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bearhug07 Feb 24, 2007

I was needle-felting some beads in front of TV over the last few nights. A needle-felting friend suggested that I place them in a bottle, with warm water and some soap and shake them to make them even tighter. Being made into jewellery where they brush on your cloths all the time means they have to be super tight and hard.

Anyway after they dried out I thought one was a bit loose still and thought I would Give it a few more stabs to tighten it.

After about 6 or 7 stabs I realised the centre of the bead was still wet, the moisture started to come to the top with the needle and I put it aside for another 10 days. Just to be sure.

Well I came back last night and went to tighten this bead......well......the more I stabbed it the softer it got and eventually it fell to pieces in my hand.

All I can think is that trying to dry needle-felt while wet somehow damaged the structure of the wool.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on this?

I know we don't normally wet our bears and then needle-felt but I thought you might be interested in my experience anyway.

Dilu Feb 24, 2007

I think this can happen when the fibers are too short.  But I would think also that getting it as tight as you possibly can prior to the hot soapy water thing should do you -especially if you pop it in the dryer.....I haven't had anything come out of the water/dryer thing that needed more poking....

hope someone has a better answer for you- 

I love the idea of needlefelted jewelry----light and colorful....post sme piccys please if you have any other jewelry you have made.....

hugs
dilu

kbonsall Feb 24, 2007

I tried one time to do a bear and before I joint and do the face to wet it with hot water and throw in the dryer for a while and it just came out loose and smelling like a wet dog...

I haven't let water touch my felting since... Maybe I did it wrong but I think the smell alone convinced me never to try it again   

Can't answer your question but hopefully someone will  :hug:

makafelts Feb 24, 2007

I think it depends a lot on the wool you used. I have some wool that needle felts like a dream, but does not wet felt worth a darn!!! I also think needle felting wet wool could cause problems. Sorry I am not more help.

Hugs &

nimbleknot Feb 24, 2007

Wet felting can be tricky. When I make pincushions I put the wool inside of a nylon and form into a ball. It's a constant agitation of squeezing and adding a warm soapy mixture. If you don't get it completely wet it will felt inside of the ball and create a looseness. By using the nylon the wool is held tight in your hand and can't get that loose sloppy feeling of knobs inside the ball. But make sure the ball is completely wet before adding soap otherwise you will create the outside skin before the inside is felted. No amount of needling will help.

bearhug07 Feb 24, 2007

It was coririedale wool which I have both welt felted before successfully and needle-felted successfully before. The other beads are fine and just for interests sake I gave a few of those extra jabs with out them getting loose but after the 10 days.

So the only variation on the theme was that this bead was needle-felted while wet inside. I've since spoken to others and they don't think this should have affected the bead ........but.........becuse the bead was dry outside and wet inside I wasn't doing one or the other. In other words I was trying ot both wet felt and dry felt the same piece of wool.

Wool of course has a different structure from wet to dry so in trying to do both I was attempting to mix the two structures and damaged both.

This is the best explanation I have heard yet so thought I would pass it along.

cheers

Judi Feb 27, 2007

..... wet it with hot water and throw in the dryer for a while and it just came out loose and smelling like a wet dog...

:crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:  :crackup:

It sure does!!!

I too may think it may be related to the wool.  Maybe it was too brittle?

arya11 Mar 8, 2007

Yes without doubt what else but its the wool which is creating all the problems here. Certain wools can make life very difficult to do this job, it happened to me when I was planning to give it as a gift to my friend and eventually I had to bring some other thing from the market as I didnt succeed in making it at all.

nimbleknot Mar 19, 2007

Here is an egg I just made. I have used different wools for wetfelting. In fact when I make scarves the fibers are little tufts. When I make pincushions the insides are often scraps.

When you make a ball you MUST put it inside a nylon sock. Jam it all to the bottom, THEN wet it completely THEN soap it with your snotty soap mixture. If it's not wet all the way through you will end up felting only the skin and have wads inside your ball. If you don't put it into a sock the skin won't form and you end up having folds on the outside of your ball.

I always let my stuff air dry.

<<<<-------------My latest is also sitting on a wet felted egg.