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Using My Prefelt

Using My Prefelt

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Having made the prefelt without needles or water it was time to try using it. here’s the post about doing that: trying-out-a-new-way-of-making-prefelt/ I cut a small square ( 2.25 by 3.75 inches)  and added some cut bits to the top.

Even though as a whole piece, it had been very sturdy, The cut pieces seemed fragile. I wondered if it was because they were small. I decided to try a bigger piece( 3.5 x4 inches). I folded a smaller piece to cut a flower shape and popped it onto the prefelt square

I thought I should try it on a loose wool layout.  I laid out 2 good layers of wool and added some prefelt to the top (4.5×7.5 inches).

I put them on some plastic on a rubbery rolling mat. I did some rubbing but not a lot as I prefer rolling. I had started to wet it when I remembered to take a picture.

This is after one set of rolls, you can see they already look integrated. the small piece looks like the shapes have really blurred.

 

I rolled it twice more, no more than 50 rolled back and forth each time.

I don’t think it looks very different. The prefelt defiantly incorporated into the prefelt backing and loose wool backing.

Here are the prefelt on prefelt samples after drying

 

the small pieces lost all semblance of shape. I think they were just too small. the bigger piece faired much better. There was almost no visible migration of fibres on these, even on the back.

The loos wool worked well the shapes stayed better even the smaller ones. They are visibly thicker, a little puffy. I don’t see any migration of the background up through prefelt.

On the back, you can see the outlines of the shapes. the shorter cut fibres of the edge migrating. I have noticed this with regular needled or wet felted prefelt too.

None of these pieces were properly fulled. They have just begun to shrink. The migration may have been more on both sides and with both backgrounds if they were properly fulled but I ran out of time to do that if they were going to be dry for final pictures.

All in all, I would say it’s a faster and easier way to make prefelt than needling or wet felting. I don’t think it would work for cutting intricate designs but they just maybe my bad cutting. I don’t think the commercial stuff works well for intricate things either.

I did try peeling the layers like you can with the thicker prefelt.  It worked ok in the thicker parts but wouldn’t come apart at the thinner edge. A more consistent layout might solve that problem.

Trying out a new way of making prefelt

Trying out a new way of making prefelt

Comments 21 comments

I recently heard about a no water, no needle way of making prefelt. I thought I would give it a try and see how it works. It’s fairly simple. You layout your wool on a mat or plastic and roll it dry. When I teach resist felting I usually dry felt the layout by just pressing and wiggling to make it stick together well enough to pick up and move, so we can make the second side. I am sure we have all found that ball of roving in the bottom of a bag that is well on its way to bing a solid felt blob. Taking this idea further just makes sense.

On Sunday it was Library day at the guild and I knew it would be a fairly quiet one so I took my supplies with me. Here is my try at dry non-needled prefelt.

I am using a rubbery placemat and a plastic grocery bag. The Grocery bag is because I put the little piece of plastic in my coat pocket and then didn’t wear my coat. I picked 2 colours so I can see how much migration there is if any. I did jiggle the felt to stick it together, the same way I do when I want to move a layout.

 

 

I rolled it 100 rolls in each direction flipping it between as well. It came out very flat and has started to shrink.

 

 

I rolled it some more. I had intended to do another 100 rolls in each direction but we were chatting so I am sure it got much more than that, especially on the last set of rolls. It definitely shrunk in both directions but not a lot.

 

 

I cut it to see what it looked like. the edges are thicker and flatter than the middle but it’s still pretty solid.

Jan took a movie of it with her camera. It shows how sturdy the prefelt is.

I rolled it again to see how the edges would fair. There were wisps that migrated out in the direction of the rolling. I think it would have been better to just finger rub the edges. There was really no migration to the surface by the opposite layer.

 

All in all, I think it worked well with very little fuss. Next, I am going to try cutting out some shapes and felting them on their own, to prefelt and on a fresh layout. Have you ever tried this method? how did it go?

 

 

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