Wild and Wooly

What a wonderful day I've had at the first day of my wool felting workshop! I'm here at the Oregon Garden Resort for a two-day workshop with Heidi Leugers. Saturday, I will attend the Stitches in Bloom quilt show. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you may remember the whining and moaning I did when I attended a workshop preceding the show last year. I had such a good time last year, that this year I've been raring to go for the past week. It's a great way to combine a class with a quilt show since I paid one time up front. Room, meals, class, and quilt show admission are all included, which makes it super simple. For this workshop, I didn't even need a sewing machine!

So here's what happened today:

When I came into the room, my kit was all laid out. Here's all the stuff that was in it...different colors of wool, some crewel yarn, needles (those were cruel...I'll say more about that later), and that big sponge you see there in the middle.

Also, there was a little display of all kinds of cute little things. Look at this sheep.

And may I just say, Squee! There was this doll...about 18 inches tall from head to foot,

holding the cutest Teddy bear. Her clothing and the bear are made from reclaimed wool sweaters. Heidi told us that 80% wool or better, washed in hot water in the washing machine with a small amount of detergent, then rinsed in cold, is all you need to make this stuff. And, bonus! It doesn't ravel. Those edges hold as fast as if they'd been stitched.

A large selection of these little roses.

And these adorable Santas...about 9 inches tall from head to foot.

That's all well and good, I thought to myself. A rank beginner like me isn't going to make anything as cute as that. Boy, was I wrong. This was so incredibly easy and fun, so flexible and forgiving, anyone can do this. No artistic skill required. Think about molding clay with your fingers. You'll be doing the same thing using fibers and needles.  

So, you use these needles. They are different from sewing machine needles in the way they're sized. The higher the number on the needle, the finer the needle. We worked mostly with size 38 needles today, although we also used 40s and we have a supply of 36s that we didn't use. They are tapered as you see with a little hook on the end under my thumb. The business end is the end I'm showing you there. You use the thinnest part of the needle, about 3/4 inch in length. If you were to roll these on a table, you would find that they are triangular in shape, and they have tiny, nearly invisible barbs on the end.

Essentially, they "agitate" the fibers, causing them to cling to one another to create "felt" (the process of "felting") in the same way that hair forms into dreadlocks. (That was her analogy and it was a good one.)

She passed out this tool from our old friends at Colonial Needle. In case I haven't made it abundantly clear with my arrows and underscoring in red (the color of blood), those suckers are sharp. We had a little first-aid station set up, and Heidi admonished us to have our tetanus shots up to date if we're going to get serious about this. The tetanus shot is a "no kidding" because recall that we are working with wool practically right off the sheep. Sheep play in the dirt, and so that tetanus shot truly is a good idea.

The knob you see in that image above unscrews revealing this piece underneath. You push the needles through that hole so that you can work with more than one at a time. 

It will hold 12 needles total, but we worked with three. I ended up taking mine apart and just working with two at a time. Screw the knob back on, and you have your tool

Our first project was to make one of those roses I showed you up above. (WHAT!?!? I CAN'T DO THAT! I shouted to myself inwardly.) Then she proceeded to show us, ignoring my inaudible protestations.

And you rip off a hunk of wool from your fiber roll and sort of stab it to death about a million times, and it flattens out into a piece of "felt".

Cool! And for shaping it, you can sort of stab it from the side. And let me tell you right here and now, you could tie your hand behind your back to get it out of the way of those needles, and the needles would find you anyway...that was the "wild" part of the day. I lost count how many times I stabbed myself, even when I tried my darnedest not to.

That was the leaf. Then she showed us how to make the flower. In this case, we made a sort of narrow flat piece in two different colors.

In order to get a nice smooth edge, we folded them in half the long way and then stabbed them some more to get the two sides to adhere to one another. (I can't stress enough how easy it is to do this. It sticks to itself like glue, but only when you're ready to stick it with the needles.)

Then, you roll them up like a cinnamon roll. When you have it all rolled up, you stick it with needles to adhere the end.

Here we switched to a single size 40 needle to bring out the definition in the petals...again, easy as pie.

So then we were ready to give it a try. We had two colors of green for the leaves, and two colors of red for the flowers.

You use the sponge as your work surface. The sponge is the same kind that a tile mason uses, and it's about two inches thick. (If you wanted something larger, you can use that too. In fact, some artists use very large pieces that can be obtained at an upholstery shop.) The needles will not penetrate all the way to your table below, which would break them.

So I ripped off a hunk of wool and rolled it up cigar style on the leg of my jeans.

Thus:

Then you fold it in half, which helps to get the center vein of the leaf.

You roll the end between your thumb and index finger to bring the leaf to a point. (Pause here for a moment to admire the callouses on my index finger from all the hand-sewing I do. Impressive, no?)

Then you sort of stab it to death (it's a great hobby for working out aggression, I'll say) until it's stabbed into submission. You can add a second color as well, just stabbing and stabbing and stabbing and shaping by stabbing it from the side. Fine work is done with a single needle. But honestly, it is so easy, and so forgiving, YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN'T MESS UP (except by stabbing your fingers, which hurts). Here are my two leaves. It took me about five minutes to do these.

I'm skipping ahead a little here, but when it was finished, I'd made this rose. Heidi gave us the supplies we needed to turn these into hair clips or pins.

Now remember that doll I showed you up above. I want you to pay attention to the detail in her face because all of this is done in the way I showed you just now. How flat and fuzzy something is simply depends on how long you work it with the needles. The more you stab it flat, the flatter and less fuzzy it will be. And Heidi has used tiny bits of fiber to felt in the eyebrows and other markings on the face. Look closely, and you can see that there is a tiny eyeliner just above the eye. Amazing.

Next up we made a sheep pincushion. Is this the most ridiculously adorable thing you've seen today?

We could choose the colors we wanted to use, and so I chose white for the sheep and brown for his face, legs, and ears. These fibers are practically straight from the sheep.

The base is made from some oval cardboard shapes that are covered with reclaimed wool sweater fabric and then stuffed with wool. I felted those legs on.

Then I added the body.

The ears were added next, and then the head was made separately. The ears were felted on first, then the head, and we used our one needle to shape the head.

Then we used crewel yarn to embroider on some grass and French knots for the flowers.

If someone had told me this morning that I was going to make something so cute, I would have called them a lying liar right to their face...because that's how I roll. No nonsense...even when I'm wrong...and especially when I underestimate myself. And by that time, I was a pretty happy camper.

Here are the ones made by my classmates. Mine are the ones on the lower right.

One of my classmates took a class once before. She brought this cat to class to show us what she'd made first time around. I would absolutely kill to have someone show me how to make this. It's about two inches tall. Allow me to repeat myself here: Squee!

We ended the day with the beginnings of our Santa. The walking stick is made from felting wool around a pipe cleaner. The little sack is made from a reclaimed tweed suit jacket. The boots are from some black fibers. They're left intentionally fuzzy on the top end because they'll get felted to the bottom of the Santa right there.

She says we're going to make one of those cute Santas tomorrow. And me, I said, "Heck, I can do that!" Who's the lying liar now?