New Felting Tool
After felting on and off for several years, I am always eager to learn or try something new. My new felting tool, “The Mool,” arrived from Scotland earlier this summer. It is a tool that is used to apply even pressure during the Wetfelting process. It’s easy on the hands and arms as well. This tool is available from Fiber Artist, Moy Mackay of Scotland.
My first summer landscape project is inspired by a visit to my home state of Virginia. I’m gathering images for my own projects in an online course by Moy MacKay. The Shenandoah National Park never disappoints and I have a lot of overlook photos of the valley and Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s hay harvest time and I can see the bales of hay in the valley in my photos. Of course a visit to Virginia would not be complete without a visit with my 105 year old grandmother and her farm in Midland. Photo caption may be viewed when you click on photo.
Elk Mount Farm approaching 100 years in the family.
Summer bales of hay overlooking Elk Mount Farm from “The Rock”
Back to felting…so I wanted to recreate a felting of the Shenandoah Valley with hay bales looking toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. To create the hay bales, I carded different colors of merino wool and a touch of silk and wrapped around the end of a pen. Here is my layout prior to felting. I have often used smaller items other than a pen to wrap fibers, especially silk.
Here is my wetfelt process:
Lightly place mesh over layout. Pat it lightly with your hands.
Prepare your dawn soap solution with hot water.
Apply soapy solution from top to bottom (hand, spoon,or ball brauser).
Use your hands and rub in circular motions for 5 minutes or until fibers adhere together. Add more soap solution as needed. You can use an additional tool to go over in circular motions from a different direction (bottom to top). I use the Mool Tool!
Carefully remove the netting and loosely roll up felting in bamboo mat. Wool layout is on inside of jelly roll. Roll from side to side for two minutes.
Open up mat, unroll, and rotate layout 90 degrees. Repeat in a different direction for two minutes.
Continue until each side is evenly felted.
Rinse the felt under cool water until all the soap is gone. Blanch with hot water and squeeze out excess water.
Allow to dry naturally overnight.
Wetfelt layout on wool prefelt
Demonstrating the use of the Mool Tool to create agitation with hot, soapy water!
My hay bales lost some details with the shrinkage so will try some corrective Needlefelting. The Mool tool is easy to use and helps to move fibers around during the felting process.
To see how this piece finished, visit my Fiber Art in my Shop!
