Welcome to

The Cornish Studio.

Located by the sea, my studio in Cornwall embodies coastal tranquillity, my own zen space allowing me to dream and manifest.

Felting Techniques

I use three types of felting methods to create my pieces. Wet Felting is using soap and water with selected wools and rolling by hand at least 300-600 times to create felt. Nuno Felting is using material pieces or lace placed onto selected dry wools, wet and soaped and then rolled many times by hand until the fibres of the wool knit in together with the material or lace, creating a whole piece of felt with extra texture or design. Needle Felting is using a single three bladed fine needle to punch dry wool into the felt piece that has been wet felted first, fine tuning the design by adding contours and definition for example to my moorland scene cushions. Needle felting is also used to create animals, pictures etc with a 3D effect.

Wet Felting Method

Preparation (30 minutes)

Towels, bubble wrap or bamboo mats, soap, warm water, selection of wools to be used for the piece of felt to be made. Carded batts, merino wools for colour and a good staple base wool like Shetland or cheviot are generally good.

Layout (1 to 3 hours)

Layering selected wools into shape/size needed on flat surface ontop of the bubble wrap. Wool is layered horizontally then vertically then repeated again. By layering the wool vertically and horizontally this helps the wool fibres to knit together during the rolling process. Merino wools can be laid on top of layered piece at the end to create a colourful design on top of the piece of felt.

Wetting (1 to 2 hours depending on size)

Once all wools have been laid out, the whole piece needs to be soaped and wetted. I use a plastic mesh screen when wetting the dry wool. Some people prefer to use a good olive soap but I have found most every day soaps work well.

Rolling (1 to 3 hours depending on piece)

Once the piece has been wetted/soaped, roll piece into the bubble wrap and then wrap towel around rolled felt/bubble wrap. Depending on the size I can roll anything between 300-1000 rolls by hand to create the felt. The more rolls you do, the sturdier the felt and tighter knit. Generally a cushion face/back will take about 500 rolls….large throw around 1000 rolls by hand. Some people like to put the wet piece of felt/bubble wrap in the washing machine to save on rolling…Be aware that this method can cause more shrinkage than hand rolling but a good method when making mats.

Rinsing

You can rinse finished piece in the bath or sink with warm water. Once all soap has been rinsed out then gently squeeze out excess water and hang to dry on radiator/airier rack or outside on the line.