creativity for studying in circles, in schools and kindergartens, for developing children's motor skills, imagination, and creative thinking.
As a rule, applied arts are ancient forms of crafts rethought and improved in accordance with modern trends, with the help of which they once created household items necessary for life. Using the precepts of old masters, reviving technology and revealing the secrets of craft, current artists create very modern, but attractive with their ancient origins art objects, fashion accessories and clothing.
Felting from wool is carried out in two ways - dry (folding) and wet, using a soap solution. For folding, a special thick needle with uneven notches is used, which is long and stubbornly pierced by two or more pieces of wool superimposed on each other until they become a single whole. By folding, it is good to spread not only an ornament on a plain woolen base. It is also used to create voluminous things - toys, beads and other women's accessories. Wet felting creates a single rolled sheet due to repeated friction. This method is best used for flat objects.
In felting, only sheep and camel hair is used, which is quite thin and soft. The results of work depend on the quality and thickness of the raw materials. Merino wool, mohair and “camel” are suitable for creating delicate artwork, clothes and jewelry, from a coarser and thicker one - toys, shoes, floor mats work well. To check whether the material is suitable for felting or not, you need to wet a piece of wool with soapy water and roll it with your fingers for several minutes. Then wash off the soap and look at the result.
Felting wool toys
To work, you need felting wool and a special falsetto needle (everything can be bought in an online store or in a specialized salon). It is better to purchase materials that are specially designed for this technique. You will also need a pillow or a piece of thick foam - this is the basis for work, and a metal brush for combing wool. First, try to make a butterfly.
In thick cardboard, we cut out a stencil in the form of wings of two sizes, one more for the upper wings, the other less for the lower ones. We take a piece of wool, put it in the hole, giving it the desired shape, and use a quick motion to pierce it with a needle over the entire surface until the wool falls off. We remove the stencil, turn the work over to the other side and do the same with the needle. To decorate the wing, we take a small piece of contrasting wool, roll it into a ball, put it on top of the wing and pierce it with a needle until it completely connects to its surface. We do the same on the reverse side. In this way, we fel the rest of the wings from wool. Now we roll the sausage out of black wool, lay it on the pillow and begin to pierce it with a needle, continuously rolling along the surface of the pillow. The result should not be a flat, but a rounded part. To thicken the head, add a little wool from one edge and work with the needle again. Butterfly body is ready. We roll ready-made wings one by one, also with a needle. We make antennae from a thin twisted silk thread (you can use a wire). Felting from wool goes well with beading, sequins and beads. Butterfly wings can be additionally designed with these materials.
The basic principle of felting toys is as follows. For flat shapes, we work with the needle first on one side of the product, then, turning it over to the other side, from the back. For round shapes, a piece of wool, piercing with a needle, is continuously rotated along the axis. The result is not flat, but round.
Fashion beads
To create original women's jewelry, felting from wool is also successfully used. Beads in the form of oblong or round beads strung on a thread, in combination with other decorative elements look very fashionable and creative. Both dry and wet methods are used here. For wet felting, we take a sufficiently thick soapy solution, wet a piece of wool with it and begin to roll it in the palm of our hand until a dense ball or oval is obtained. Then we wash off the soap, dry the ball, decorate it with embroidery or beads. From such individual elements of different sizes and colors we collect beads.