http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2012/06/diy-berries.html
Making round berry shapes by wet felting wool roving (or pet hair) looks incredibly easy.
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2012/02/how-to-make-felt-balls-wet-felting-101.html
Needle felting looks a bit harder but I won't know how hard until I experiment. There's a video on this felting website that shows how it is done.
http://www.livingfelt.com/
Needles, mats and wool roving in colors that are amazingly ugly are available at the big box craft stores. Etsy.com also has assorted color packs available from quite a few sellers if you want to support the little guy by purchasing several natural shades to play with for animals for your canvases.
I'm going to see if I can make a few felting balls from dog hair. Watson, come here! [time passes]
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| Wet Felting "Beads" From Dog Hair |
What you see above are felting balls made from Watson (left) and Suki (right) and a tuft of Watson's fur. His is longer and finer than Suki's and it made denser balls. The trick is to use hot, soapy water and to keep working the mess into shape. Watson's fur immediately made a flat disk, so I squeezed the disk into a ball shape with my fingers, then rolled it between my palms, pushing hard. The two balls above took less than 10 minutes each. I'll let them dry for a day or two and see how they look. Each ball needs a little trimming to cut off bits sticking out. Watson's fluff is longer and more like raw cotton, so it is definitely the better to make felted beads with. You will have to experiment to see if your dog or cat or sheep or goat fuzz works well in wet felting.
I've not tried needle felting yet.
I've heard that you should use pet shampoo to deodorize the fur but I was experimenting. By the way, the little balls are dry now and there is no dog smell to them.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
4 comments:
I LOVE that you experimented with Watson's and Suki's fur!! Are they all white, or do they have other colors that you can incorporate into your felting? I'm going to try my cats... -- Wendy
Wendy, Watson is solid white while Suki is black, brown and white. I used white from both dogs to make a comparison easier.
this is so helpful! i may try experimenting with cricket's fur, at least it will come in handy for something other than rolling across the floor like a tumbleweed!
Katherine, you made me laugh. I hope Cricket's fur works well in the wet felting technique. It is nice to have something special from the dog of the family with your stitching.
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