So what is HANDMADE FELT, anyway?

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Felt is a type of textile where the primary structure is not knitted, woven, crocheted or knotted.

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Felt is both a noun and verb; felt, the textile (fabric), can be created by either “wet felting” or “needle felting” (dry felting) or a combination of both.

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Felt is loose wool or other animal fiber that is made into a textile with a haphazard fiber structure by using a combination of some of the following: pressure, agitation, water, soap, heat and needles.

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Wet felting is a two staged process: felting occurs first by using moisture, pressure and/or agitation to form a loose textile(soft felt) where the fibers have become enmeshed; fulling then occurs by applying further agitation and/or pressure, and perhaps heat which causes the “soft felted” textile to shrink and become firmer.

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Dry felting, or needle felting, is the process of using special felting needles with tiny barbs to stab the fibers into shape as they tangle and become compacted. Both wet felting and needle felting can be used to create both 2-dimensional pieces or 3-dimensional sculptural work.

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Nuno-felt (laminated felt) is wool or other animal fiber enmeshed or embedded into nonhaphazard textile (such as woven, crocheted, knotted or knitted silk, cotton, rayon, or wool) using the wet felting process.

Needle felting is a technique which uses barbed needles to entangle loose wool or animal fiber into a cohesive textile structure.