Beginners in felting:
roll the beads

At all times, the do-it-yourself is very much appreciated. Skilled needlewomen put their soul into their products, coming up with more and more beautiful and unusual. Recently, felted gizmos have gained fashionable popularity. This technique is called felting or felting (from the German words Felt - “felting”, Filtz - “wool”). The first to come to mind felt boots and comparison with the technique of felting. More recently, no one suspected that it was possible to create amazingly beautiful things out of ordinary wool. One of the trends in wool felting - women’s jewelry has confidently occupied its niche.

Costume jewelry made of wool is soft, warm, beautiful, original and light. Moreover, a thing done by one’s own hands is always more beloved. But besides this, the process of creating a felted thing is also good for health. When practicing felting, the body discards the accumulated negative, relaxing.

Work on felting wool does not require high qualifications and large material investments. Any felting wool is suitable (combed wool is more difficult to twist), for example, a merino sheep, angora or cashmere. Do not mix wool with microfiber or polyamide. Stick to naturalness. Felt balls - this is the easiest material for beginners and provides a multi-faceted flight of fantasy for experienced craftswomen. Balls can come up with a lot of applications, adding them as a decorative element to clothes or using them in jewelry, bringing a variety of colors and ornaments to the work, combining several colors of wool in one product at the same time.

What are the felting techniques?

To begin with, to fill your hand, it is better to try to roll balls of a larger volume. Always separate the material in even parts so that the beads are of the same size and density. Do not forget that when felting the hair shrinks at least 2 times! Preparation of wool for work should be done only with dry hands.

There are only 2 techniques, but they can be combined. Of the 2 - dry and wet felting - the latter is lighter.

For wet felting you will need:

• wool,
• hot water tank
• soap solution (mix 1 liter of hot water, not boiling water, with 1 tablespoon of liquid soap or grated laundry, or baby soap),
• cold water tank
• sponge,
• needle,
• towel.

From a wool it is necessary to roll a dense ball of a larger size than necessary (do not forget about shrinkage!). Put the rolled ball on a sponge, take a needle and tuck in all the tips, continuing to form a ball.

Dip the ball into a soap solution and wait until it is well saturated with it. They take out and begin to roll the bead between the palms until it acquires an even round shape. If it has dried out a little, then the fingers are moistened in a soap solution, bringing the bead to perfection. Then its finished is dipped in cold water, washing thoroughly with soap. And spread on a towel to dry.

After that, you can safely take on the next ball and create the quantity necessary for the product.

For dry felting you will need:

• wool,
• felting needles (have notches or a star section, as well as a curved edge for easy grip). There is a long thick needle - for starters, a middle needle - for leveling the surface, a thin and short needle that gives smoothness to the ball;
• a thick sponge that goes as a basis for work,
• scissors,
• glue.

You can buy felting needles at any needlework store. The needles are very sharp, for safety reasons it is not worth keeping the product on weight. The needle should be perpendicular to the product so as not to break. You need to start with a thick needle, and end with a thin one.

The ball must be constantly rotated. If the wool no longer extends with the fingers, the product is ready. When connecting several balls to each other, it is necessary to leave strands of wool for bonding.

You can only resize when the wool is not completely compacted, adding a little wool. Different color additives are also used for the layout of multi-colored products.

The part of the wool prepared for the bead is rolled into a ball. Take a thick needle and do slight piercing until the ball begins to hold its shape. To make the beads smooth, with fine felting, fine wool is laid on top of the lap. The needle is pressed to the product until it becomes completely smooth.

Sometimes, with dry felting, tinting is used, using acrylic paints, crushed pastel crayons or colored pencils. Color transitions smooth with fingers. If it is necessary to give the product depth, dark bases are used, and the bulge is then light.

Assembly

Beads made of wool go well with leather, beads, metal and plastic accessories for needlework, cord, canvas, lace and fabric. Assembly requires pliers, a thick needle and glue. If you use a waxed cord to string the beads, in this case, before starting work, cut off its edge obliquely, grease it with glue and let it dry well. The holes in the beads must be done carefully. Constantly rotating a thick needle with a large ear, pierce the bead and pull the cord through the hole. Done!

If you start with the easiest - felting beads, will certainly pull you to switch to more complex work. Do not stop there, improve your technique, fantasize. From felted wool create amazing paintings, unique decorations for the home, funny toys, original jewelry and even clothes.