felted ball -- help!

[jessjgh1]

I decided to make my dd a felted ball, one about 3-4" and got some instructions that sounded simple enough. I'm not sure I'm doing it right, though!

First off, it was suggested that I use Ivory soap. I have bar ivory soap-- I had no idea it came as a dish soap so I assumed that would work (I've been looking at different websites and they all suggest dish soap). So I shaved off a little of the bar soap in hot water to use.

DS and I took rocks and wound thin layers around the rock and started working the felt in circles as I was told. It is kinda working, but I'm getting lumps and it is not tight like I expected. And adding layers to get a good sized ball is going to take a long time, which is fine, if we are doing it right.

Should I use some dawn dish soap instead, start with a thicker bigger ball and then get it wet? I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong and don't want to keep on doing it wrong.

and of course, the water is not staying warm or hot between layers. So maybe I just need to make the soap/water solution fresh each time.


--- edited to add---

I googled tons of sites yesterday, but today I found this site: http://www.gfwsheep.com/feltballs/feltballs1.html
So maybe I just need to make a bigger ball with the dry wool first? But then I find other sites that recomend thin layers.

I guess I can use these for pincushions, lol.
------
I'm not a crafty person, but I got convinced when talking to the shopkeeper that this was really easy enough that me and ds (almost 4) could do it. Well, we have both got really clean hands now (=

Thanks for any help!

Jessica

[Callimom]

Try the dish soap (any kind should work) and hot water - but not too much. It shouldn't be dripping wet - more just quite damp. Get one layer fairly secure before adding too much more roving. Keep adding water and soap as your go. If you aren't doing it with kids, just stand over the sink, and add water and soap as you need it, rather than setting it up in a bowl.
It does take a while.
It's the combination of the water, soap and friction that does the felting - I'm not sure if you are rolling the rocks in your hands as you felt - kind of like you would make a ball out of playdough.

hth
Karen

[jessjgh1]

I think it did help.
I get to the point where it seems to felt quite well and then sometimes because the ball is still 'squishy' a bit of it bunches up at one side and undoes a little of the layer or lengthens/stretches into a little lump like. I've been trying to smooth those down, but I often have one I stretch one way till it ends up near the other end and it seems fairly difficult to work the wool in the right direction for both 'ends' if that makes any sense. So I'll tuck one under another and try to work it out??

Then if I use something like the bubble wrap, it further pulls this apart.

I think tomorrow I will try to add one more 'last layer' and work it really well and then add a last layer of colors and see what happens.

At least one ball has finally achieved a bit of size and is fairly round, and I might have enough wool left to do a 3rd ball if I'm convinced I'm doing it right.

Thanks for the help-- I guess for whatever reason it does seem like the dawn was working better. I never knew Ivory also did dishes, I've just always associated it with bar soap.

Jessica

[sapphire_chan]

It does take a really long time to make them. I have a friend who regularly does little demos where kids get to make felt balls and the kids are walking around pretty much the whole rest of the day squishing down on their ball.

She doesn't put anything in the middles though, just a little wad of roving. And uses Dawn, the degreasing properties help the wool lose any remaining lanolin and develop all the little hooks that make felting work.

[CrunchyParent]

I actually recorded a little video demo of making wool balls that I keep meaning to toss up on You Tube because it is much easier to learn by seeing than by reading.....I use only wool, although I know that people do felt around other things (well, occasionally I'll put a bell in the middle). Anyway, I wind the wool in thin layers, trying to keep it fairly taught so that it will wrap tightly, They I cradle the ball in my hands and dunk it in water until all of the air bubbles are out. Then I lift it out of the water and drizzle it with liquid soap and begin gently rubbing my hands over it with very light pressure. In time as it begins to felt, I can increase the pressure and speed of my squishing/rubbing.

Of course, it's also easier/faster to stick the dry wool ball into a nylon stocking, tie it up, and toss it in the washing machine (inside of a pillow case).

I needle felt designs over the core ball and then wet felt the whole thing in the end for a nice finished look.

HTH

[leafylady]

for speed, I like to loosely needlefelt balls together. Then I tie the ball of wool into a nylon stocking, put that in a lingerie bag and then toss the whole thing in with a hot water load of laundry.

I've also done it without needlefelting, just wrapping all of the wool together, then cramming it into the stocking.

You can do some re-shaping when it comes out of the washer, while it's still wet, because it probably won't be completely round.

Of course- this defeats the purpose of doing an activity with the kids...

[leafylady]

Oh, and here's a tutorial for felting soap with kids that I did on my blog over a year ago.
It's low tech. The soap is built right in to the process and the kids enjoyed it. http://www.kaskiles.com/2007/07/felting-soap.html
Again, a nylon stocking really helps to keep the wool together for those of us who are not experienced wet felters.

[CrunchyParent]

Ah...the video demo of felted soap actually got done AND posted. If it helps anyone, click here to view it (skip the first minute or two when I was just being boring )