A number of fellow feltmakers have asked me how I fabricate the dots in my designs. I love incorporating dots into my felted work — there’s something organic and cheerful about them! I hope this pictorial will help explain the process.
Here’s how I craft the dots that brighten many of my felted art works:
Lay out one layer of thin merino roving, about 4 inches square:
Starting from one end, coax and twirl the fibers onto a thin, wooden skewer, and roll — jelly roll style — around the skewer. Do this four more times, for a total of five different colors, one on top of the other, tightly rolled, til it looks like a cigar or cocoon.
Aqua is the first color; it will be the center of the dot.
Each color completely covers the previous one.
When you have five layers of different colors, carefully slide the cocoon off the skewer, and using very sharp scissors, slice the dry fiber into thin discs. The thinner these discs are, the easier it will be to use them for surface design; however, if they are too thin, they will not hold together. Experiment to find just the right thickness for your own purposes.
Place these dots on your prepared surface of whatever felted item you’ve crafted — tea cozy, scarf, table mat, etc. — then wet with soapy, hot water and carefully rub each dot to get it to begin to mesh into the fibers below. It takes some effort with each dot to be sure it is secure; and it’s best to continue with less agitation in processing your fiber, to retain the integrity of the dot design. In other words, you might do more careful rubbing of the surface, and less rigorous agitation such as throwing or rubbing against a ridged mat or wash board. Explore and enjoy! I welcome your questions. Happy Felting!
An array of materials and Instructions. Please send me a message or an email (aspangborn@gmail.com) if you’d like to know about availability of Felted Card Kits and get on an emailing list for updates.
The first (bottom) layer, 11″ x 20 ” to create yardage for at least 5 cards, made from a carded batt with merino and silk and other soft fiber, very thinly placed in overlapping wisps.
The middle layer, again very thin, placed perpendicular to the bottom layer. Merino top in different colors, some CVM roving, and some Harlequin fleece, for variety in color and texture that will influence the surface.
The top layer, a combo of batt, fleece, and merino top, placed thinly and perpendicular to the middle layer. As I place fiber I’m thinking about how I want the edges to look, and how each layer might influence the others.
Still dry, surface design in place for 9 cards, with silk fibers and fabrics, snippets of my pre-felt yardage, various kinds of curly wool locks, some of my hand-spun yarn. I’ve used very subtle wisps of merino fiber on top of the surface design elements here and there to “veil” them and help them adhere: wool felts to wool, so sandwiching surface design elements between some wool is a way to insure that careful placement will stay in place.
Covered the yardage with a screen, wet it with soap solution, pressed it down, removed the screen, and gently rubbed the entire surface until the elements started to adhere. I also made a little roller from a separate piece of bubble wrap, rolling it up jelly roll style with the bubbles side up and securing both ends with string — I rolled this little textured roller on the surface to further coax the surface elements to bond. Once they seemed semi-attached, I rolled up the yardage in the larger bubble wrap and secured it with stocking leg ties, as shown in the image.
The yardage after felting. Due to the thinness of the layout and minimal processing, the finished size is 11″ x 16″, a loss of just a few inches in length. This yardage will be cut into card-size images, and any leftover bits will be used as pre-felts for future work. I plan to add some embroidery and perhaps a bit of beading to some of the card images, and will post some of the finished cards.
Carded Batt from which mat was crafted…
Made of soft and lofty Rambouillet, with silk fabrics and fibers, and little Blue-Faced Leicester curly locks; very light-weight, like a hug.
Image shows the cowl “un-scrunched” — but it’s very scrunchable! A versatile and cozy seamless piece, it’s reversible, too; and can be cuffed to show felted dots and/or various surface embellishments on both sides. Please send me an email (aspangborn@gmail.com) for more information.
Merino, silk fibers and fabrics, lots of curly locks, and snippets of pre-felts I’ve made — assembled and wet-felted, then ironed flat; whimsical , softly glowing and soft as velvet; some for shops and some for gifts.
Wooly Bliss 