Crafting in the Time of Corona II

I have wanted to make a wet felted play mat – an environment for play animals, people, and fairies to frolic on – for awhile. But it’s been a long time since I’ve done any wet felting so I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. I had taken a few felting classes with a friend starting with a Making Hats workshop using two different wet felting methods with Beth Beede at Snow Farm in 2003. Then we took two wet felting jewelry classes at the New England Felting Company where I also took Needle Felting Animals with Sharon Costello of Black Sheep Designs. I created some beautiful items in these classes and continued to felt but I never really learned about the different types of fibers. In fact, I used to drive my felting friend crazy because I called it all fluff. I knew that different types of fiber were recommended for wet versus needle felting but I was pretty confused especially because the fiber that was recommended when I wet felted a ball for my youngest granddaughter looked nothing like the fiber that I had left from the wet felting hat workshop. That fiber seemed more like the fiber I had leftover from needlefelting projects.

The directions I found for wet felted play mats on Pinterest seemed to be calling for fiber like that left over from the ball but that was the wrong color and not the type of fiber I had a lot of in the right colors for a play mat. After some more research I found that there is a type of fiber called roving which is fiber which has been combed until it all goes in the same direction. That was the type I had for the ball and I realized that was why the play mat directions I was finding called for making layers going in different directions. The kind of fiber I had a lot of was batting with the fibers going every which way so no alternate layers were needed. I still don’t know about the different types of fiber (like merino) and why some are recommended for wet felting and some for dry but I decided to mix mine all together and go for it. I had a lot of different browns from when I needle felted pancakes for my older granddaughter so I carded (blending using pet brushes!) those together. I did the same with a bunch of different greens some from needlefelting projects and some from wet felting ones. And then I layered two different greys – one from the needlefelted cat, based on a picture of Elwood, I made in the Needle Felting animals class and one from the beads I made in a wet felting jewelry class. The blue I used was from the basket I made using the ball method in the hat felting class (I thought I’d rather have a basket than a hat).

After making three layers of each color I decided to just go for it in terms of the actual wet felting as well since I didn’t quite remember how to do it and a lot of the directions I read were conflicting and confusing. I used a combination of rolling it in bubble wrap and a rolled up bamboo mat, patting it with my hands, and rubbing it with a small bamboo mat and it worked! I am so pleased with how it turned out. I needle felted some rocks to it after it dried.

The little black bears I had out as part of our Spring decorating immediately gravitated to the play mat and they look so good on it that they are going to accompany it to its new home. I am giving it to my Chicago grandnephew for his birthday (he is having a coronavirus – guests on the sidewalk- social distancing birthday celebration tomorrow). I needle felted a cave for the little bears and I have a bunch of ideas (Thanks Pinterest) for future things to needle felt or make out of commercial felt to go with it for future gifts.