Wet Felting Workshop

  Today, I worked in the Fine Art studio continuing with the landscape project and learnt the process of wet felting which was a completely knew process to me, that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

To begin the wet felting process I started by setting up the area where I laid down a black bin bag then laid a towel on top of the bag, followed by a sushi mat and a layer of bubble wrap. Once I laid down the base for everything I chose six colours of wool roving within the same colour palette sticking with a range of purple and pink colours. To start the wet felting process I laid down thin strips of the wool roving layering they on top of each other until it formed a thick base out, I then laid on top a mesh sheet and using a sponge with olive oil soap and water I pressed the sponge with the soapy water onto the felt and continued to press it down to bind the wool roving until it's flattened. I then laid on top strips of the wool roving again that I shaped into petal-like shapes to create the flower bases, then to add contrast I used a darker pink colour of the wool roving and added small swirl like shapes to the flowers to add details. To finish off the flowers I made little circle shapes out of a yellow coloured wool roving and pressed them into the bottom layer of felt repeating the same method with the soapy water and a sponge. To fully bind the wool roving together I firstly made sure that it was soapy then using the sushi mat I rolled up the felt inside of it and rubbed it together around 20 rolls before rotating it every direction. Until it passed the pinch test where no wool roving lifted, then I left it to dry. 

I then followed the exact same process but instead of two small flowers I made a much larger flower and changed my colour palette slightly, using green for the base layer, a pale pink for the petals, the darker pink to add tone to the petals and some highlights of blue to add some texture and break up the pink colour palette. After I felt comfortable with the basics of wet felting I experimented with a slightly harder process of wet felting where I started the process in the same way making a base layer of the wool roving using a variety of green tones ranging from dark to light green, I then cut circles out of bubble wrap and placed them on top before layering a light blue colour of wool roving. Then to add some brighter colours I took thin strips of yellow, orange, yellow and a dark bright pink and formed ring like shapes that I layered on top. Before repeating the same process and leaving it to dry, once it has dried I felt for where the bubble wrap was in the base layers and cut the circles where they was placed out creating little holes revealing the base layer. Finally to finish off this design I dipped my finger into the soapy water and run my finger along the edges of the holes I cut out sealing the holes and smoothing them down. 

I feel as though these experiments were successful as I experimented with the wet felting in a range of ways using different techniques which all created a successful outcome. I feel as though the bigger flower worked the best out of the three as I balanced the tones and colour well and created a textured flower. What didn't work very well was the first wet felting where I created two flowers as my first attempt trying to secure the yellow balls in the centre of each of the flowers dispersed slightly when drying and wasn't as secure as my following attempt at the second wet felting (of the singular large flower). If I was to do this again I would repeat the method I used for the second wet felting and add a thinner section of yellow and make it less ball-like so it lays flatter on the surface. I believe that this practice can be improved upon by trialing using this method for an alternative theme such as making shaped of different workshop tools or even animal hair, to explore the potential that the wet felting process has. I hope to experiment with this process in the experimentation aspect of my final major project allowing me to adapt how I have used the wet felting method differently and more tailored to my title/theme.