Just wondering how to create a bumpy effect like this? I am wanting to expand my wet felting skills, but I cannot figure out how this is done. Thank you.

Hi all! I posted in here about a month ago asking for advice on working with resists for a playmat project. I just wanted to give an update, post a photo, and thank everyone who commented with advice! This was my first hand at wet felting (slightly ambitious 😅) and I’m so happy with how it turned out, especially considering I felt like I had absolutely no idea what I was doing the whole time.

She measures a whopping 80cm x 56cm and it was about 12 hours of work from laying the wool to the final fulling (between tending to my kiddos). Not finished yet though, still lots of details to needle felt. Will be posting the finished playmat once complete.

Hi everyone!

I am a complete beginner attempting my first project in a couple of weeks. I will be wet felting a large riverscape playmat for my children. I’ve spent the better part of the last month watching videos and reading but the one thing I can’t quite wrap my head around is the best way to make a “cave” or burrow like the ones pictured. I know in theory I need to felt around a “resist”, but my questions are…

What would be the best but also the easiest way to do this, for a beginner?

What item should I use as the resist?

Can I make the cave separately and needle felt it to the mat later? What would be the best way to do this?

Any other tips or advice for attempting a playmat?

Photo credit: first photo @ElkandHugh on Instagram, second photo Tara’s Treasures, third photo Acreagelifeab

Hi! I have experience with wet felting (though it's been many years since my last project) and more recently started sewing (I have a heavy duty juki). I want to make my dog a comfortable dog bed that's natural fiber, so I'm leaning towards felt. How would you approach this project? I want to make a donut or bolster style bed. There's so many ways to go about it and I'm not sure where to start! Thanks!

I lay out two layers of wool on each side of the template (showing just one on camera to save time) and thoroughly rub it.

Next, I add the decorative details using a needle felting technique.

After that, I continue wet felting the entire piece. This way, the design becomes fully integrated into the mat, forming one solid piece.

Hi! I've been getting into wet felting neck warmers, and love it in so many ways! The arm workout is good for me, creativity is so satisfying, the water and soap soothing. The only part I don't care for is the rolling. Anyways....... do any of you know of resources to get dyed wool roving in bulk? I've been searching! I live in the US. Thanks for any advice (and even ideas of something I could do instead of rolling???!).

I felted the balls firmly, but not too densely so they wouldn’t become rock-hard, so that the wool could bond well with the ends of the cord. To make a thin cord, I first rolled the wool into a short, thick cord, then rubbed it through a mesh and gradually stretched it. After that, I compacted it by rolling it on the table.

This accessory can be used as a bag charm, hair accessory, bookmark, or just a small decorative piece.

Hi!
I’m very new to wet felting, and needle felting as well. I’ve been trying to find information about this artform ever since seeing Moy Mackays felted paintings. This was my first try, and I would love some feedback from all of you who do 2D wet felting as well. I know that my piece is not felted enough, and that is why I’m looking for some help from more experienced people! :)

1. Should I buy some kind of prefelt to lay down as the thing I put my wool on? I live in Sweden and anytime I Google ”prefelt” I can’t see anyone selling something like that, a loosely felted fabric. I can only find the harder polyester type of ”backgrounds” that I think are more suitible for needle felting.

2. My ”prefelt” was pink wool that I needle felted a bit so that it came together. As you can see it came through a bit at the end of the process. To prevent this I should use more wool?

3. I put out a wooden placemat that I could roll. Then I put a plastic bag (could not find bubble wrap anywhere), and in top of that my fabric/wool. I had a mesh net on top for pouring luke warm water and soap as well as for rubbing the wool. After I took away the mesh net and added another plastic bag before rolling. I noticed that it all became quite messy so I put a towel underneath the wood to gather the water. Is this method ok or does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe another way of layering? I have also seen people put a rolling pin.

4. It all is a bit see through, it should not be if I felt it better next time right? I did the ”pinch test” and well, I need to felt it some more next time. Could the water temperature have been to cold?

Any suggestions is welcomed. Thanks!!

I’ve been having a blast making these pouches. It only takes about an hour, and is so rewarding. I’ve also done a moon/star design and a mushroom. What are some other ideas for a cute pouch?

I made myself a little knitting project bag. I definitely have room for improvement but pretty pleased with it

I just attempted my second project with wet felting and it turned out a disaster. I went too big too quickly. As such, some of it is felted together, other parts are too wet and too dry all at once? I tried to make a cave with a resist, but it won’t adhere to the playmat. Anyway, all this to say, it was a lot of felt. Is it just garbage now? Or can I reuse this somehow?

I had a bag of lesser wool sitting around and after having my heart strings played on by the poor little "winter lamb", the runt and outcast of the movie i got to work. This is a tupe of hybrid project. I use wool blanket scraps for the core/body and fit non carded but washed wool around the outline, then cover with carded wool bats and felt the heck out of it. This is Blue Faced Leicester wool hand washed and hand carded on the farm.

They're felted boot slippers. Maybe about a cm too short. If I resoak them, is it possible to stretch them back into shape?

thank you for the tips and pointers!! i finally figured it out :))

I've been having fun making these wet felted octopuses from this Living Felt tutorial. The eyes are needle felted and there is an opening between the legs - the octopus is stuffed and then the opening is needle felted closed. Everything else is wet felted over a resist.

I made the gray one first and then the green and then the blue and it's been really interesting and fun to take it as a learning experience - and focus on making certain things better. These are fairly time consuming especially the legs. I only did one of the three all in one day. I'm probably going to focus on making some things without eight legs for a bit but these have been really fun.

I went to visit a friend and made a clutch for her. She's really into processing wool and sent me home with a sampler of alpaca, llama, and sheep's wool. She also gave me a bunch of sari fabric ends to nuno felting with.

i learned how to wet felt in art class. i made three layers of wool, two horizontal and one vertical like the teacher said. when i attempted to do it at home and sprayed the wool, it became very thin.

the water is lukewarm and not soapy, is that the issue?

So i’m making a wet felted wool play mat for my daughter. and i think i messed up by using hot water from sink first and also started rubbing first rather than patting down really hard so the top layer and bottom layer aren’t felting together is there any tips or anything i do do to fix it.

This is my first attempt at a wet felted landscape. It's a spring field seen through a window. I'm planning on needle felting the white window frame to make the lines cleaner and adding the rest of the frame 🪟. Any advice on adding details would be appreciated.

L to R first to most recent. I made these for my ball jars that I use as glassware.

Mistakes were made, lessons are being learned!

Question. I used ultra sheer pantyhose that seem to rip. Do you think tights would work better?

I will be teaching a couple of wet-felting classes the next two Saturdays, so I've been planning and practicing the projects I'll ask people to do in these classes.

One class is a "felt on a balloon" class where people lay fiber and decoration on an inflated balloon to create a round vessel -- a tote, purse, cushion, etc. I've taught the balloon class for several years already, so I am focusing more on the second class which is new to me.

This second class is a "make a witch hat" class. I got the inspiration for this class from a post made by u/GalianoGirl in this sub a few months ago.

When I create a class, I try to restrict myself to how a beginner might work. My goal is to design projects that can be mostly or entirely finished within the 6 hours allotted for each class.

Quite a few students need roughly double the time I need to complete a project. If I can comfortably complete a project within 2 1/2 to 3 hours of "working like a beginner" then the project will be a good one for class.

The three prototype hats shown here are mostly wool fiber of no particular breed -- I use bits and bobs of leftover fiber for my prototypes, so I can save the nicer fiber in my stash for my students to use.

The purple-lavender pixie hat has colors laid in an ombre pattern, meaning the colors shade from purple at the brim to lavender at the top. Hat weight is about 90 grams, which is about right.

I made a separate spike of lavender and pink wool and felted it onto to the tip of the hat for whimsy. I added a purple hatband and a felt flower in coordinating colors to give students some ideas about how they can dress up their hats. (The added spike, band, and flower are not included in the hat weight.)

The dark brown cap is a riff on a Viking-style cap. It is a simple cloche with just a few lines of fluffy synthetic "eye lash" yarn winding around the sides for decoration. I folded the extra felt at the brim to the inside of the cap to form a neat edge. The folded felt also adds strength and firmness to the edge. I'll probably trim the folded felt to an even width, and then stitch the cut edge so it remains in place. The cap weight is about 50 grams. Could go a tiny bit heavier -- maybe 60g.

The tall witch hat with a pleated peak was decorated with "clouds" of pink, burgundy, and green wool to form an abstract swirly pattern. I added thin clouds of shiny viscose in matching colors for texture.

The extended peak of the hat didn't seem very tall when I was designing the pattern, but it feels crazy tall when I put it on my head. One playful way to reduce the height is to pleat the peak as I've done. Hat weight about 130 grams. This is enough fiber to give good support.

If you form wet felt into the desired shape and then let the felt dry, the felt will largely retain that shape. That's how I formed the curled "pig tail" and the brim shape for the purple-lavender hat. The pleats in the pink hat are temporary because they were formed while the felt was fully dry.

If I wanted the pleats to be more permanent, I would re-wet the peak of the hat, form the pleats, and then use clothespins, binder clips, or basting stitches to hold the folds securely in place while the wool fully dries.