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Sunol Felt Art Project
March 2011

Picture
Picture

5th graders making a sunflower wall hanging 

Picture
Wool laid out loosely (no felting yet) just to get an idea of colors and size




Project:  Create something beautiful together that can


              be auctioned off at the Spring Fling to fund 

              programs at our school.

Artists:   All of 5th grade

Plan:       Some students prepare the parts of the sun

              flowers while the rest work on the background.

              Then we combine it all!


Needed:

-  lots of wool

-  combs for combing the wool

-  bubble wrap

-  rolling pins

-  towels

-  water in spray bottles

-  Woolite - soap makes the fibers glide better, too much    
    
   makes it too slippery

-  layering for felting: 

   Artfelt paper

   foam

   felting needles
   
   underlayer for friction (bamboo curtain or rubber sheet)

   thin veil to protect the wool

   bands for tying the roll together

    big stick to help roll it up.

-  30 something students and some helpers hopefully



How to:

Making the sunflower heads:

-   4 students help make 2 big yellow rounds for the 

    sunflower head, see Oli video for an idea of the 
    
    technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cALKnFKp7o

    
    When we have two rounds we can make cuts with

    scissors and twist the ends to shape petals.
    

-   4 students make 2 brown/red rounds for the center of 

    the sunflower, see Oli video above.

-   6 students make  6 leaves for the sunflower stem,
     
    see Oli video above.


-   The rest of us will make the background and the stem 

    of the sunflower,



All the wool has to be combed, some seeds and grass 

picked out, then layered, fibers in different directions, so 

they can interlock. 


Making the Background

We start with a foam layer and then Artfelt paper on top.

Two students can needle the wool so it stays on the paper.

The background has to be very thick (10 inches when 

fluffy), in order to avoid holes.

A couple of students can specialize in the sunflower stems,

and lay them on top of the background.


When the background is done, we move over to a 

'friction surface' and bubblewrap.


Assembly


We assemble the loose pieces (sunflower heads and leaves) 

on top. We wet the whole thing down and add some 

Woolite.


I found some plastic liners with holes to put over the wool 

to put on top.


At this stage the wool is fragile and we start by just 

massaging gently. This will take some time, 10-15 min.


Felting Stage


Once it feels safe, we can roll it all up and the kids can take 

turns jumping on the bundle, rolling it, hitting it...it all helps

making the fabric stronger.

You can get rougher and rougher with the  fabric as it 

keeps getting stronger.


It takes a good amount of rolling to make into something 

that holds together, something like 1600 rolls! You need to

do 200 rolls, change the direction of the rolling, do 200 

more rolls, and so on...

You do the 'pinch test' to see that there are no loose 

fibers, and you are at the point of minimum felting.


Once it holds together like one piece, felting it even more,

is called 'fulling'.


You can keep on shrinking the fabric up to 50 % if you

want  a very hard piece, or stop earlier, depending on

what you want the finished result to look like.





Here are some other youtube videos that will give you an 

idea:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEuiuoA7jbU


www.youtube.com/user/sockmonkeyhead#p/u/30/S7gRIzcgDLQ


There are lots of possibilities for doing add-on work after 

this phase is finished and dried. There could be ladybugs 

and insects needle felted on, it as could other details, like 

veins on the leaves. We can sign it.


The finished piece can be framed, or hung on a bamboo 

stick. 



********************************************************


Little Side Project: Making bracelet/snake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-TbtH5MjJU

If the kids need something to do while waiting for their 

turn at the project, they can make snakes by wet 

felting smaller pieces of wool.





            

Sara makes a snake/bracelet

Picture
Wooly felted bracelet (or snake)

Sara experiments making solid felt piece

Experimenting with wet felting: Sara helping. I think the wool layer was not thick
enough so  we got a lot of holes  in the fabric. We'll try thicker next time. We also will try securing the wool with Artfelt paper. You needle felt the wool lightly on to it, and it will help keep it in place. (The paper is potato based and will dissolve when
you pour boiling water on top.