Felting

Felting likely began in Asia. Felt was made for clothing such as socks, boots, hats and coats and also for armor, saddle blankets, rugs and more. The Mongols in China use felt extensively in their nomadic life style. Their homes called yurts are even made of felt. Felt has been used all around the world to keep hands, feet and heads warm and to make life more comfortable with blankets, rugs and more.

How wool becomes felt

Magic... is my response when someone looks from some of my wool to the felt I have made as ask incredulously "how did you do that?" It does seem like magic until you can understand what is actually going on here. During felting, hair fibers migrate and entangle with one another. The epidermal scales covering the hairs overlap like shingles, allowing the fibers to easily glide forward past one another without sliding back. With agitation the hairs begin to entangle and with more agitation felting begins. I like to think of felting as "controlled hair matting".

Felting solution

Water is important to forming felt. Water causes the hair fibers to swell causing the scales to stick out - entangling the hair faster. Water also pushes the air out of the wool allowing the hair to come into contact with one another faster. Water temperature will determine how fast wool becomes felt. The hotter the water the faster the wool felts. Shocking felt - putting from hot to cold and back also produces a strong felt but will make the felt harsher so it is not recommended for felt that is to be worn.

Felting actually occurs faster at either acidic or basic conditions. Adding a saponified (plant or animal source) soap to water produces an ideal basic pH of 10 to 11 for felting. The soap also helps the water wet the hair more easily. I have used goat's milk soap, Ivory liquid and Murphy's oil soap for making my felting solutions. I usually add about 2 teaspoonsful of liquid soap to 2 liters of water. The amount of soap added is dependant on how hard the water is. When using the felting solution a small amount of lather or bubbles should be seen. If too much soap is added it will actually make the hairs have trouble coming in contact with each other by making them slip past each other.

Agitation

Felting is the phase where a thin stretchable felt is produced. Movement, which in the begining consists of careful massage and circular motions allows fibers to migrate together. At this stage the felt is not very strong.

Fulling takes place when the fibers are further compacted by hard rubbing and rolling to produce a rigid and strong felt. It is during the fulling phase that shrinking and shaping take place. Felt can also be fulled by rubbing it on a bumpy surface such as an old-fashioned washboard. Smacking felt will also full the object (ie - wrapping in a pillowcase and hitting it against a hard surface). The agitation that a washing machine creates also will full felt.

Shrinkage

The process of making felt inherently causes shrinking. As the hair compacts and meshes together the felt becomes smaller. When making a piece of felt that needs to be a specific size it can be difficult figuring in for this. Lots of different things affect the amount of shrinking you will get. Fine fibers shrink faster then course. Thin layers laid out will shrink faster then thick layers. The rolling technique causes less shrinkage then the rubbing technique. There are no strict rules. Each projects outcome will vary according to what wool is used, layout and technique. That is part of the charm of hand made felt.