Felting, or as it is also called felting, felting is a special type of needlework, along with embroidery. With the help of wool, craftswomen create delightful unique paintings, toys and crafts. It’s not at all difficult to make such a craft with your own hands, because now handicrafts are widespread, and in stores you can find a wide variety of ready-made kits for creating paintings. There are 2 ways to make crafts. Further on, what is felting and what kind of pictures can be obtained, depending on the chosen method of needlework. What is it and what kind of pictures can you get as a result - read below.

On this moment There are several types of this type of needlework - dry and wet. In the first case, paintings and other crafts are created using a special felting needle. When dry, the wool is pierced many times to obtain the desired texture and create a pattern.

In this case, the wool is felted, its fibers are bonded to each other, resulting in a homogeneous material.

During wet felting The wool is felted using a special solution or regular soap. To make a craft in this way, you first need to lay out the wool, then apply the solution, and felt the wool using friction. Then the finished product dries, resulting in an unusual and very beautiful picture.

It is this type of felting that is most often used to create flat products, for example:

• Paintings;
• Panel;
• Decoration of clothes and fabrics.

Dry felting is better suited for making toys, jewelry and various figurines. Of course, for different types felting will require a variety of materials. For a dry look, you will need to purchase the wool itself, a special needle with serrations so that the wool can adhere to each other and create the desired texture. Otherwise, you will need to create or find a ready-made solution for felting.

The most popular and easy-to-use wool is merino wool; it is often called combed sliver. It may vary in thickness and texture. At the same time, ordinary cotton wool, wool for stuffing, making crafts from felt, as well as padding polyester, sliver, silk and other decorative threads for decoration are also suitable for felting. Regular yarn will not work, nor will regular thread, you only need wool.

Dry felting of paintings: master class

To create a unique picture with your own hands, you will not need many tools and materials. For beginners, Nadezhda Ganyukova’s dry felting master class looks simple.

Namely:

• The first step is to purchase a special needle;
• Then prepare wool of various colors;
• Take foam rubber of medium thickness;
• Choose a picture and get to work.

Merino or carded wool is best suited for creating a picture. The needles can be either triangular or star-shaped. The procedure for doing the work is simple. The wool is placed on a piece of foam rubber, take a needle and begin to tangle the wool with its help, you can make a backing from padding polyester and then cover it with wool. As the work progresses, you can replace the needle with a thicker or thinner one to work on certain details. Also change coat color. You should know some nuances when working with wool and needle. The felting needle is very sharp, so you need to work extremely carefully and carefully and keep the tool at a right angle to the craft.

If, as you work, it is clear that there is not enough wool, you can add more and hide the flaws in this way.

Dry felting makes better toys than paintings; they look too clear and sharp; wet felting is ideal for creating canvases.

Wet felting of wool paintings: stages

Another type of felting is wet felting, which is felting using a soap solution or regular liquid soap. Gauze is also used, on which wool is laid out according to the pattern. A ready-made composition can be used as a fixing solution.

The composition can be prepared with your own hands at home according to a specific recipe.

2 pieces of any soap are grated, pour a couple of liters of boiling water over the finished shavings and mix well, leave for 1-2 hours until the mixture becomes thick enough. After this, you need to prepare the place where the work will be done. Any flat surface is suitable, be it a table or the floor. It’s better to put something under the future painting.

Stages:

1. You need to put gauze on the surface, and on it - the base and the necessary pattern.
2. The wool should be laid out in the shape of a cross and in stripes, holes and bald spots should be avoided, the layers should lie at right angles to each other, and also have the same thickness.
3. You should lay out the base first, then the background and the drawing itself.
4. When you already have an idea of ​​​​the future picture, and the workpiece has already been laid out, the wool is sprinkled with water, covered with a thin cloth, preferably nylon, and generously lubricated with a soapy mixture. Excess should be blotted with a napkin.
5. And finally, direct felting - the wet method is to use friction from side to side to create the desired texture and volume of wool.

You can also felt wool by machine using a washer, but this method is not very convenient. Ultimately, you can create many different color solutions and the technique of paintings and canvases.

Kits for beautiful felting of paintings

If you have no experience in buying wool for felting, you can go to any handicraft store and pick up a set already assembled by professionals for making a wide variety of paintings. The main advantage of this type of creativity is the absence of the possibility of getting dirty - after all, to create a product you only need wool and a needle or soap, depending on the chosen style of work. Ready-made kits may include different volumes of wool, needles of different sizes, and a special solution for wet equipment.

The advantage of ready-made sets is that after creating one picture, the needles and composition remain, and you can work with them more than once, so after the first picture you don’t have to purchase the set again - you can try to select the wool yourself.

Manufacturers of handicraft products have come up with designs of varying degrees of complexity. For example, nature and sky are the simplest and ideal for beginners, animals and flowers (cat, poppies, bullfinch) are more complex and better suited for experienced craftsmen, people and reproductions famous paintings– it’s up to the professionals to choose.

The sets usually include:

• Dyed sheep wool, the number of colors depends on the pattern;
• Wooden frame for the finished product;
• Fabric backing.

Wet felting of paintings (video)

Each set comes with step by step instructions. Wool and tools can remain after work, which allows them to be reused. However, dry felting is not suitable for children - working with a needle is very dangerous for a small child. The resulting paintings will delight creative individuals and will become a wonderful home decoration.

At first glance, it may seem that such a hobby for modern needlewomen as felting appeared relatively recently.

However, what can you say about the fact that about 8,000 years ago people were already practicing making various things from wool? Later, entire workshops began to appear, specializing in working with natural wool. Let's see where anyone can start getting acquainted with this handicraft today.

Felting for beginners: master class

It’s too early for beginning needlewomen to make toys or paintings right away. But something simple like jewelry is quite possible. Let's try to do flower brooch.

So, For the “Lilies of the Valley” brooch you will need:

• Actually, wool
• Thin needles for felting
• Thin wire

• A thick sponge or brush as a stand for making jewelry
• Beads with a diameter of 7-10 millimeters
• Acrylic varnish
• Scissors
• Soapy water
• Clasp used to make a brooch

Let's get started:

• First of all, it is necessary to form a frame for the leaves. And for this you need wire

• Now Take a strand of green wool. It must be placed under the frame and on the brush. This strand is needed pierce with needles

IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that the strand must be larger in size than the wire frame. You shouldn't take it end to end.

• The strand turns over, the actions from the previous paragraph are repeated

• Tips of improvised leaves wrap up

• The result was a blank for a leaf. Now she needs put the wire frame back on

• The edges of the leaves are also processed. using felting needles
• Now is the time to give the leaf a natural look, shading it with wool green tones

IMPORTANT: In order for the shade transitions to be smooth, it is worth smoothing the workpiece with an iron.

• Further leaf outlines are formed- it should not be flat, because it is unnatural. In this case, the twisted ends of the wire stick out from the workpiece
• Glue is applied to the above twisted ends of the wire. You should apply a little more green wool to the glue. Wool curls in such a way that the wire is not visible at all, and a stem is formed. Need to help yourself with a needle

• Now you can start making branches. Take some white wool and form it into a kind of pancake.
• In such a pancake and you need to put a bead, then decorate it with wool. For the best effect, you should help yourself with needles
• Now the bead should be immersed in soapy water, and then roll it out in your hands

IMPORTANT: It is worth removing loose hairs using scissors.

• One top is cut off, after which 8 cuts are made. The bead is taken out of the woolen cocoon - and Now the woolen blank resembles the outlines of lily of the valley flowers
• Received The flowers need to be dipped in acrylic varnish. However, the varnish should be slightly diluted with water beforehand. The workpieces are wrung out and dried
• Buds are forming- white and green wool balls
• Well now assembly begins- balls are strung on a wire. The wire is twisted so that the balls do not separate from it
• Also flowers are strung, and from a piece of wire protruding from the flower a core
• All branches are collected, held together with green wool and glue

• Now a twig, a leaf and a brooch pin are put together. You can decorate this product with a green ribbon

Next decoration - bright summer beads using the felting technique. For them will come in handy:

• Wool. Concerning color range, then it can be very diverse

IMPORTANT: Make sure that you have wool on hand and not acrylic.

• Needle. It is advisable to purchase a coarse regular needle for felting
• Waxed cord. Stock up on 2-3 meters
• Caps for beads or acorns. If you can’t find acorns near you, you can contact a hardware store
• Special felting brush. However, you can replace it with a regular dishwashing sponge or a piece of foam rubber
• Various accessories- these are holders for pendants, which are called bails, and locks, and fasteners for cords. However, if you can’t get all this, there is an option to use a waxed cord or a chain from some unnecessary jewelry

Let's get started:

• So, first of all, take the wool. Fluff it up, tangle it with your fingers

IMPORTANT: How much material is needed for one bead? It all depends on the size of the beads, but keep in mind in any case that wool shrinks a lot during work. This means that stock is needed.

• Wool is curled into a ball. You need to put in more effort as the wool needs to curl tightly.

• Place the ball on the stand- brush, sponge or foam rubber. Do not forget to hold the ball with your fingers, as at this stage it may well fall apart. into it a needle sticks in to secure the shape, and you need to start from the place where the wool is fastened

• Now you need to use a needle to treat the entire surface of the ball- this way it falls better, becomes denser and better in outline

• Similar procedure carried out with the remaining beads

• To complete the wool felting process, it is recommended pour hot water into a bowl, dissolving shampoo or liquid soap in it. Balls are thrown into this bowl

IMPORTANT: Before dropping all the balls, you should make sure that the wool will not shed. Otherwise, there is a high risk of getting a spotted product.

• Each ball is taken out and rolled out between the palms as if you were working with plasticine, that is, in a circle. At first the pressure should be weak, but then it should be increased. If you press too hard right away, unsightly creases may form. Don't be surprised if sizes decrease by up to 30% or even 50%

• As soon as the bead becomes denser and smaller, it rolls out between your palms like a sausage. This action must be carried out until the bead is will resemble an egg

• Beads should be rinsed in order to remove the soap solution. Then they need to be squeezed out and laid out to dry.

• And at this stage you need process the collected acorns. You must first separate the caps, then the tails from the caps. Holes are made in the caps. These parts are thoroughly washed and dried. You can optionally treat the bead blanks with varnish

IMPORTANT: If you purchase special caps for beads, then the step of drilling holes is, of course, not necessary.

• A piece is cut from the waxed cord, folded in half and tied with a loop

• Now the task ahead is more difficult - pull a loop through the acorn cap. If she doesn’t want to get threaded, you can resort to a little trick, namely, thread a thread through the hat, hook a loop with the thread, and then thread it all into the hat

• Pull the loop through so that the knot rests on the cap. WITH inside another knot is tied in the hat so that the loop does not move anywhere

• Add to the bottom of the improvised hat a small amount of glue

• Now to the glue the bead is pressed

IMPORTANT: You need to press the bead firmly, but not for long - a few seconds are enough.

1. The final stage — putting all the loops with beads on some unnecessary chain or waxed cord

Materials and tools for felting wool

IMPORTANT: Whatever technique is used, the same materials are needed.

• So, first of all, this is a special unspun wool. Density, hardness and colors have no restrictions - their choice depends purely on tastes and the desired result. You can purchase it in special stores for creativity. Beginners are recommended to buy so-called “melange” sets with suitable friend friend in shades

• Needles- must also be special. Ordinary sewing tools should be left for other activities, since felting tools are sharper. They have special notches that help the wool fall off. Thick needles are used for felting, medium needles are used to create outlines, and thin needles are used to form the final touches.
• Brush- can be special for felting, purchased at a craft store. However, it is quite possible to replace it with a piece of foam rubber or a dishwashing sponge

IMPORTANT: You should not refuse this item, as it protects the table and hands from needle pricks.

• Sintepon- recommended if you are planning something voluminous. In this case, the base is formed from it, and wool is applied on top
• Decor elements- beads, ribbons, beads, accessories, glass eyes

Wet felting from wool: technique

This technique makes excellent bags, scarves, mittens, slippers. The peculiarity is that It is necessary to use a soap solution in which pieces of wool are placed. At the same time, the wool shrinks significantly, which implies the need for harvesting several times larger than the desired dimensions of the product.

• So, First of all, you should prepare a soap solution. To do this, grate coarse grater a piece of soap must be filled with boiling water in a volume of two liters. The soap is thoroughly mixed until completely dissolved, the solution is infused. As an alternative, you can use liquid soap

IMPORTANT: The solution must be infused until it thickens. As a rule, it takes two hours.

• After the solution reaches a state of readiness, you can proceed directly to the needlework itself. Cover the surface with bubble wrap, since it is reusable many times, it prevents fibers from sticking. Please note that the film is spread with the bubble side up

• First thing a base layer is placed on the film, then a background layer, and then a layer with a pattern. The layers must be thin, overlapped and perpendicular, otherwise gaps will appear. Special attention It should be ensured that the thickness of the layers is the same everywhere
• Use a spray bottle to spray the workpiece with water.- this will help not to move the drawing. After this, it is worth covering the workpiece with a nylon cloth and wetting it in soapy water.

• And now you can start rubbing the canvas by hand. Moreover, the directions must be different to achieve the best result.

Dry felting from wool: technique

A person who has not previously encountered felting should start with dry felting, as it is less labor-intensive. Using this technique you can create the most interesting toys, flowers, beads.

Place a piece of wool on the sponge, and then, using a needle, begin to form a product from this piece - that's all the technology. Please remember that The wool shrinks by about a third, so you will have to stock up on a large amount.

IMPORTANT: Punctures should be done carefully, otherwise either the needle will break or your hands will be injured.

Craftsmen usually start working with thicker needles, and in the process of compacting the material, replace them with thin ones. At the same time, the needles kept perpendicular to the product to avoid breakage. The material must be located on the surface, and not float on weight.

Felting wool toys: master class

First, let's try to make a cute little sheep using felting. It is made as follows:

• The first thing you need to do is work on the foundation. An L-shaped roller is created from carded beige, white, brown or any other natural colors. It should be dense, for which it should be thoroughly felted

• Now you need to form a head from part of the base. It is formed by adding wool - this is how the cheeks, front and top parts with all their reliefs appear

IMPORTANT: If you suddenly feel that the volume of your head is becoming smaller than it should be, do not panic! Just add a little more wool - fortunately, carding allows you to do this. The main thing is to create good density.

• It's the peephole's turn. Using a thick needle, two notches are formed. A needle with a thick thread is threaded through the neck into one of the corners of the eye. A bead is then strung on it, after which the needle is threaded into the other corner of the eye and out into the next eye hole. Next, the same algorithm as with the first eye, after which the needle is removed in the neck area

• It is important to give the muzzle its final look by attaching corners in the form of a nose and mouth. It is worth adding a jumper between them. These parts are fastened with a thick needle and processed with a thin one.

• The body is being formed with the help of a cadoches. The silhouette must be made drop-shaped

IMPORTANT: Use a thick needle to create the body.

• In order to create the legs of a sheep, It is necessary to twist two rollers from the carding card. In this case, the ends of the rollers should remain loose

• Now form the felt boots from brown wool, first thick and then thin needles. Excess hairs are carefully cut off

• The legs are attached to the body, and the joints are covered with small pieces of carding. You can add more wool to create a belly and hips.

• Arms are created in the same way as legs, but only the rollers are smaller this time. The ends of the hands need to be wrapped in bright wool - these are mittens. Don't forget to form thumbs on the mittens

IMPORTANT: To work on the mitten you will need thin needles.

• Ears are being made in the form of oval pieces. One end of the pieces should be loose - this will make it easier to attach the ears to the head
• The fur is finally formed reverse needle. The entire figure is processed except for the legs and face. In this case, the surface must be well dried in advance, otherwise the toy will fall apart

• Reverse needle The junctions of the arms and the body are also masked
• Ears connect just like your hands

• If you like to knit, cast on 7 stitches on thin needles and create a scarf for a toy. Approximately 15-17 centimeters is enough

• The eye area needs tinting. However, like the lines of the muzzle and ears. It is recommended to tint with dark pastels, but eye shadow is also suitable

• The sheep toy is ready!

Felting paintings

The uniqueness of paintings created using felting lies in the fact that the master does not have to be a painter at all. And the result is very similar to watercolor paintings.

There are several techniques:

• Laying out It is considered the most convenient technique for beginners. No need to use soap, water or needles. Wool fibers are simply laid out in layers

IMPORTANT: In order for the work to hold, you need to press it down with glass.

• Wet technique Requires the use of soap and water. At the same time, the fibers adhere so well that they are barely distinguishable and turn into a single whole.

• Mixed media consists in the fact that wet felting is first used, and then dry fibers are applied. For the wet part of the work, the main shades are taken, and the dry part adds additional shades. In the latter case, needles are used

IMPORTANT: Whatever the technique, remember that you should not expect quick results. The work may take several weeks, otherwise there will be a lot of shortcomings.

The nuances of creating paintings using feltig:

• A toothpick or needle is a must for better detailing of small details. The work also works well if you use wool when laying out tweezers
• Apply glass to the painting from time to time- this way the shortcomings will be better visible. Since many works end up being stored under glass, it is better to immediately check the appearance of the painting. It will immediately become clear how dense the layers are in relation to each other. In addition, wool under glass tends to become flattened, which is why the part increases in size
• Variety of shades- an indispensable condition for creating a picture. Highlights, spots, shadows make the work naturalistic. And creating them is very simple if you replace layers

IMPORTANT: You should, however, be careful when replacing layers, otherwise the painting will lose its lightness.

Felting is an excellent family activity. Wool is absolutely safe unless there are allergic reactions to it. This means that even children can be involved in such an activity, instilling in them hard work, perseverance and a sense of beauty. Improve yourself over and over again with felting!

Video: How to buy wool for felting?

Video: Felting, or how to felt a panda?

Wool products made using the technique of wet or dry felting Lately are becoming more and more popular, since wool is a unique natural material that cannot be called ordinary. It not only looks great, but in skillful hands it becomes very pliable, as it has felling ability.

This ability gives wool fibers the opportunity to intertwine with each other, and then connect, taking the required shape, and contract under any mechanical influence.

Wool fibers come in natural and synthetic colors and come in all sorts of colors.

Talented craftsmen create fascinating works of art, original toys, crafts, jewelry and accessories for all occasions from wool.

We suggest you try using wool to decorate a painting. In this master class you can familiarize yourself with the basics of this creativity.

Don't think that if you can't draw, this isn't for you. The sketch for your first wool painting can be printed on a printer and transferred to a workpiece.

How to make a picture

For such work, you can choose either a dry or wet felting technique. Please note that dry will give a more voluminous version, wet, on the contrary, will make the picture flat. In our master class, a painting with flowers will be done first in a dry technique, but will finally be framed in a wet technique.

To felt wool, you will need special needles and tools. It will also be cheaper to buy a set of different colored wool fibers at once, rather than buying each color separately. One painting will require very little of this material. The main thing is to stock up on a lot of white wool, as it will become the canvas of our picture.

To work using the technique of wet felting wool, you will definitely need water, regular soap, bubble wrap, a small rubber mat, or any material that can be conveniently rolled into a roll along with the design.

Drawing with wool

First of all, you need to work on the canvas for the painting, onto which the wool fibers will then be applied. The canvas must be dense. You should immediately decide on the size and shape (circle, square or rectangle) of the future product.

Start laying the white wool fibers crosswise, marking the edges of the canvas. After laying down several layers of fibers, try to connect them with a felting needle. To do this, you need to make deep stabbing movements along the fur, but not perpendicular to the floor, but, as it were, to the side. When you have finished felting the first layer of wool, add a second layer of canvas backing fibers and repeat the procedure.

After completing work on the canvas, the most interesting part comes - drawing. We have already mentioned above the possibility of working with prints. But we are not working now using the nunofelting technique, so anyone who cannot boast of the ability to draw should choose simple compositions and genres, for example, drawing simple flowers. It is also advisable to have a picture in front of you to draw.

As a last resort, you can transfer the drawing with transfer paper onto the base, only before doing this you need to additionally felt it and make sure that the surface is smooth and finished.

Where should you start when painting the composition of a picture with wool? Oddly enough, in this skill many steps have something in common with classical painting. As in painting, you have to work from light to dark or from dark to light, from large elements to details and accents.

No matter what you're painting with wool, landscape or still life, start with the largest areas. For example, in a still life (if it is flowers), immediately work on the petals and leaves of the flowers in a single color. If you have a vase, fill it with wool. In the case of a landscape, use monochromatic colors for the sky, areas of trees, water, and so on.

After that, move on to working on the shadows and light. For example, in a red flower, you can indicate the transitions of tones from the core to the ends of the petals, making the core darker and the ends lighter. This material seems to have been created for these purposes. Thus, a thin piece of fiber itself disintegrates into dozens of fibers, which, lying on top of a darker color, create interesting effect, like veins on petals or leaves.

After working out the shadows and light areas with wool, all that remains is to add details to the picture: felting contours, twigs, small details, and so on.

If you worked in dry technology, then at this stage your work can be considered finished. In wet technology, there is one more stage ahead.

You need to wet the soap and lather the wool well with it until it is completely wet. Next, place your painting on a rubber mat, cover it with bubble wrap on top and roll everything into a roll. Roll it like a rolling pin for five to seven minutes, then turn it around and repeat the soaping process. Roll and roll again. As a result, all wool fibers should come together.

All you have to do is rinse the painting under running warm water and dry it by laying it on a flat surface.

Then you can frame the picture and hang it on the wall. A similar wool painting will be a wonderful addition to any interior.

Do you like to draw? Then it’s time to try a new direction for creativity - dry felting made of wool. Having mastered this technique, you will be able to make real masterpieces and create your own art collection. Wool painting simple master class for beginners - good way master .

Step-by-step master class: painting from wool

Before you begin, prepare the following materials:

• Frame with glass and clips
• Wool of different colors
• Base fabric - non-woven or flannel
• Tweezers

First you need to disassemble the frame, that is, separate the glass from it and attach the selected backing fabric to a wooden base. This fabric is needed to ensure that the wool holds well.

Now you need to take the undyed wool and spread it in an even layer on top of the frame.

At this stage, the formation of the base layer occurs, so carefully pull out the threads with tweezers to get even strands. You can also do this with your hands, holding a piece of wool in one and pulling out the strands with the other.

Photo of the pulling technique

The pinching technique should be used to form the background of a wool painting for beginners. This technique is quite simple: bend a piece of wool and pull out the hairs from it and lay them out on the work surface.

Photo of pinching technique

For the background of the painting, use blue and light blue wool, combining plucking techniques.

Now you need to make a light haze on blue background, for this use gray or beige wool. Lay out thin strands. We will have a winter picture, so we used the pulling method to obtain strands of white wool for the snowdrifts and place them on the base.

White wool is suitable for decorating the moon and light haze around it. Unlike snowdrifts, the strands for the moon should be smaller. You can add a little yellow around the moon. To do this, use wool of a suitable color, but trim the hairs after pulling them to make the effect more realistic.

With white wool you can draw trees that are visible in the distance. Gently adjust the threads with tweezers to bring the picture closer to the natural image. If you find it difficult to create on the go, then first make sketches on paper and even mark the shades so that they can be easily selected from the available wool.

Brown threads will be useful to you to make a hut that is barely visible because of the snowdrifts. If you want to plant a tree made of wool, then mix several shades of threads, trim them a little, and then lay out the branches.

The top of the spruce can be covered with snow using white wool. You can think through the plot deeply, then the glare from the moon will fall on the path, and in addition to the spruce in your picture, trees will grow from wool.

Wool is an ordinary material, but in skillful hands it turns into a real work of art - a landscape or still life. Felting is a process by which air felt becomes dense. In this article we will tell you how to make wool paintings for beginners. Only natural fabric has the ability to fray: the fibers adhere to each other due to their scaly structure. Anyone can learn the skill.

Images made from wool: a step-by-step master class for beginners

First you need to buy a frame from a craft store, prepare it and disassemble it. Separate the wooden backing from it - the future basis for the fluffy canvas. Using a stapler and several paper clips, place a special napkin on the tree to secure the material.

Take pre-prepared wool of any color you like. You need to start felting from the background, and then lay out small elements on the finished base. Take a small skein and wind it around forefinger. Using tweezers, pluck the desired strands.

Use a colorless glue stick to mark the places where the wool pieces will be glued. Carefully attach colored plucked skeins for the background. You can make a gray base for them. Try to ensure that its edges extend a few centimeters beyond the wooden backing.

When creating the background, be sure to follow the “dark to light” principle. Cover the borders of the frame with blue or black wool. Gradually approaching the center of the still life or landscape, add light strands.

After the background will be finished, iron the painting with reverse side. To avoid damaging fragile elements, place a sheet of paper or thin cloth under the iron. This will help secure the wool fibers.

Start laying out the main elements of the drawing using the method described above. After creating each one, iron the design on the reverse side.

When the image is finished, trim it with nail scissors. Before hiding the object of your creativity under glass, iron the landscape again.

After such instructions, the question of how to make a picture from felted wool with your own hands will not arise.

Types of felting

The technology can use sheep fur, as well as alpaca, camel, llama, or even cashmere, angora and mohair. There are two main types of creating such images.

Dry felting

This method was invented not so long ago. Even in the last century, most pictures were made from wet material. This is not surprising: for the dry version you need large quantity time. But the image turns out clearer and has defined contours.

For the base you need a wooden backing from a finished frame. A napkin made of synthetics is suitable as a background. If you plan to knit it yourself, be sure to wash it before working on the picture. Select a delicate wash cycle of 50 degrees and a spin force of about 400. This is necessary so that the materials shrink a little and no gaps or debris appear in them. You can also use sticky non-woven fabric as a base.

For ease of use, attach the canvas to a soft pillow with artificial filler. Start laying out the main background elements. Manipulate fiber density to create translucent clouds and bright blue skies. Sometimes it makes more sense to lay out the composition on a colored napkin.

Create one small element and secure it with a crown needle. Use a thin blade to pierce the wool in the felting areas, trying to pull the fibers through the fabric. If we're talking about For a large painting with many elements, you can purchase a four-needle tool.

Attach the finished image tightly to the prepared wooden base. Please review it carefully for any defects. If you notice an empty space, attach a piece of patch that matches the color and attach it with a needle.

Wet felting

To create such a painting from wool, you will need to follow the following steps step by step:

• Choose colored tufts for the base of your future image. Fluff the tip of the material a little so that you can easily pull out a few fibers. Take the finished skein with one hand. With your second hand, carefully pull out about 30 centimeters of mohair, depending on the length and width of the planned painting. Gently stretch the fiber.
• Find a piece of wood. Instead of a stretcher, you can use the remains of an old wall calendar. But the cardboard must be strong and solid, without holes or visible cracks. Wrap the workpiece with special bubble wrap used for transporting fragile items. Air bubbles are on the outer layer.
• Lay the material from top to bottom, with the pile in one direction. After this, create a perpendicular layer going from left to right. Carefully secure the future background and begin laying out all the elements of the work on it. Don't try to secure them - just place the wool on top in the desired shape.
• Carefully lift the painting and place a terry towel underneath so as not to get it wet. workplace. Prepare a soap solution - add a little liquid or solid soap to regular warm water and stir the resulting liquid. Pour it into any household spray bottle.
• Cover the top of the product with a mosquito net or other translucent fabric. Start spraying the soap solution over the surface. Trying not to put pressure on the painting, spread the soap over work surface. “Massage” the image for 5-7 minutes to set the fur.
• Take a regular kitchen rolling pin. Wrap layers of fabric around it lengthwise and roll for 10 minutes. After this, repeat the operation, but this time in width. After each circle, check for stretching or deformation.
• Dry the fabric with a terry towel and leave for a few minutes. It will shrink a little during the process. This wool felting will help both beginning adult artists and children create paintings.

What tools are needed

You can buy a simple picture frame at a hardware store. Use standard size. Wooden frames with a noble natural shade look good with such pictures. If you can’t buy these, buy regular plastic and coat it with varnish.

For dry felting you will need a small non-woven napkin. You can buy it at a handicraft store in your city. If you don’t have this material at hand, you can use regular felt or flannel. The main requirement is that the fabric used must be fleecy and sticky.

In stores you can find so-called combed tape or tops. It is most often used for laying out paintings. All fibers used have already been combed out and arranged into neat bundles. This type of wool is suitable for both the base and the background.

The background can also be laid out using carding. Unlike combed tape, the fibers here do not look very neat. Most often they are sold in the form of runes or regular skeins. They help create artificial chaos. Suitable for creating snowdrifts and skies.

For the base, the top layer of the background, a sliver is used. This is the same tape, but pre-cleaned. It is light, but not bleached and has no coloring.

In addition, you will need thin tweezers. This tool is needed for working with small parts. Sharp nail scissors are used to straighten the painting. In order not to look for materials yourself, you can purchase a set of tools on the Tovarika trading platform in the “Hobbies and Creativity” section.

DIY wool watercolor

Using felting you can create a charming watercolor landscape. Unfortunately, you rarely get a perfect image the first time, but if you are already an experienced artist, you can safely take on this technique.

Take a wooden base, preferably attached to the frame with a clip. Wet it with a non-concentrated soap solution to help the fur adhere better to the background. Take some tapes blue color. You can combine fibers of blue, white and scarlet. If you skillfully combine the palette, you can achieve a delicate shade of the winter sky.

Lay the strands first from top to bottom, then from bottom to top, forming a dense sky. In the upper right corner, make a small oval using light yellow. Using tweezers, add a few bluish fibers to the improvised sun to make the contours fuzzy.

Using the already described technique of perpendicular lines, create snow. For this you can use white or untreated wool. Use fibers to create an uneven structure, trying to imitate snowdrifts.

Take the brown material and twist it into thin ropes. Outline the outlines of the bare winter trees. Cut the fibers with scissors and scatter the snow on the branches. Place small pellets of red rowan on top. Cover the finished work with varnish.

This image looks simply amazing. All your friends will be delighted to see this beautiful and delicate craft. The Color World of Bright Ideas company creates a video featuring amazing paintings made from wool.

Wool painting: how to create a flower

Using a soft and pleasant-to-touch material, you can make not only picturesque landscape, but also beautiful flower. Take a traditional solid base and glue it with non-woven fabric. Prepare colored skeins of mostly pastel shades.

Use the pulling technique to extract a few fibers for the background. To make the image organic, use yellow, light green, lapis lazuli, lilac, blue and orange. In the center of the picture, select a place for a vase of flowers. Place the fibers so that they extend from the composition to the edges.

Using light plucked wool, create a halo of a white vase. Try to make the element dense and clear, form boundaries. The flower jar should stand out from the background.

Pull dark green, light and black material. Place some dark fibers in the center of the intended bouquet. Try to lighten and blur the edges. Form a chaotic sequence of stems. Use flagella to make single solid rods.

Cut the white hairs into thin flagella. From them form the petals of future daisies. Add raised blades of grass with greenish centers to make the bouquet look natural.

Use yellow fibers to make flower cores. You can lay out a thin cobweb of a bluish or greenish tint. Complete the flowers with details, focusing on your imagination and vision of beauty.

In the production of such work, a simple technique of felting wool paintings is used.

Easy DIY landscape

Using felting, you can create a picturesque landscape reminiscent of the beauty of golden autumn. But keep in mind that you will have to try hard to convey the naturalness of nature. Despite the fact that the lesson is designed for beginners, it is better to practice on still lifes and animals before it. We will tell you how to make such an image step by step.

• Place light fibers on a prepared base of felt or other fabric. For the first layer it is better to use white or light blue. To convey the texture of the autumn sky, it is better to put bluish or azure shades on top. To make it more realistic, add gray fibers to create the texture of heavy clouds.
• Below you can depict bare brown earth. We will supplement it with small elements later, when the main background is ready. Make small ropes and lay out the contours of trees of different lengths and widths with them so that the forest is not too symmetrical.
• For the leaves, cut brown, orange and yellow wool into small piles. Attach the fibers in the desired places. Using a similar technique, cover the ground with leaves. You can create real “drifts” of fallen leaves if you want to draw a realistic forest.
• Scatter autumn fruits generously over the trees. For example, forest apples can grow on small ones. They need red pellets. Add some green fibers to the center for a realistic shimmer.

Such a simple painting with wool will delight you on cold winter evenings, reminding you of a bygone golden age.

Work examples

Skilled hands can paint extraordinary images of various subjects. This could be a bouquet of spring daisies.

But it’s not only daisies that receive the attention of craftswomen. You can also find your charm in sunflowers. The symbols of the passing summer always look towards the sun, trying to warm themselves under the last rays.

Poppies are no less popular. In August, when the golden rye is earing, scarlet inflorescences appear in the steppes. It is believed that the poppy field is one of the brightest. And with the help of the picture you can feel the unique steppe atmosphere.

Paintings using the dry felting technique show not only flowers. A striking example is in the image below. The red pet is very curious, he can’t help but pay attention to the little ladybug.

Artists often take wild animals as characters.

By skillfully combining various techniques, you can create a peaceful winter landscape. The blizzard subsided, revealing to us the rickety roofs of the houses. Dark light pours from the windows, and a thin haze curls from the chimney.

One of the most simple pictures for beginners - sunset over the sea. The surface of the water is painted in indescribable shades, which can only be replicated by mixing different fibers.

In this article, we told you how to make easy paintings from wool for beginners, and provided several photos of the work. It's quite simple, and even Small child. But to achieve the desired effect, you will have to learn.