This Thursday to Saturday I attended a felting workshop. I created several items, including a hat and some pins. For those who don't know, felting is the process of turning wool or other fibers into felt, a thick cloth that is generally rather warm and sturdy, but itchy. The way felting works is rather similar to the way wool shrinks in the wash. The scales on the wool fibers interlock when rubbed together, and have a hard time separating. Felting is generally done via two methods: Wetting the fibers with hot, soapy water and rubbing them together with your hands or bubble wrap, or by using a specialized felting needle with small gaps to hold fibers and stabbing it repeatedly into the wool. This is more tedious, but allows for far more detail; this method typically used for impressive felt sculptures.
Our felt class had large bins of wool in various colors, and a little bin with bits and pieces. The bits and pieces are intended for needle felting.
It is surprising how about ¼ of the people there were interested in the Periodic Table of Elements. I pointed them to http://periodictable.com/, which includes both useful facts and sample images, and entertaining "samples", including a Nitrogen pressurized golf club, a tritium glow-in-the-dark keychain, ear weights for dogs, and two burnt Barbie doll heads (¾ life size) to demonstrate the importance of safety goggles.
One of the the students was making a Homer Simpson model in felt, and another one attended a school that issued every student a MacBook. If we return to Denmark, I want to attend that school. Felting can be rather tedious, so I recommend listening to a podcast of your choice while doing so.
I created a felt hat, which fits my head well, a felt Apple logo, and two halves of a sphere filled with little pieces of color that reminded me of the default PowerPoint color scheme. I highly recommend that you try felting.
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