A few questions on techniques........

**muds mom** · 07-19-2012, 05:20 PM

1. For my last few figures I started by wet felting egg and sphere shapes - not to tight, leaving them with plenty of room to work with and "mold". The idea came to me in two ways. First from a post on learning to draw - they start with the simple shapes and go from there. And second is that the early stages with all the ripping and working with the cheaper bulk fiber I was getting sick - ended up with sinus infection and broncitis from alergic reaction to wool. Having that early stage done wet keeps me from inhaleing all that wool dust.

Is this how other do it?? On my first figures I just bunched it up dry and worked it from there. It seems like this new way is saving allot of time but I have also gotten better in general.

2. When a figure is about 60% done I will wet him down agian in scalding very soapy water in a mason jar and shake him up hard and repeat till the soap is gone on the last shake. Then I can reroll the legs and tail if needed and streach the neck or torso if needed. I squeeze all the water out and form them, putting legs how I want them, bending at the hock etc...

I add wire to legs and tails after they are dry agian and about 80% done.

Does this sound normal??? I am totaly winging it. I,m sure there are tutorial I could watch but I have no sound on my computer so that's just anoying.

Any thought on this peocess??

**feltalive** · 08-01-2012, 07:50 PM

For needle felting there really is no normal - if it works for you, then it works! I start all my figures with egg shapes - I needle felt my shapes rather than wet felt them. If you start with clean batting for making your egg shapes, you shouldn't get all that dust.

**muds mom** · 08-04-2012, 05:11 AM

The bulk fiber I've been getting is a bit dusty. I think I need to upgrade. I was looking for best price and good feltability for bulk . The shop I go to has large clear garbage bags of many natural colors and you just pull out how much you need. It's been washed and combed but not as well as the packaged stuff. Heck they sometimes have bags of fleese right off the sheep! Now I can't go near that without my eyes watering.