Felting workshop with women and kids, making christmas deco and gifts

Felted brooch

Monday before Christmas we had a lovely felting workshop in a friends house in Glasgow's Westend. We were 4 women and 5 kids. First I showed dry felting with a cookie cutter, shaped like a holly leave or a snowman. The kids enjoyed it very much! The next step was a wet felted flat felt in the size of about 20cm x 25 cm, for either a brooch, a picture or a cushion cover. Everybody was choosing one colour of unspun wool for the first and the second layer of wool and then smaller amounts of coloured wool in different shades for the pattern or embellishment of the flat felt piece. We covered the wool with a fine netting and sprinkled very warm soapy water over it. Now the process of felting started with gentle movements of the hands gliding over the covered wet and soapy wool. Mmmm, what a tingling feeling in the palms of our hands,and the soap started to foam more or less. After the gentle gliding we could start to put a bit more effort into the movements. That was good fun! Lifting up the netting in between so that it doesn't connect with the felting wool was important. Then flapping the already slightly felted piece over and felting it from the back. Then making the pinching check. if the wool has already been felted properly. If the answer was "yes", we could roll the flat piece in a bamboo mat, at first still covered with the netting. The fulling process started and the piece got stronger and was shrinking. When the piece had been rolled in the mat for a while and it felt strong enough it had been rinsed with cold water, or even alternating in warm and cold water to improve the felting process. Now the felted piece needed to dry on the radiator before anything else could be done with it. The result of this workshop was many different lovely felted pieces. We had good fun and the participants were proud about their successful felted flat piece. We will have another workshop on Monday the 3rd of January in the afternoon.