Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi there, welcome to une felt workshop. I'm PonPon. In this course, we are going to make flower brooch. There are 7 chapters from materials and tools to assembling. I will demonstrate and explain each parts one by one. So if you are a beginner, you can rewatch the part that you feel difficult.
2. Chapter 1 Tools and Material Introduction: In this lesson, the tools we need are... Floral wire, different gauge has different thickness, and it affects the results. I would recommend to use 26 gauge wire for this lesson. Floral tape, Floral tape, floral tape is commonly used for stem wrapping, it is strong and stretchable. In the general condition, it is dry and won't stick to itself. Therefore, we have to stretch the tape slightly as using. The color of the floral tape, I would recommend to use green or white. But, this is not that matter, later on we will use wool wrap on the top. Needle felting needle, there are various kinds of shape and gauge. In this lesson, preparing one triangular or stars shape. And we will use the thinner needle, about 40 gauge. Needle felting sponge pad or mat, there are several kinds of pad. The pad provides a soft surface for the needle to go into, preventing snapping. The difference among these pad is service life. These kinds of foam or sponge, they aren't long-term usage. You have to change new one when it gets concave surface or stuck a lot of fiber in it. This felting needle mat is my favorite, it is long-term usage and easy to clean as well. PVA glue, I would recommend you use wood glue. Awl, we will use this when connecting the flower and floral wire. If you don't have it, using a small sharp scissors as alternative tool. Use the point to drill or cut a little hole. Brooch, the flower brooch size in this pattern isn't that big. Therefore, I would suggest you use a smaller brooch, around 2 cm long. Last one is wool fiber you can prepare what ever kind of colors. This ball is the flower part, and it is the main color. For the stem, you can use one color or blend various colors to create a natural look. In addition, using short fiber, such as carded wool or batt can help you work efficiently. Ok, those all we need for this lesson, we are going to learn how to make flower in the next chapter.
3. Chapter 2 How To Needle Felt?: Before we start, we need to
know how to use the needle properly and we want poke
ourselves in the process. The basic concept of
using this needle is always poke in and out from the same direction
and the place. For example, now my
needle goes in 90 degree. The spot is here. So when I take the needle out will be the same
spot and direction. Once your needle goes
out in a different area. In my break, due to
the angle difference, the broken needle
would be stuck inside your word or a shoe
to other place. We can avoid this
dangerous action by aware our pocket movement. It happens quite a lot, especially for beginners
who are forgets that we can use our non-dominant
hands to move the objects. You might wonder,
what does that mean? This is the most common
way I saw from students. When you want to
poke the oldest side and you will force
your wrist like this. This is not an
ergonomic gesture. You might hurt your wrist
and we'll fill tires. And meanwhile, you can not see the spot that you
are working as well. The best way to
fix this is using your non-dominant hand to help the hand you are
holding a needle. It should be in a sense bought. It just needs to keep
doing up and down action. Use the other hand to
move the object or a working matte to
reach different areas. The advantage of this
is your Nino will be in the same direction every
time your non-dominant hand. We're also know how to
avoid those needles. Then you won't poke yourself and keep having fun in the flow.
4. Chapter 3 How To Blend Wool Color?: In the next 2 chapters, we will start to do flower, and you can decide to use one color or blend the fiber color as you want. Using analogous color can create a soft and natural palette. For high saturation, I would suggest use one color only. In this lesson, I will demonstrate using one color on the flower, and blend color for the stem and leaves. Now I will demonstrate how to blend colors. First, decide how many colors you want to work. Here, I prepare 3 different green colors. The tips for blending is setting different percentage for each color. For example, 50% for the main color, and the other 50% is divide into rest of the colors. Here are two method for blending. One is working by hands directly. We separate wool fiber into small amount, then use fingers to pull it out and join again. Repeating this movement until they are well blend. However, it takes more time and easy to get chunky color blend. Using fiber blenders can fix these issues. But how to use these tools and create nice blended color? First, we divide into small amount depends on how big your hand carders are. Small carder use less amount, larger one can use more amount. Drafting the fibers onto the hand carders. You can start with whatever colors, and keep loading it on the tip of the hand carder. When this small amount is all loaded on the carder, then we can move on to the next step. Now, pay attention to my hands position, how I hold the carders. One of them is facing down, the other one is facing up. We only load the fiber onto one carder, and using the other carder to comb the fibers. In this viewpoint, you can see clearly the movement of top carder is combing down. After few times combing, this wool fiber transfer to other hand carder now. The combing direction have to be the same. Perpendicular from top to the end. In this way, you will have nice combing wool fibers. Then we exchange the carder, let the carded which loaded the fiber be beneath, and use the other one to comb. Repeating this process until it is well blended. When it is done, we can take the fiber out of the hand carder. Preparing the blended colors before we start to make flower and leaves. It helps us have good working flows. In next chapter we are going to make flower.
5. Chapter 4 How To Make a Felted Ball? : In this flower brooch design, we will use 2 tiny balls as flowers. How can we create a ball by using wool roving? The efficient way to make a tiny ball, you can do it like this. Fold the tip of the top and then fold from right to left side, left to right side. Repeat it again, from top to down, right to left, left to right. Repeat it again, from top to down, right to left, left to right side. Here is one tip when folding the fibers. The fingers you are holding the wool cannot loosen when you change your hands. Once you loosen the fiber, the dense is less, and it takes more time to work. You may ask, how tight and how big should I roll it? There is no right answer, it depends on what kind of texture and size you want. If you want to know what's the reality size I create, there is a reference pattern you can print it out in the supplemental document. When you end rolling, keep holding it and using the needle to poke on the area where the end of the fiber join. Remember we were talking about ergonomic position in previous chapter to prevent poking ourselves. After few times poking, now we can loosen this fluffy ball. The fiber won't spring back anymore. The work we need to do now is poking in and out in different angles. Think about, if you merely poke in the same area. It is easy to create a flat piece. However, we want to create a sphere shape, so we have to turn the object around and make sure we work on every side. This is the reason why I was introducing and demonstrating how the non-dominant hand collaborates with dominant hand in chapter 2. Now we have to keep poking in different dimension. You can take a look how my needle goes in and out. Also pay attention to my both hands, How they collaborate with each. In this chapter, you need to make 2 small balls, then you can move on to the next chapter.
6. Chapter 5 How To Make Felted Leaves?: Now we are going to make the leaves. Take the blended color, and prepare 2 equal portion. The amount I used is like my thumb size big. You can open the supplemental document to check the accurate size. The trick to make a leaf is folding. Pay attention how to fold and angles. Imagine one leaf is a diamond shape, and in the middle there is a center line. Fold the right fluffy wool to the left in 45 degree. Same as the left side to right. Don't loosen it until you poke and secure the end. Now move the object on the felting pad. Now poke in from the top and take the needle out in the same direction. A few times poking, we need to remove the leaf from the felting pad. This process is important, the object is easily stuck in the pad, especially using sponge or foam. Now flip it over, keep poking on the other side from top to down. Now change the poking angle and direction, we will go from sides, parallel or 45-degree against the object. This creates sharp and clean edges Don't forget to flip it over and do the same process in the back. Here you can apparently see the difference between left and right sides. The right side edge has clean outline and left side is still fluffy and blurry look. So we need to do the same work on the left side. Now we are going to do the lower part of the diamond shape. But this time we need to create some fluffy hair to join the stem after. Imagine here is a center line, but this time we will fold in a narrow angel not 45 degree. Because we need to let the fluffy wool to help join the wire later on. Put it on the pad and poke from the top until the open edge won't spring back. Doing the same process on the left side as well. Now is same as previous time, we change our poking angle and direction to make the clean outline. Remember, remove the object from the pad after a few times poking. Preventing your object is stuck on the pad. In this chapter, you have to create 2 leaves, once is it done you can move on to the next part.
7. Chapter 6 How To Wrap Wire with Wool?: Before wrapping the wool on the floral wire, you have to use floral tape to create sticky wire. Cut a piece of tape longer than the wire. Then cut it in half in perpendicular. In this section, you will need 2 wires and 2 floral tapes. Now, stretch one of the tape which is cut. This action is helping create the adhesive from the tape, then wrap it on the wire. But how can we make nice even wrapping wire? The technique of wrapping a nice and even surface is the position among tape and wire. First, let the tape beneath the wire, and create a triangular area on the bottom. Press this triangular tape to stick it on the wire. This is our starting point. Now pay attention to angle and the rolling movement. We will roll and move the wire and also adhere the tape on it. The key point to make even surface is angle, it will affect the thickness.cvv For example, if they are in 90 degree, then the floral tape will keep staying in the same spot and create thick volume. However, if it is 45 degree or less, and then the tape will move on and cover the lower part. Keep wrapping until the wire is covered. Let's try again and wrap another floral wire. If you feel you're clumsy hands, it is normal. It takes time to practice, more times you practice, it looks better after. Keep it in mind, and pay attention to the relationship of wire and tape. Once if you find the tape is making volume then check the angle. You can always unroll it and re-adhere until it is good enough for you. In this part, we need to cover the whole wire with floral tape. Once it is done, we can use wool fiber to cover the wire. The technique is the same as before, the trick in here is each time just use a little amount to cover the wire. It is easier to wrap and control the thickness. Now, expand the wool, make it in a longer thin layer. Put it beneath the wire, and same wrapping technique, and same wrapping technique. Tweak the tip, this is our starting point. Then wrapping the wool, the angle of wool and wire is important. 90 degree angles means volume up the size, 45 degree is moving forward. So, once if you found out your wool didn't completely cover the wire, then you have to change the angle to create the volume and hide the tape beneath. Here I will show you how to wrap it if your wool amount is not enough, or you snap the wool while wrapping. Take the other small amount and keep doing the same process. Here is a key point when join second times. We must turn and roll in the same movement, it means, the first time is clockwise twist then now it is the same, otherwise, you will untwist the previous wool. When you wrap till the end of the wire, remove extra fiber. And let your finger stay in the end area the other fingers keep twisting the wire until it is completely mounted. You have to prepare two wrapping wires in this lesson.
8. Chapter 7 Assembling Components and Brooch: When all the components are done, we can start to assemble them. We will start from the balls and the stems. Using a awl or scissors to create a tiny hole, make sure the hole is big enough to insert this wire. then apply a little PVA glue on the tip of the wire and insert it into the ball. The depth must be at least radius deep to prevent it coming off easily. Now we are going to poke around the connecting area. Let the ball entirely be fixed in that spot. by using narrow angle poking direction. When 2 balls are all connected with the stems, and now we are going to add the leave on it. Make sure your leaves have the fluffy area to join the stems. In the join position, you can freely apply it or refer to the reference pattern. Do you remember how we wrap the wire with wool fiber? It is the same technique here as well. Try to expand the wool fiber meanwhile rolling the wire. However, it is a bit tricky to join the leaves, I would love to apply a little glue on it, and let it there for couple minutes. Because we are going to use the other small amount of wool to cover the top. It will look much delicate and won’t show up the connected point. Now we take a small amount of wool. Put it on the felting pad, and poke from top to down couple times Flip it over, and work on the other side as well. Now we use this felt wool place it on the top of the connecting point to hide the connecting area. The rest of the fluffy wool, we fold it to the back side, and poke. We can completely secure the leaves with stems by this method. Using narrow angle to clean the edge and make it looks delicate. Now both of them are done, we will join these 2 together. Align the bottom area, then hold the top. Now we are going to use floral tape to wrap the bottom part. Stretch the tape first, then place it beneath the stems. This time we won’t need to create the triangular area, just wrap it directly. Keep it in mind, the angle affects the thickness volume. Avoid the right angle and let the tape entirely cover and hold both of the stems together. Cut off rest of the tape. Now the lower part is wrapped by tape then same as before, we are going to use wool to cover and hide the tape. Each time wrapping it in a little amount of wool. You will be able to control its volume and thickness Keep wrapping it until it is fully covered. Now we need to fix the bottom tip, turn your flower in other side. Use small amount to wrap until the fiber is end, keep rolling it couple times, let the fiber fully hook up. The last part is connecting a brooch. I don't recommend you apply PVA glue directly, because it is not a well connection method, specially this stem is not an even flat surface. The method now I am going to demonstrate is using floral tape and wrap it. First, open the brooch, let the needle point down. Now we are going to use floral tape to wrap the stem and brooch together. Before join the brooch, wrap the tape on the stem first. When it is attached, then it won’t move easily when we put on the brooch. Now we place the brooch on the top, then wrap the tape in the central flatten area. When they are all connected, stop wrapping and cut the tape, because you won't want a bulky size here. Now use green wool and cover it again. You might think his is wrapping process is a bit troublesome. However, it provides high tolerance to usage and the appearance looks better.
9. Final Result: Well, the flower branch is done. Have fun during the
pumpkin process. Now you can try more a
different color combination and change the color of the
leaves or stems as well. You can show us you are great. If Froude, I will love
to see your lovely work.
Pon Huang
