Dry and Wet Felting

Heart shaped cookie cutter.

The above photos are examples of dry felting using a cookie cutter. Using wool felt, a sponge and a felting needle.The cookie cutter is placed on top of a sponge so that the needle does not break due to the fact that it is very fragile. Small pieces of felt are pulled off and gathered inside the cookie cutter shape. The felting needle is then poked into the felt rapidly many times until it gathers together to create a form within the outline of the cookie cutter.

This was an example of dry felting on fabric. The process of stabbing the felt pieces together and tightening the felt using a felting needle and a sponge is the same in this example. However, there is no cookie cutter involved in this example and the felt is stabbed into fabric. The sponge is underneath the fabric and the felt is on top of the fabric. The felt attaches itself to the fabric and textures, and shapes are formed.

This is an example of an armature that was dry felted, this armature was a foam ball that was wrapped in dry felt. Multiple colors of felt were layered and wrapped around the foam ball and the felting needle was used to stab the felt into the foam ball until it was stuck. There was no need for a sponge to create this armature because the foam served the same purpose to avoid breaking the needle.

This image is an example of a wet felting landscape. A large portion of the felt was torn from the bundle and other colors of felt were layered on top of the large section. I attempted to create a landscape with water at the bottom with pink clouds at the top and an orange sky. I placed all the layers of felt on top of the felting mat. I then sprayed water onto the surface of the felt and rolled up the mat to press the landscape flat.

The small brown ball in the above image is an example of wet felting. I created the ball by wetting the felt and rolling it in my palms until the felt became firm and in the shape of a sphere.