Feature Art & Craft Media — “Felting” 

Have you ever accidentally thrown your favorite wool sweater in with the rest of the wash, only to have it come out ten times smaller and stiff as a board? This happens through a process called "felting".

Felt is an extraordinary textile. This non-woven fabric, typically made with sheep's wool, is tough, beautiful, and never frays because of the felting process that's used to create it.

The History of Felting

Felt is the oldest fabric in human history. The earliest examples of Felting date back to the Neolithic era. Remnants of felt have been found in Turkish wall paintings dating from 6500 to 3000 B.C. Archaeological evidence of felt has been found in Southern Siberia, deep inside the frozen tomb of a nomadic tribal chief. These samples date from the 5th century B.C., and are currently displayed at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. You can see pictures of the felt on the museum's website at www.hermitagemuseum.org.

The people of Siberia were not the only early people to make use of felt. The Romans and Greeks used it as well. Roman soldiers were equipped with felt breastplates for protection from arrows; they also had felt tunics, boots, and socks.

The earliest evidence of felting found in Scandinavia, originates from the Bronze and Iron ages. These early examples of felt are currently held in the National Museum in Copenhagen. These felts date back approximately 3,500 years and were discovered in the pre-historic burial mounds of Jutland and North Slesvig.

Felting predates spinning, weaving or knitting. It's one of the oldest traditions of nomadic tribes in Central Asia and is still practiced by many nomadic cultures today, especially in areas with harsh climates.

In Mongolia, nomads live in felt tents called yurts or gers. In Turkey, rugs, hats and other items are often made of felt. In South Central Asia nomadic tribes use felt as tent coverings, rugs, and blankets. Shepherds use felt cloaks called, "kepenek", and hats to protect them from the harsh climate. In Scandinavia and Russia, felt wool boots are produced and still widely used.

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in felt-making, especially in Great Britain, Scandinavia, United States, and Canada, with contemporary felt-making design and techniques becoming more widespread.

The felting craft has evolved little over the centuries, although the modern felting industry uses a somewhat different process than was used in the past. Modern techniques include using chemicals and a minimum of only 30% natural fibers, using synthetic fibers instead.

In the 18th and 19th century "hatters" manufactured felt hats using a felting process that included the use of toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, and mercury. Many of these people suffered from mercury poisoning. Symptoms included confused speech, personality changes, and uncontrolled twitches and tremors. This is where the term "Mad as a Hatter" originated from. The toxic poisoning left the hatters, "mad", or made them behave irrationally. Fortunately, modern day methods of hat-making have changed, making it a much safer industry.

What is Felt?

Felt is formed through a process of matting, condensing and pressing fibers. Wool fibers have what are referred to as microscopic "scales". When the scales are rubbed against each other they interlock and pull themselves closer together. By adding moisture, heat, and soap, the process of felting is greatly enhanced, producing a very dense cloth referred to as felt.

The Felting Process

The first step in felting begins with the sheep. Wool is sheared from the sheep, sometimes dyed, and then carded into a "batt or roving" so that it can be more easily managed. Carded wool is wool that has been sheared from a sheep, and then washed and processed through a wool carding machine. Wool carding machines pull and comb the wool fibres with a series of wire-studded rollers, aligning the fiber before they're made into wool batts. Wool batts are used by bedding makers to fill quilts and comforters, by spinners to spin into yarn, and by felters.

A wide variety of reasonably-priced coloured and natural carded wool batting is available from Birkeland Bros. Wool in Vancouver, B.C.. at www.birkelandwool.com or by phone at (604) 874-4734. This third generation family business has been supplying wools and yarns to Canadian crafters since 1939.

Once the wool has been processed, it is then ready to be felted. There are two ways to felt wool, wet felting and needle felting.

Wet Felting

With wet felting, the wool is "built-up" by criss-crossing layers of wool in alternating directions. A combination of hot water and soap is then used to wet down the fibers. Agitation is then increased by pressing down on the fibers and then by rolling or rubbing the surface of the fibers. During this process the fibers move at a 90-degree angle to and from the friction source, locking themselves together. During the felting process only 5 percent of the fibers are active at any given time, but because the process is continual the different arrangements of fibers all work to make the material stronger. This process is then repeated until the fibers are firmly interlocked, or felted. The soap is rinsed from the product and excess moisture is squeezed out and the felt is left to dry.

Needle Felting

Another type of felting is called "needle felt". Needle felting is a process by which felt is created with barbed needles. The needles are used to force the fibers into each other, creating a web of interlocking fibers. In practice, the felter will "stab" the material over and over again in order to produce a "woven" structure.

One advantage that using felting needles has over wet felting is that you can felt without using water or soap. It allows you to felt or "sculpt" your work, and add fine details that are difficult to add using wet felting. As a consequence, needle felting is often used in crafting.

Needle felting can also be used in combination with wet felting to produce very detailed work, or to create 3D appliqué onto a felted piece.

Both wet felting and needle felting are simple processes in principle, and requires very little financial investment in tools and supplies to get started.

Felted products range from the very simple to the complex. The creative possibilities are endless. Its versatility allows you to make almost anything with it. Felting can be an expressive and beautiful form of art. It can be used to create decorative quilts, pillows, and unique wall hangings. It can be used for functional purposes, such as rugs, clothing or tents. It can also be sewn into hats, garments, stockings, mittens, scarves, slippers, purses, pillows, Christmas decorations and ornaments, or made into household accessories such as place mats, or many other useful items.

Felt is also an ideal medium for children's crafts. Making durable felt dolls, puppets, toys, and jewelry, can be a fun afternoon activity for parents and their kids.

References:

www.wikipedia.org
www.straw.com/tan/felt.html
www.spinsterstreadle.com/felting.htm

This article comes courtesy of Janny Stratichuk.

Janny Stratichuk is a young artist currently enrolled at Selkirk College in Castelgar, B.C., pursuing a career in Art Therapy. She's been a student of the Kootenay School of Art and has worked in many art mediums over the past 5 years, creating works in acrylics, watercolors, gourds, felt, pottery, and mixed media. She sells her art at various local fairs in the Kootenay region as well as Idaho. She's also done the artwork for a wonderful Children's Storybook, "The We Hug" as well as some websites. You may email Janny at at janny@meanderalley.com

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