Turns out that 2009 is the Year of Natural Fibers for the United Nations. Who knew?

And hang onto your (wooly) hats, because that’s not all. October 3rd is the International Day of Felt and as a lapsed art felter, I decided I better participate.

And I think you should too! In case you’ve never felted before, my cunning plan is perfect for you too because it’s small, fun, and a great first time felting project.

Felt Rocks

Well, yes, felt does rock, but for the International Day of Felt, I’m going to actually felt some rocks.

I’ve done a lot of traditional wet felting in my day–which is the classic, ancient technique of wetting, rubbing and shocking wool batts until they begin to mesh together–and I love it.

But I’ve never made felt rocks before, and when I saw a huge pile at the Cooper Hewitt show, they were just so weirdly satisfying to look at and feel, I thought I had to make some myself. (I actually thought they were wool all the way through at the time, but they do, in fact, have rocks inside them.)

If it goes well, I’m thinking these might make wonderful holiday gifts (inexpensive, cool, and you know nobody is going to say, oh gee, I already have one of these…) So if you’ve been very good this year, you might get some rocks in your stocking!

A Great Video

Terry Pike, a friend from Facebook, is a felt artist in Florida who makes all kinds of felt projects. She has a site called Felting Lessons that is jam-packed with very thorough videos on several felting techniques–wet felting, nuno felting (LOVE this, I’m doing this next) as well as a GREAT video on creating felted rocks.

Watch Terri teach us how to felt rocks right here: (If you’re subscribing by email and don’t see the video below, you’ll have to visit the site to watch!)

She also offers tip sheets and supply lists to accompany each video which you might find helpful. Visit her site for more information or to watch other great felt-making technique videos.

Rock On

You might think you could just go in your backyard and pick up a few rocks, and be ready to felt. But if you live in a more urban setting, or all your rocks are very jaggy, or both (that’s me), you might actually wonder where you’re going to find the right kind of rocks to try this project.

Go to your local, full service garden store or nursery. Lowes or Home Depot might not cut it, but a place that offers landscaping services or pond making supplies, will probably have big bins of soft rocks that they sell by the pound. I just went to my favorite local nursery, picked out several stones I liked, had them weighed by a bored teenage boy, and I was off.

Wool Suppliers

When I was a poor art student, I bought my wool shorn straight off the sheep. It came in a huge trash bag from a sheep farmer and was very uh, pungent. I had to wash the dung out of it (that took forever) and then I had to card (comb) the fibers into batts using a hand cranked drum carding tool. Boy, was I in touch with my art materials.

Nowadays, it’s easier than ever to buy clean, dyed, carded wool roving online and start felting. Most art felters use Merino or Corriedale wool, and I’ve hunted around for a few online resources to help you get started. I haven’t ordered from them personally, but they all looked promising.

The Felted Ewe:

I personally love to use undyed wool roving because I love the range of white, silver, grey, brown and black that are the true colors from the sheep. The Felted Ewe has a nice range of undyed roving here:

http://www.thefeltedewe.com/naturals.html

But if you just love color, or want to participate in the International Day of Felt (in which case you’ll need yellow, orange and red roving because those are their color parameters this year); The Felted Ewe has a lot of color options here:

http://www.thefeltedewe.com/dyedroving1_15.html

Alpaca Direct:

This online retailer has quite a cool range of all different types of roving for knitting, spinning and felting. They sell Corriedale wool under a heading called “Colonial” –not sure why, but click here to check it out. (They also have merino if you prefer.)

Outback Fibers:

These guys actually combine merino and corriedale wool together into single batts—which are generally wider than roving. Take a look here and see what you think. I notice Terri recommends Outback Fibers as well on her site.

Here’s a few more wool roving sites she recommends:

• Copper Moose

• Woodland Woolworks

• Blue Goose Glen

So Are You In?

I’ve got my rocks from the nursery and I’ve got some wool roving socked away somewhere in my studio. I hereby pledge to make some felted rocks for the International Day of Felt and I will post my results here on Make Great Stuff for all to see.

How about you–are you ready to make a few felt rocks (or some other felt-y thing for that matter)?

Yes? Excellent–I will be on the lookout for great pics!

Not sure yet? Watch Terri’s video and see for yourself why you should give it a try.

Do you make felt? Do you have some favorite places to buy wool roving that you’d like to share? Are you going to try to make some felt rocks too?  Leave a comment–I’d love to hear!
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