Handmade Felt Making

We asked Annie and Lyn of  ‘Rosie Pink Studio‘ on Folksy if they would write a piece celebrating all the fantastic handmade felt crafts available at Folksy and explaining a little bit about the process of handmaking felt…

Felt feels fabulous!

Handmade felt is very soft on your skin when it’s made from fine merino wool and tussah silk like this elegant wedding wrap by Pixiedots

Felt has been made by hand for thousands of years and is a simple craft that anyone can do, but to achieve a beautiful scarf like this does take a lot of practice!

Felt is an unwoven fabric and the ‘recipe’ for making it is simple:
Wool + soapy water + agitation = felt
It is said that felt was discovered by a soldier who stuffed his shoes with wool to make his journey more comfortable and when he reached his destination, the wool that had been made wet with perspiration and rubbed by walking, had turned to felt.

Now, why would you want a mass produced clutch bag when you could buy a stunning, original bag like this from GreenSheepDesigns
The felt is enhanced by adding silk fibres to the wool giving a luxurious sheen.

Jewellery is perhaps not something you would think could be made from felt, but there are lovely bracelets, earrings, cuffs and necklaces.
This felt, silver and stone necklace is from Tizduster-silver and felt.

Wool can be formed into oval, square or round beads and can be plain, mottled or decorated with seed beads.

Felt beads threaded with glass or stone beads work well to make jewellery that is delightfully different to that on offer in the high street.

Wool straight from the sheep has to be processed before it can be prepared for felt making or spinning.  The fleece has to be washed and the wool fibres have to be carded to break up the locks and make it easy to use.

The natural colour of wool is beautiful but it’s nice to have pretty colours and luckily it’s available, commercially dyed, in hundreds of different shades.

Pretty up your home with felted items such as cushions and ornaments.
These beautiful pods and stones above are from ThatFuzzyFeeling.

Table runners can easily be made by a beginner, so you could have a unique design in the exact colour to suit your room – probably in less time that it would take you to find one readymade – and make some coasters to match!

We’d all love to make our own greetings cards but you don’t need to when you can buy beautiful handcrafted cards like these, by The Felt Works

They are miniature works of felt art and will be cherished long after other cards have been thrown away.

If you’d like to learn how to create beautiful felt artwork, Rosie Pink Studio sells an eBook which is a very visual, step-by-step guide. It’s suitable for both complete beginners to the art of handmade felt and for feltmakers yet to try making wall art.

Have you tried felt making or would you like to have a go?  We’d love to hear from you – you can leave us a comment below…