Wet Felting for Valentine’s Day!! Day 1

Wet Felting for Valentine’s Day!! Day 1

Oh NO! I got distracted! I will get back to work shortly but I was so inspired by Alex’s Ladybug or Bird and was wondering if a hedgehog would work with a bar of soap? There was also a suggestion of a heart of soap for valentine’s day…… hmmmm. I wonder if I can combine that?

Bad Brain!!! Stop thinking and wondering where the soap stockpile is stored! No! It’s wet felting! It involves getting wet!! NOOOOOO! Remember brain we like needle felting partly for its DRYNESS! Even if there is occasionally a bit of blood, it’s not as wet as wet felting! ….hmmmm.

I think Glenn would like a hedgehog soap for Valentine’s day, it will last longer than chocolate or flowers!, (the flowers without roots that is.)  Oh well, I guess it must be done, I will get wet! Step one, I will need to clean the bathroom sink (yes there is almost no counter space in the bathroom so it was messier before I neatened it up a bit).

Let me think, what will I need? Fibre, soap bar, a container to work in (the drain is problematic so let’s use a plastic box to work in), I need to find some bubble wrap and maybe a zip lock bag would help contain the wetness? I blended up a bit of white and beige for the nose and over felting fibre.

I discovered that the soap hoard is woefully low at least of my glycerin soap (remember to add that to the shopping list). Luckily, Glenn’s giant package of smelly soap from Costco was only half gone! He probably won’t notice one is missing until after Valentine’s Day right? (he didn’t)

Day One:

I quickly noticed that the sink is not a comfortable work high. I wonder if I flip over the storage box and use that as a table surface. Yep, much more comfortable. Remembering the instructions from Alex and his Mom, the fibre must encompass the soap. Then the fibre and soap are secured by putting it all in a nylon and felted. I don’t have nylon. I also want to have more fibre on the back than the belly as well as having a nose and face at one end.

Layout

I alternated thin layers making a shape that would wrap around the soap and then added more in the middle and towards one end.

 

A bit more in in the butt I think then wrap and a bit of needling to hold everything together.

 

He needs a nose; a bit more poking will fix that. Better check photo reference! I watched (listened to) a few YouTube videos as I continued to needle felt until the general shape was achieved.

I found a small piece of bubble wrap (I spotted the larger piece after I was done) and an extra-large sandwich bags.

10 ready for his bath!

Now the hard part, I have to get the wool wet so that soap (Liquid Lavender and cucumber you can see in the photos) and agitation can do their work. Hedgehogs’ first bath!

I got a flash of a brilliant idea! If I put the wet soapy hedgehog and the bubble wrap in the extra-large sandwich baggie I could sit and watch the impeachment of the neighbour’s ex-president. Rather depressing, but it will keep my mind off the possibility of impending wetness. (I will work in the plastic bin in case that happens).  The seal was stressed but as much as the soapy bubbles tried, only a few escaped.

I started softly, gently, caressing the fibres. Slowly increasing my pressure until I was massaging with some enthusiasm (I have a license for that!). Unlike work, I used bubble-wrap on this patient, focusing on the nose and the general body shape. I built up so much soapy lather that it became hard to see the hedgehog! After a few impeachment presentations, I felt I had achieved Felt!! I also had not sprung a leak and got wet!

Time to rinse out the suds and make sure the felting worked! (really I can’t see much in all this soap!)

I brought the Hedgehog back to the office so he could dry and finish watching YouTube, maybe I will have to give him eyes so he can better see what is happening. In the meantime, he is practicing some form of Yoga nose stand. I wonder what that pose is called. (Balanced nose drying?)

While I know watching a naked, eyeless, hedgehog dry is absolutely fascinating, and is worthy of hundreds of photos, at every stage of wet to dampness to ultimately dryness. I can see that you may have other things to do so I will resume once he has accomplished his mission to dry. So I will pause today and resume to see if I can add spines and other important parts.

To be continued on Day 2!

 

13 thoughts on “Wet Felting for Valentine’s Day!! Day 1

  1. Loving your hedgehog experiment, Jan, and your inexplicable aversion to getting wet! Look forward to seeing what happens next and whether Glenn was thrilled (or would really rather have had chocolates and flowers!)

    1. Luckily Glenn was thrilled with his new shower buddy, he did help eat the chocklet eggs that Moose had brot. i was suprized the ziploc bag idea worked but this could lead to larger wet felting experimentation while staying dry!! i hope you will enjoy part two of this adventure.

    1. Thanks! i am vary pleased with how cute he turned out! (i hope you will enjoy the second part of this blog post) so far he has been using him dayly (poor little hedgehog) he is still cute but you can definatly see where he has been held while scrubbing!

    1. thanks! i hope you will enjoy the pictures in part 2! i was suprized the ziploc bag idea worked out! i may have to investigate that further.

  2. Alex is loving this Jan! Your descriptions of the wet, soapy bubble-cocooned hedgehog are hilarious!!! We can’t wait to see the end result!!! Will he have a name?!!

    1. Alex this is all your inspiration of Ladybugs/birds! Thankyou!! i hope you will enjoy part 2. i will check with Glenn if he has named his little shower buddy yet. it may take him a while to consider a good name. he mite like suggestions to help him!

    1. i hope you will enjoy part 2, i have left the outer locks mostly full lenght but folded so the tips are a little longer from the body than the cut ends. i think if i had shortend the fibers i would have had more spikyness and less bedrageledness. but he is still extreemly cute in his wobegon state. i am thinking of investigateing wet felting in ziplock bags furhter, although im not sure it will be quite the same as makeing a hat in one of Ann’s workshops!

  3. Thanks for the laugh! I look forward to seeing the finished hedgehog. And, may I say, the reason I prefer needle felting is that I don’t have to get wet for it 😀

    1. thankyou for enjoying my odd posts! i hope you will enjoy part 2! yes i think dry felting is more fun but it can take longer to achieve that firmness you can get with water, soap and adjitation. there are always gloves and now Ziploc bags!!! Stay dry warm and Healthy and have fun felting!

We'd love to hear your thoughts!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: