Feltings-a-day

The artclash hosts "fun-a-day" every year,( http://www.artclash.com/ ).
I did it last year and decided to do it again this year. Its a great way to start off the new year on a creative note! Basically here's what it is, anyone can partcipate, all you have to do is create one of something for the entire month of January. It doesnt even have to be art, it could be baking a cake, or recording a video of you dancing, anything! Then in Feb, they collect all the projects and put up a show at a local venue.

This year I decided to do felting, which I hadn't done college which was about 9 years ago. I enjoyed it back then in college- making colorful, abstract "paintings" with dyed wool. It has been quite an adventure doing one everyday and alot of work, I forgot how much time is involved, all the different steps-

Basically what you do is first you lay out the colored wool in a pattern, it has to be thick because it shrinks a little when you felt it.

Then you sandwich the wool in between 2 screens, loosely join the screens together by sitching it together with thread and a large dull pointed needle-- just enough so the pattern doesn's change or move too much.

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Then you shock the wool with alternating hot and cold water washes, while agitating the fiber. This helps the different colors of fibers "stick" together, shrinking and expanding together. I do this in my bathtub. This is my favorite part because its very phyiscal- rubbing and scrubing any and all frustrations you may have- taking it out on the fibers!

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Then once you're sure you've hit it with enough hot/cold water, you cut the strings that hold the screens together and carefully peel the screens off the felting. This is ALSO my favorite part because the end product is never quite exactly how you originally lay out the pattern, things move and shift in the process of agitating and shrinking. The unveiling is very exciting!!
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Then what I do is measuring and cut a wooden rod for the back so that it can be hung up on the wall. I bought large wooden dowls from Home Depot and a small hand saw so I cut them down to size. Attach the rod to the back of the felting with thread.

The finshed product is a much flatter felt then the orginal fluffy wool fiber you saw in the first photo as I was laying it on the screen ( the pic with my kitty in it )