Getting my hands wet!

My very first wet felted project.

In November 2020 I decided it was time to get over my trepidation of wet felting. I had seen many videos of wet felting, and I was intimidated by the process. Strange because I’m not easily intimated! However, Marie Spaulding of Living Felt, had not steered me wrong in the needle felting department, so I took a leap of faith and trusted her.

I ordered the necessary supplies for wet felting a vessel. Her YouTube video link is Simply Striking Fire Bowl. I did not have the colors, but it didn’t really matter, as one can use whatever colors one wants. I gathered everything as per the instructions and dipped my proverbial “toe” in the water.

I had to wrestle the viscose fiber, quite a bit. It gave me a lot of trouble as it did not want to play nicely with the wool. I stuck to it, however, and managed to finish the project. The vessel was sent off to my husband’s aunt in Florida as she had expressed interest in obtaining a piece from me after seeing the owl that I sent to my mother-in-law mentioned in my first Journal post. I posted a picture of my vessel on the Living Felt Facebook group. Everyone there was so kind and encouraging. Several people stated that I might be what is called a “Super” felter. Essentially this implies that I applied too much pressure and heat to early in the process which inhibited the fibers from binding together at the right time. Timing is very important in the process.

Despite the difficulties that I had, I was amazed by the process as a whole, and decided to continue exploring it further. It was now December 2020 and I decided to make a portrait of a saw-whet owl sitting on some pine branches. I lightly needle felted the background colors together. Then gently and slowly rolled them until they became one. Once the piece was dry, I needle felted in the details, at that point, I was hooked on wet felting as well. The saw-whet owl now resides in Florida with a niece. I loved that I could also needle felt on to a piece with enough integrity.

Wet felted background and then I needle felted in the details.

Wet felting really opened up a whole new dimension to my art. To this day, I am so glad to have taken the leap of faith, and gotten my hands wet.