10 Tips For Better Results In Wet Felting

Wet felting for over 10 years and teaching wet felting workshops has made me very aware of the most common mistakes, that prevent you from getting the best results. So, I wanted to list them here, to help you avoid a lot of frustration, as well as wasting precious material and countless hours of work.

1. Choose the right wool for your project

So, what’s the right wool to felt? The short answer to that question is that it depends on your project. This might sound vague, but you could write whole books just on wool. The good news is – depending on where you buy your supplies – you can normally get some information on what’s the right wool for wet felting, needle felting or for getting a more compact felt, for example.

An extremely important factor to consider is the wool’s thickness or width of the fiber. This depends on the sheep breads, the climate they live in (the warmer the climate, the thinner the wool) and it’s measured in microns. The lower the micron, the finer the fiber and the softer the wool. A larger micron fiber is therefore coarser and harder. So, as a rule of thumb, it’s better to choose a lower micron fiber (19 microns) for delicate, light pieces and for those that contact directly with the skin. A very good example is the extra fine merino. A larger micron fiber is good for thicker, resistant pieces like shoes or carpets.

2. Make a sample to determine the shrinkage rate

As you know, wool shrinks when felted. But the shrinkage rate is not always the same. So, before you plan your project, you should make a sample, and measure it before and after felting. This will give you the shrinkage rate of your wool.

There are three factors to take into account though:

• Use the same type (or types) of wool for your sample and project, since not all wool types have the same shrinkage.
• Use the same number of layers and equally thick ones for your sample and project, since the thickness of the layers influences the shrinkage.
• Felt the sample and your project to the same degree, since the more you felt, the more the piece will shrink.

3. Don’t cut the felting wool with scissors

So many people are surprised to find out you shouldn’t cut felting wool with scissors. Why? Well, a neat cut makes it more difficult for the fibers to attach. Here’s a GIF explaining exactly how to do it!

4. Don’t get the wool wet while laying it

While you’re laying the wool for wet felting keep everything dry. Before you start using water, make sure you put away all the wool you won’t be using. If the wool gets wet, it’ll become clumpy, and most often than not, you won’t be able to felt it anymore.

5. Avoid soaking the wool

If your piece is soaked, you risk that the fibers float away, as well as slowing down the felting process. In this case, less is more. Just add water slowly and only as long as you have dry fibers.

6. Avoid having too much soap in the wool

Using too much soap can slow down the felting process. If your piece is too soapy, get some soap out by rinsing it or absorbing some with a sponge, if you’re still in the initial phase and the fibers are too loose to rinse. You know you have the right amount when you start seeing some foam.

7. Start with cold water

I learnt to felt with hot water and was astounded when I discovered that cold water also works. In fact, when you want your felting process to be slower (as in the case of nuno felting, to give the fibers time to migrate into the fabric before they felt onto each other), you should start by using cold water, since hot water tends to accelerate the process. Now, I start my wet felting with cold water and only add hot water when I start the fulling phase, to speed up the felting.

8. Always work with very thin wool layers

Working with thick layers of wool can be tempting, because it seems like it’ll be quicker. But you get a better quality if you work with more thin layers than with less layers, but thicker ones.

If you’re not very experienced and you’re working with wool tops, you might have problems pulling a thin wool tuft. So, here’s a GIF explaining exactly how to do it!

9. Correct any existing thin spots during the pre-felting phase

After laying the wool, check if there are any thin spots before adding the water. This is the right moment to make any corrections. You could apply some extra fiber later with a felting needle, but it’ll be more difficult to get good results than if you do it in this phase.

10. Make sure the wool has felted enough

How do you know your felt is ready? Do the pinch test. When you feel your felt is solid enough, you literally pinch the felt between your thumb and your index finger to check if the fibers are still loose. If that’s the case, you’ll have to do some more fulling.

Hope this helps!