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Wearable Art
About Handmade Felt
Wet felting means adding soap and water to wool, then rolling it until it holds together as a solid piece of fabric. Needle felting is a dry process that involves jabbing special, very sharp barbed needles into loose wool to make the fibers bind together. I favor traditional millinery techniques to shape and style my hats. With pin cushions and puppets, I use the felt needle to lay intricate design and detail. No matter what I do, I finish the piece with wet felting to bring it all together.
I create "nuno" felt which combines fine silk, cotton voile and hand dyed raw fleece. I begin with fine Merino wool, and incorporate silk and cotton to create a strong but light and drapable material. The wool is laid out in layers, each layer going in a different direction. Water and soap is added, and gentle agitation begins the felting process. During the felting process the wool fibers migrate through the fabric creating a one-of-a kind piece of clothing.
My desire to learn to felt was based on a character I created and performed in my one-woman show. She needed an odd, quirky hat, so I just kept making felt hats until the right one popped out!
"Felting is a magical process with infinite variations. The object you create can be flat like a fabric or three-dimensional like sculpture, puppets, hats, clothing and so on. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination."
– Tash Wesp
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