wet felting Archives - Inspired By Everyday Beauty

Creating Wilderness Reflection

What happens when you want wool fabric and can’t find any? Well, in my case, I decided to make it!

I had an idea for an art quilt created in wool, and I started searching. I couldn’t find any new fabric even close to 100% wool. I soon realized that even if I did find it, the price would be way beyond my budget. I considered recycling old woolen blankets and started keeping my eye open. Word went out to family and friends (still collecting) and I started to search auctions, yard sales and community garage sales. I came up with a few good blankets that I’m sure will work for some future project (read–that have now been added to my stash), but none of them were in the right colour palette.

An idea was hatched.

I have lots of wool roving, no surprise there. So, I decided to build my design and then wet felt it into a piece. One small snag that I forgot to mention, it needed to be bigger than anything I had ever wet felted before. Bigger in fact than my dining room table. I was committed to the idea though, so I forged on.

I was inspired by a photo I took while kayaking on Varty Lake. It showed a perfect reflection of cedars and scrub pine in the little bay that we often explore. High in a tree, there is an osprey nest that we have watched over the years. Often we see tiny chicks keeping their hunting parents busy.

I started to build the piece, layering wool roving to create the shoreline trees, overcast sky, clouded sun and the reflections. This stage took many days, maybe weeks. As it grew, I took lots of photos to check the overall look from a distance. By the time I was finished, the piece was about two inches thick, and I was praying that a gust of wind wouldn’t blow through the house!

As usual, with each step of a project I froze for a minute thinking that one step further could ruin everything. But again as usual, I took a deep breath and continued. The next step was to cover the piece with voile and wet it down with warm soapy water. This step flattens the wool to a very thin layer and it can now be gently massaged by hand until the roving starts to tangle enough to stay in place.

This massaging stage is my favourite. It is very therapeutic, rubbing and massaging the wet soapy mess with bare hands, swirling and circling, something akin to finger painting, but very clean! Even on a small piece this step can take a while. With this huge piece I was in for a good few hours of therapy.

Eventually, the wool piece magically starts to separate from the top cover and the voile can be gently removed.

The piece itself is very wet and soapy, and still quite fragile. A sheet of plastic bubble wrap is now placed over the top. Next comes the felting.

The process of felting the wool means agitating it until all of the fibres start to shrink and mat together. The fastest you have ever seen this process happen is when you’ve accidently put a woolen sweater or blanket into the washing machine—ta da—that’s the quick route to felt!

In art, we are trying for a slower, more controlled process. The usual method is to roll the piece up in bubble wrap or bamboo placemats to give a rough surface, but with this piece I used two steps.

Recently, while rummaging in a thrift shop, I found an interesting, notched rolling pin. This proved to be the perfect tool to roll the piece while it was still on the table. I think keeping it flat helped to keep the trees and details in place while they were felting.

Then, I rolled the piece, bubble wrap and all, onto a pool noodle and started rolling, rolling, rolling. I rolled in all four directions, first with my hands, and then, as my wrists were giving out, with my arms. Yes, it was a bit of a full body workout.

The felting takes a long time. It is only done when it is done. I kept unwrapping, straightening out, and rewrapping between the directional changes to feel the fabric that was forming. When its done the whole piece has shrunken and tightened up into a dense felt.

*Felting is finished, but it’s still very soapy*

Not done yet though! The piece is still full of soap and if it isn’t thoroughly rinsed the soap will eventually degrade the fibres. Rinse, rinse, rinse. This whole process is really about repetition, I think that’s why it is so meditative.

Once all soap is out it is time to get rough. This last stage is called ‘fulling’ and it means scrunching up the piece and throwing it, onto the table. Throw, throw, throw. You are literally shocking the fibres into tightening up even more.

Finally, its time to rest—both the maker and the felted piece. I laid it out to air dry over night.

Now I had my wool piece and it was time to sew. I placed it on top of a piece of wool batting and hand basted the two layers together.

I used free motion machine stitching to work in the detail of the trees, bushes, sky and water; added a few other details with hand stitching; and finally added the osprey and its nest of chicks.

How long did it take? I’m not sure…I forgot to set the timer.

Wilderness Reflection is currently showing in Proof of Life: 2025 Alumni Juried Exhibition, Marianne van Silfhout Gallery, St. Lawrence College, Brockville Campus. June 23-August 1, 2025.

I’ve never been to summer camp. When I was about six or seven, I would occasionally whine, or beg, to be allowed to join the small groups of sunburned kids who were trailing behind their camp counsellors at the local beach, but it never happened.

My mother thought it was much more fun for us to have free range during the summer when our cousins came up for their annual visit from Toronto to Muskoka. Now, I think she was probably right. We lolled at the beach, lathered up with Noxema and taught ourselves to swim; tramped through the woods, braved black flies to gather plump, delicious raspberries for homemade jam; and made costumes and sets for basement productions of plays and performances.

But, the latent desire for summer camp has lingered.

Who says you are too old to attend camp as a senior?

This summer, the perfect opportunity presented itself. As a birthday gift, my husband/advocate registered me for a week-long fabric dyeing creative workshop offered at our local art centre (http://the tett centre for creativity and learning). The event was billed as a retreat, but I’m calling it camp for a check on my bucket list. It was a full five days of fun with like-minded friends, led by artist in residence Bethany Garner facebook.com.garner.bethany

Let the fun begin. About sixteen of us gathered at the Tett to experiment, play and learn, trying out a different dye technique or fabric treatment every day. I think we all arrived half and hour early, dropped off by our devoted spouses, or carpooling with friends. We each hauled in bags and carts of supplies, materials, and gear. We chose our tables, set up camp, checked out the hearty stash of communal supplies, and anxiously waited to dive in. Part of the fun was that each participant brought their own wealth of knowledge and area of expertise and even though each one of us was totally absorbed with our project of the day, no one hesitated to share information, or technique, or a special tool when asked. Great friendships were made and our collective creative network was widened….see, just like camp!

Let me take you through the week and share a few pictures. I’m sure I’ll write some other blogs on the specifics of techniques, or to update you on what I do with all the fabric I’ve generated, but for now, lets stick to the fun of playing and learning at camp.

Day One Flat Dyeing. Admittedly, I had only a very vague idea what this would be, but it sounded like fun. Basically, it involves laying out pre-soaked pieces of cloth on a table, pouring dye on the fabric and moving it around with your gloved hands. A little like finger painting for grown ups.

*layer dyed pieces between plastic* *and let sit for at least 48 hours*

The wet fabric was wrapped and left to sit for 48 hours and the results were like surprise packages when unwrapped, rinsed and dried.

I am thrilled with the colours and the possibilities for creating fabric pictures with these pieces waiting for project designation. Good thing I like the results because I do have a bit of a stack!

Day Two Mark Making. Hmm, what would this entail?? Well as always with Bethany, lots of options were laid out and then everyone was left to take their own path. The intent was to make marks, on paper or on fabric, again with a big emphasis on playing. There were lots of fabric dyes, markers, pens, paints, brushes and books for available for incentive. My new friend Marilyn did a wonderful series of marks by experimenting with black inks and brushes.

I decided to try gelli plate printing. Sounds fun and easy, right? Well, this was my least favourite. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked on YouTube. Rather than buy a commercial gelli plate, which was a bit pricey, I decided to try an easy homemade recipe using gelatin and glycerine. I should have taken it as a bad omen when in order to economize, rather than buying a package of knox gelatin, I went to bulk barn and put a hefty scoop in a bag. What I didn’t realize until I got home: 1. I only needed 30g, 2. one hefty scoop of bulk gelatin goes for about $15. Well, on the optimistic side, if I took to gelli plate printing, I’d be set for a lifetime supply of gelatin. Unfortunately, I didn’t take to gelli plate printing. Very early in the game, my homemade gelli plate split into pieces–likely not thick enough, pretty disheartening. My friend Marilyn came to the rescue and loaned me her commercial gelli plate, and I gave it my best shot, but my pieces just seemed to come out a mess. I was glad I was only practicing on paper. I will try again, because if you google gelli plate printing as I did, you will see lots of exciting possibilities. And it’s not like I’m short on gelatin.

Day Three Eco Dyeing. OK, I’ll admit it. I jumped the gun on this one and it is easily my favourite to be added to current obsessions. With no clue of what eco dyeing was, I started to prowl around on the web and a couple of weeks before camp, I started on my own. I was mostly inspired by http://MadeByBarb.com where you can find all kinds of recipes and directions. Eco dyeing is magic–or for those of you with a more scientific bent, a reaction between ferrous (iron) and tannins (found in foliage) catalysed by heat and pressure, which looks like magic. Of course being keen on both magic and science, I couldn’t wait for camp and jumped into experimentation on my own. The basics involve laying foliage (rose leaves, oak leaves, water lilies, sumac, worked best for me) on natural fibre cloth (I used old cotton pillow cases); adding ‘iron water’ (ferrous sulphate and water, or water vinegar and old rusty metal bits) either by wetting the leaves or wetting the fabric; rolling up around a fat stick as tight as you can; and steaming for 90 minutes. **Caution: if you try this you are playing with chemicals. Please wear a mask and gloves and use caution as always when cooking with steam. I promise I’ll do a blog with more specific directions later. The results are pretty magical.

Fellow camper and artist Shirley had great success using mixed foliage including horse chestnut and black walnut leaves.

Day Four Wet Felting. This was something I had been wanting to try for a while. As you know from Art with a view I recently tried dry felting and really liked it. Wet felting is a bit more tactile and I knew we were in for a treat. Felting is what happens when you toss a wool blanket, sweater, or socks into the washing machine by mistake and end up with a 3-4 times smaller, densely matted and ruined piece–we’ve all been there.

But, the good news is you can make beautiful art by purposely felting! You start with wool roving, which is fluffy, unspun wool, available in all colours and many different weights and textures. Felting happens when wool fibres tangle up together and shrink to form a tight mat. When you are doing a more controlled method than the agitation of your washing machine, you use warm water, liquid soap, bubble wrap and lots of hand agitation.

After wetting down the fibres with warm water and soap, you massage it with your fingers to do the initial ‘bonding’. This is the fun part, a bit like sensory play.

Next comes a bit of work. You roll your piece up in bubble wrap and start to roll/slam/knead it, first in one direction, then in the next until it has been thoroughly rolled in all four directions. When you are done, ta da, more magic, the piece has shrunken in size and matted into a nice piece of felt.

Now if you were paying attention, you noticed that in the early stages of this piece I was planning on a dark blue angry sea and wispy white clouds. Well, in the vein of Things rarely go as planned, I ended up liking this better upside down and it will now be a snow scape with dark winter sky. I’m intending to go back to this piece to hand stitch some silver stars and use a bit of machine over stitching to define detail.

Day Five Choose Your Own Adventure. Let’s face it, one of the reasons my mother knew I wouldn’t cut it at summer camp is because I have difficulty following prescribed directions. So, day five was my kind of day! I decided to veer off and work with all the handmade paper I had generated in June –see previous Art with a view for details of that adventure. Inspired by how earlier in the week while flat dyeing the clean-up paper towels had absorbed the dyes so beautifully, I started playing around with dyeing my rough paper. I don’t know what I’ll use these papers for, but I sure had a lot of fun making them, and one woman’s mess is another woman’s ??? I may transform them into cards, or journal covers or who knows what!

The End. All good things must come to and end, and much like any campers we were exhausted, but fulfilled. We learned new skills, shared ideas, forged friendships and imagined the possibilities for future get togethers. A good time was had by all! Thanks to everyone who contributed to a fantastic week!

Tag: wet felting

Work with what you have

Summer camp