Last week my sister and I took Mom out for a little window shopping, and we saw some lovely felted art in one of the shops. One of the items we saw was a string of lights with felted flowers cupping each light. They were beautiful! These lights would be ideal for parties, the holidays (e.g. in fall colors), or home decor (especially a kid’s room).
Since I’d recently learned how to wet felt a scarf, I decided to try to make a set of these felted lights and teach you at the same time.
The video below shows these steps:
- Wrap a ping pong ball with wool roving.
- Wet the roving with hot soapy water.
- Massage the ball until the roving is tightly felted around the ping pong ball.
- Let the felted ball dry.
- Paint a coat of watered-down glue on the felted ball and let it dry.
- Cut the ball in two and remove from the ping pong ball.
- Cut a small hole in the bottom of each “felted flower.”
- Insert a light from a string of lights into the hole and glue with hot glue.
That’s it! Enjoy your own felted light creation.
This video is great. I can’t wait to get started.
I love the felt work you’ve done here Marta! Every time I see you do a felting project it reminds me that I need to find a good source for wool roving. Care to share any tips on what a beginner should be looking for?
Good question about roving, Savvy. The finer the roving, the easier it is to work with. I suggest starting with Merino wool. It’s one step up from the cheap stuff. Once you learn some good techniques, then I would move on to angora rabbit, alpaca wool, or something else on the high end of fibers (super soft). You can also felt with plant fibers such as bamboo, but they have to be mixed with animal fibers.
If you have no money at all, just brush your dog and cat’s fur and start with that. 🙂 Can’t wait to see what your creative mind comes up with!