How to stiffen wet felted items

I don’t use stiffeners often. But sometimes they can be useful, especially for sculptural wet felting. The problem with stiffeners is finding one that doesn’t make your work very hard, and still lets your felt look natural.

As in many other aspects of felt making, there are different opinions about this. Mine is that using a stiffener should never mean having your work look like plastic, and the stiffener itself should be as natural as possible.

I’ve researched this topic over the years, looking at information from milliners, as well as at solutions from crafters to harden textiles. But I have to say the suggestions I found never quite fit what I was looking for. There’s much online about sugar water or using starches made of corn or wheat flower, as well as several very chemical products used by milliners.

The first idea that made sense to me was a suggestion from a fellow felt maker, who recommended Arabic gum. My research quickly showed me it wasn’t an expensive product. So, I decided to give it a try. And that’s what I’ve been using since.

But other felt makers, whose work I admire, swear by hardening their pieces with OdiCoat and matte acrylic varnish. So, I thought it was time to give it a try.

I have come to my own conclusions. But I want to share my experiment with you, so that you can form your own opinion. And your opinion may be very different from mine, since it’ll depend on your goals and personal aesthetic.

The experiment

I’m going to share with you a test I did with the 3 different products I mentioned above:

• Arabic gum
• OdiCoat
• and matte acrylic varnish.

For the experiment, I prepared 3 felt samples made with 4g of 19-micron Merino. I laid the wool out in 2 layers on a 20 cm x 20 cm template and shrank them down to the size of 12.5 cm x 12.5 cm.

I let them dry and ironed them. But, right before starting, I soaked the 3 samples in water to make it easier for the felt to absorb the medium.

Next, I applied the 3 mediums on one side of the samples using a flat brush:

• The acrylic varnish and the OdiCoat were used undiluted.
• For the Arabic gum I mixed 1 teaspoon of powder with 100 ml of tap water.

Please watch the video to see how liquid each medium is and how easy it is to spread on the felt. (Note: I realized, after watching the video, that the sample with the Arabic gum was dripping a bit.)

I let it dry for about 24 hours. The day was dry and warm. So, it may take longer on a damp Winter day.

After drying, I realized the felt was hard enough. So, I decided not to apply any medium on the other side.

All 3 samples were pretty hard after drying. But I go into more detail in the video.

Arabic gum is still my favorite. But I don’t completely exclude the possibility of using any of the other two for thicker sculptural projects that I want to be really hard.

Though none of these products are particularly expensive, Arabic gum is the cheapest of them all, especially if you buy it in the powder version.