I’ve been busy felting with our Gotland and Border Leicester curls. I thought I would share a few tips for successful felting with curly locks.
Tips for Successful Felting with Curly Locks
- I lay a fine wool base of merino underneath my curls. You could use other fine wools, but I prefer using merino for felted garments. You can either lay the locks directly on top of the wool base for added texture in your piece, or you may lay the locks at the edge of your base with only the root end overlapping onto the wool. This will create a fringe of curls.
- The root end of the curly lock felts easily into a wool base. If I am using curls as a fringe on the edge of my felted piece, I like to tease out the root end before laying it onto the wool. This pulls wisps of wool out so that they will easily work their way into your base wool.
3. If I want to gain more control of the felting process, I will not wash my wool curls before felting with them. An unwashed lock felts slower than a scoured wool lock. If the locks of curls are quite dirty, I will give them a gentle rinse to get the dirt out, but I will not wash all of the lanolin out. This will slow the felting process down and allow me to have more control in keeping the locks from totally disappearing into the wool base.
From My Felting Table
I have recently finished three felted collars using our Border Leicester and Gotland curls. I have just delivered them to the Creative Space Gallery in Vergennes, Vermont where they will be a part of their Never Felt Better art show. The show runs from February 23 to April 8, 2018. The opening reception and wine tasting is Feb. 23 from 5pm – 7pm.
