"Felting Over A Ball", Day 2

I taught a great felting workshop this weekend with two wonderful felting students. We learned a felting technique called "felting over a ball" to make 3-D sculptural wool vessels. On the first day of the workshop we laid out the wool on our Gertie balls, put the ball and the wool in the pantyhose to hold the wool on the ball, and began to wet the wool with warm soapy water.  On the second day , we  continued to agitate the wool by rolling the balls on bubble wrap, then we deflated the Gertie ball removed it from inside the vessel and started to shape wool vessel into a form we liked.  The vessel is rubbed vigorously on a wash board to harden all the edges and stretched into shape as the wool felts.

	Here is what our felting project looks like inside the pantyhose when we start the second day.
The vessel is removed from the pantyhose that held it together. It has begun to felt! Now the wool has enough integrity that we can begin to add hot water and soap to shape and harden up the wool.
	The vessel is rubbed on a washboard to agitate the wool,
pulled,
	and stretched into shape.
and voila!

Beautiful Felted Vessels!  Felting is magic when it happens!