Wet Felting – Hats, Bowls and Bowler Hats

Wet felting shapes is a fairly simple process – in principle. Once a couple of us had gained confidence with wet felting on a flat surface we started to experiment with shapes; in this case, bowls.

Tools:

• Wool
• An old pair of stockings
• A balloon
• Warm soapy water (the hotter the better but you need to be able to touch it)
• A bowl or container (to hold slippery balloon in place while you’re felting)

Process:

• Think about what pattern/colours you would like on the inside and outside of your bowl
• Blow up balloon and put it in a bowl to hold it still
• Sprinkle some soapy water onto the balloon (this will hold your first pattern in place.
  

  Laying pattern for bowl interior

• Once your bowl’s interior pattern is in place, layer white wool to create the bowl. After laying wool in one direction, next layer should be perpendicular (at right angles). We used four or five layers of white wool.

• 

  Starting to layer plain wool over pattern

Dampen white wool with soapy water in preparation for adding the exterior pattern/colours. You can at this stage start to tidy up the edge of the bowl.

• Layer pattern/colour over white base.

• Sprinkle with warm soapy water
• (Now for the tricky part!) Stretch the panty hose over the wool and balloon, trying not to disturb the pattern you have created.

• 

  Having help makes it easier!

  

  

  Sprinkle with warm soapy water, ready for felting.

• You’re probably starting to realise why this process is called Wet Felting.!
• With your pattern well protected by the stocking, you can start to gently (GENTLY) massage the wool. If you rub too firmly you risk distorting the pattern or you could push the fibres enough to create a thin spot in the bowl.
• Once you can see the fibres starting to come through the stocking mesh, you are ready for the next step.
• Carefully remove the stocking.
• You may need to do some shaping of the bowl edges at this point OR you can consider doing something once it’s dry (needle felting or stitching a rim can be very effective)
• Rinse the bowl in clean water.
• You can further felt the bowl by “shocking” it. This can entail throwing it against a hard surface (really – who wouldn’t be shocked by that?) or putting it into very hot water (this shrinks the fibres further and can create a very firm bowl but be warned that the texture may also change.
• While the bowl is still wet you can shape it by putting it over a “form” (e.g. an upturned bowl) or by using clothes pegs to create folds and waves on the surface.
• All of the designs in the photograph (right) were first efforts by the craft group.

Okay, so now you’re probably wondering about the title of this post (Hats, Bowls and Bowler Hats)? Well, the same technique for making a bowl could be used to make a hat – particulary if you have good mold (hat block). And, if .you have a design that looks equally good as a bowl or a hat then (of course) it must be a “Bowler Hat.”