New Skills: Felting 101
One item on my bucket list is felting and I finally had a chance to cross it off my list. Yesterday, I went to a felting workshop organized by the amazing Pam, who not only drives the Crafted Truck around town to sell artisan goods but also puts together fun workshops for aspiring crafters, and held by the lovely Carly of Folly a Tet, whose creations I have been admiring for quite some time.
When I arrived, a lovely set up (and all the other participants as I was running late) was waiting for me. There were macaroons by Ollia, a little gift by the Medicine River Soap Company, Mason jars with fun straws and lemonade waiting for us right next to all the utensils and supplies we would need for the felting. Which we were allowed to keep afterwards, yay!
Carly started by talking a bit about what felting was and where it came from. Then we dived right into hands-on action. We learned how to make a necklace and a bangle with needle and wet felting techniques.
We started with roving and batt of white Merino wool which we embellished with dyed roving and sari silk fibres. At first I was wondering how in the World these pure white wool pieces would ever end up being pretty and colourful necklace like the ones Carly was wearing. But with the help of her instructions results were visible really quick! Oh and how much I loved the dyed roving, so hard to choose colours and then to decide how I wanted the design of the necklace to look like. Of course I went for pink!
It took a lot of Olive soap and elbow grease to turn the soft Merino roving into a strong and sturdy felted necklace but there was enough time left to start the bangle. At some point I seriously doubted that the soggy sausage like thing that I had created would ever turn into a bangle. I mean, really! Look at it!
I didn’t give up, even thought the story about one of Carly’s favourite felting artists who lost her finger prints because of too much felting and now has troubles travelling scared me a little bit. Rolling, rolling, rolling! And all of a sudden, there it was: a neat bangle.
Felting really is as much fun as I always imagined it would be like and I can’t wait to felt some more. I have to say that I’m pretty proud of my creations. Even though I’m still in my PJ’s while writing this post, I’m wearing my fantastic necklace and wonderful bangle. And they feel so cozy and comfortable. Like I’m carrying a cuddly animal around with me, mmmmhhhh.
Thank you so much for organizing and holding this workshop, Carly and Pam! I can’t wait to learn more new skills.
With love from the Maple And Oak Diaries,
❤ Leonie❤
