Felting

Felting

What is Felt?Felt is a non-woven cloth produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibers of wooly animals, including sheep, alpaca, llama, and sometimes angora goats & bunnies. Over 8,000 year old process, felting is one of the oldest ways of making fabric. Predating woven fabric, felt possesses all of the same properties of wool Its warm, waterproof, resilient, durable yet more dense, more compact and much more versatile. Its extremely adaptable and can be made almost entirely by hand. The three basic elements of felting are: HEAT, PRESSURE, MOISTURE!If domestic sheep were not shorn, their fleece would felt naturally. Many cultures have legends as to the origins of feltmaking. Most revolve around the story of men who, while on a journey, packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters. At the end of their journey, the movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks.

Wool felts because the animal fibers have natural directional scales and kinks (like a lizard, or a pine cone) that bristle when water and friction are applied. The scales reach up to the source of friction at a 90 degree angle and then back again, which causes the fibers to stitch together.

The earliest felt remains were found in frozen tombs of nomadic horsemen in the mountain of Siberia around 700 B.C. These tribes created clothing, saddles, and tents from felt, since it was strong and resistant to wet and snowy weather. Roman soldiers used felt pads as armored vests, felt tunics, felt boots, and feltsocks. By about 500 AD, the Vikings, further north, made felt blankets also. Armor was made fire retardant by dipping in vinegar. Mongols used felt for the walls of their houses, called yurts or gers. People also made felt rugs and blankets.

CARDING is a process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibers to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This process involves small hand brushes, which comb the wool many times, by transferring the fibers back and forth. Carding machines are used in the industrial manufacturing process.ROVING refers to the shorn wool of the sheep after it is carded.

FELTING refers to the process of utilizing animal fiber, by shaping it in some way, and through a process of very hot water and agitation, converting it into a tightly joined fabric.HALF FELT is a term referring to the stage of the felting process in which fibers are tangled together just before they harden and shrink.FULLING is to shrink and strengthen the fibers as a fabric.

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