April 2016. Felts. Day 19. Flower Tutorial

Today, I'd thought I'd post pics of the process I used to make these little flowers yesterday. Working with felt is, for me, a very soothing and relaxing process. I love the feel of the wool, the range of colors and knowing there are infinite possibilities in simply playing with the materials and enjoying the unfolding. I will always be grateful to my dear friend Cynthia in New Zealand, who introduced a very hesitant me to working with this magical and delightful process.
 

Step 1

Step One
I set an old towel out on the kitchen bench. Next, I placed a large piece of bubble wrap on top. Gently pulling the wool apart, I made small circular shaped puffs, laying the wool layers on top of each other in a perpendicular manner so the fibers will mesh and grab a hold of each other during the felting process. I did them in different sizes as they will be nestled inside each other to make a realistic looking blossom. I used Merino wool, putting a golden yellow down for 4 layers and then adding wisps of red and magenta on top for subtle shading.

Close up of Step 1

 

Step 2

Step Two
I used an old chocolate syrup bottle, filling it with hot water and a few squirts of washing up soap. Next, I made all the puffs wet and mashed them down with my hands.

Step 3

 Step Three
Next, I put a piece of plastic on top of the wet felt pieces. I then put soapy water ON TOP of the plastic. This made it easier to rub my hands over the plastic to felt the wool.

Close up of step 3

 

Step 4

Step Four
After putting water on top of the plastic wrap, I rubbed and pressed down hard on the felt, using circular motions. The combination of hot water, soap and friction causes the fibers to intermingle. I rubbed for about 5 minutes. Felt nice to have my hands sliding around on the slippery, soapy surface. Some people prefer not to get their hands wet during this step (wrinkly, pruney-looking fingers) so if you prefer, you can put rubber gloves on. Just be sure to keep the surface wet so your hands glide over the plastic smoothly.

Step 5  Testing the felt

 Step Five
Here's where you want to test the felt to see if the fibers are felting together properly. I pull up gently in the middle and see if the layers are all intermingled. If you can pull way up on it, give it a few more minutes of rubbing. When I see that it looks like a small tent, I feel it is ready to go to the next step.

Step 6  Getting Ready to Roll

 Step Six
Now remove the thin plastic you had on the wool pieces. Replace it with another piece of bubble wrap, bubble-side DOWN. I always have tons of this around as it comes in packages people send me. It can be used practically forever, until all the bubbles have popped. 

Step 7  Roll it up

  Step Seven
In this step, I used a swimming pool noodle and cut off a piece the size of a rolling pin. It makes a great, waterproof roller for doing the felting. Setting the noodle piece at the end of the plastic, I rolled it, pulling the bubble wrapped flowers tightly around it. I have seen people use pieces of PVC pipe, old wooden rolling pins or even dowel rods.

Rolled and ready to go

Step Eight
Next, wrap the towel around the whole bubble wrapped roll.
 

Step 8   Exercise those arms

Roll the whole thing back and forth. I do it for about 100 rolls. It's mostly a quick wrist action, rolling the roll just a few inches away from me. Then, unroll the towel and the bubble wrap. Turn the noodle 90 degrees,  and reroll the whole thing, bubble wrap first, then the old towel. Roll again for 100 short, quick rolls. Unroll the whole thing, remove the noodle and rotate 90 degrees again. Here, we want to roll the wool in different directions to felt it evenly.

Picture this....you are rolling out some pastry dough on the bench top. You'd roll it out away from you, then you'd rotate the dough 90 degrees and re-roll to get a nice, big even piece (rectangular or circular). Same idea with the wool.

Smoothing the edges

 Step Nine
Unroll the whole thing and pick up one of the shapes. Pull at it to see if it is all felted together. If not, do some additional rolling. If the pieces do seem solid, remove the top bubble wrap. Squirt some warm, soapy water on the plastic and start rubbing the individual pieces across the bubble wrap. I place my hand over one of the little circles and rub away from myself. Next, I rotate the piece and continue rubbing it back and forth until the edges are solid and nicely rounded. If you have a snaggly bit, rub and it will meld into itself.

After rubbing edges on bubble wrap

All circles have edges smoothed, rubbed out

 

Close up of all rubbed into circles

Step Eleven
Next, I cut small snips (about 5 or 6) at the edges of the circles, cutting toward the center to indicate separate petals. Each cut made was about 1/4" (a bit more than 1/2 cm).

Small snips to create petal shapes

 Step Twelve
Next, add more soapy water to the bubble wrap. I used one finger to rub where I had made a cut, sliding the flower away from myself about 10 or 15 times. This creates a wider space between the petals and rounds the cut edges.

Rubbing petal edges

 

All petal edges rubbed and smoothed out

Next, after all pieces are rubbed and smoothed out, put all the wool pieces into a bowl and add boiling water. Stir with a spoon, then lift out and put into a bowl with cold water.  Stir and keep alternating a few times between the two water temps. This shocks the wool and helps with the felting process. 

After that, put all wool pieces into a bowl with cool water and add a splash of vinegar. Stir well. The vinegar will help remove all traces of soap from the fibers. Next, remove wool from water and rinse with plain water.

Grab the handful of wool pieces and slam them into the sink or on a bench top. This is the Fulling process which helps strengthen the wool. Do this several times.

Next, I put all the pieces of wool onto a clean towel and rolled up, to remove the water. I used a hint I saw somewhere recently and that was to place the wool circles into muffin tins (regular sized and super-mini muffin tins) and set them in the sun to dry. They will take on the shape of the tin and be nice and rounded.

Allow to dry fully.

Final touches with needle felting

 The last step I did was to use a bit of needle felting to assemble the flowers. Putting the largest wool piece down first, add the next sized one and stab until the two are joined. Stabbing will also pop the edges of the flower up for added appeal. Keep adding however many pieces you'd like for each blossom. I used 4 for these medium sized flowers. Really large ones would have many layers.

Finally, sew on a brooch backing. Add beads to the center for more sparkle.

Final pieces

 I believe it actually took me longer to do this tutorial than doing all the steps of the actual felting process! All in all, a lot of fun. 

Anyone have ideas on steps you'd add to this process or things you've done differently that have yielded good results? Please leave a comment.....