Wet felting!

You know how a while ago I tried a bit of felting? Well, I've had a day of it!

At Gamlingay, there was a woman, Milly, teaching us how to make a picture out of wool.
We started out with a square of mohair and we teased it out to fill a small canvas-sized wooden mat. Next, we got our coloured wool and teased that out so that we could make the background for our image. We did this twice, the first time making the wool go horizontal, and the second making the wool go vertical! After we had done that, we covered the wool with a net and soaked it in water. We did this to get all the bumps out, making the wool smooth. Next, we rubbed the wool with soap until it was very bubbly! This makes the strands and fibres knot together to make a fabric.

Now it was time for the next layer of the wool!
I wanted to do a hilly landscape scene with a wolf on it, so I got some grey wool and began shaping him! It was then when I realised that a wolf would be almost impossible to make out of wool. With a bit of help from mom, I made my little wolf that looked a bit like a horse. Like last time, I got some water and soaked all of the wool.
Now came the difficult bit... I had to roll up the felt picture with the net and the wooden mat and roll it back and forth loads of times! Every now and again, I had to unroll it, turn it around 90 degrees and begin rolling again! By the time I'd finished, my arms were killing!

When we got home, we washed out the last of the soap with some cold water. It looks pretty good, but when I showed dad he said, "Ooh, nice horse!" so I guess it does look like a horse!