Wet & Needle Felting — Wool Mushrooms

1. Wet & Needle Felting — Wool Mushrooms: Would you like to learn how to make these darling felted wool mushrooms? I really hope so, because I'm ready to show you my tricks. In this class, I'll teach you some basic wet and needle felting techniques and show you my favorite shortcuts to make the most of your time and materials. We'll create these adorable hanging mushroom ornaments for gifting home decor and overall delightful cottage charm. Hi, I'm Kenger Ortner of By Hand At Home. I believe that art brings us a feeling of being at home in our souls. That's why I create and share my art. I'm an eclectic artist and teacher, and I work in digital design, surface pattern design, illustration, wool knitting, crochet embroidery, beating paints and ceramics. I have beginning classes in knitting, crochet embroidery, beating and ceramics. Here on skill share, you can find my work online at byhandothome.com I also offer kits in my shop for my classes in beginning crochet and beginning embroidery. If you haven't taken those classes, this is a great way to get everything you need. For this class. I've attached a list of resources where you can find supplies to get started with wet and needle felting. I adore the way these felted mushrooms look and they're super easy to make, especially using this combination of wet felting and needle felting. The methods I'll show you will give you the skills to make these and come up with your own wool projects. I hope that you will enjoy playing with wool and creating your own woolly mushroom, which will lead to even more woolly. Goodness, thank you for joining me today for wet and needle felting wool Mushrooms. 2. Project: For our class project, you'll be making your very own mushroom. Or perhaps you will make a whole bunch of shroomy cuties. I'll show you how to add some charming spots too. But you're free to design your own look. And hey, if you're here just because you wanted to learn more about felting, you are welcome to don't feel pressured to make mushrooms. Some of my very best friends are anti fungi. You are totally free to take what you've learned in the class and create whatever you desire. Just don't forget to share in the project area. I'd love to hear about your experience And please post a picture so we can all ooh and ah, over your creations. In the next video, I'll talk about the supplies you'll need. 3. Supplies: First things first, have you any wool, you won't explicitly need three bags full. Don't worry, please check out the attached resources for some vendor options and do share if you find any additional sources. Also, please let me know if any of my links are outdated and I will do my best to update. Now if you're looking to purchase some wool, make sure that it is specifically for felting purposes. It must be 100% wool to shrink properly. And for the needle felting process to work, you can search Etsy for wool roving and needle felting supplies. There are many great sellers there. Another store I like is called A Child's Dream, and I'll put a link to their site in the resources as well, I recommend getting some white wool and at least one other color. I use white as a base for all my mushroom creations because it is less expensive and you can make a good base for your felting before adding a color layer. Since we will be doing some wet felting, as well as needle felting, you will want access to both hot and cold water. I usually do this right at my bathroom sink with running hot water, dish soap, and a bowl of cold water. But for this class, I'll be using two bowls and have a kettle to refresh my hot water. After I shape the wet wool, I wrap it in a bandana with a hair band. I usually do several at once. So I have a lot of cloth handkerchiefs and bands. You could also use scraps of cotton fabric, just anything that's not wool. These will get tossed in the dryer with a regular load of towels or other clothes. Now for the needle felting part of your class, you'll need a foam pad or a wool pad which can be bought or even upcycled from something you already own. The foam is to protect your hands and other surfaces from pokes. Now, my favorite tool is made by clover and includes multiple needles that work together for big areas of felting. It has a little springiness to it that is very satisfying to work with. You'll also need some individual felty needles to do detailed work. The size doesn't matter so much, but they must be needle felting needles because they have little barbs on them that mesh the wool and help combine the fibers as you are felting. For my design, I use a pipe cleaner base as well, and I will be using scissors and then shape that pipe cleaner. Then to make it secure I will use a regular sewing needle and string. I promise it's super simple. No sewing skills required. Now, in the next section, I'll show you how I make the base for my mushroom caps by wet felting the wool. 4. Wet Felting: If you've ever accidentally shrunk a wool garment in the wash, you have an idea about how felting works. Wet Felting wool uses friction soap and a combination of hot and cold water to shrink the wool and bind its fibers together. After shaping it and wrapping it up in a cloth, I put it right into the dryer along with a load of wet laundry to really speed up the process and bond the wool together. I start by making a ball of wool with each layer spread out over one another. Separating the wool into thinner layers promotes the blending together of different sections. If you use large chunks, they will only want to blend with the wool they are already attached to. It's good to tear it apart a bit and reform it. Then add some dish soap, and I rub it in my hands in warm water. As I agitate the wool, I can feel it shrink and then I put it in the cool water to really cement this process. If I like the size and shape, I will then wrap it in a cloth and secure it with a hair band. I can also add more layers. This one I'm going to add a full layer over the whole top of it. So folding it and shaping it, putting it in the hot water, will bind the fibers together more. The fibers will cinch up inside the cloth. When I dry it too, agitating it, putting it in the hot water. I'm going to pour a little more hot water right on top there that's very hot. Put it in the cold water and squeeze it out as much as I can. Before I put it into my cloth, I think I need another layer right on top. Now, since this is a mushroom, you know how mushrooms always have their gills coming towards the center. You can shape it like this and make the underside look a little cinched up like the gilts of a mushroom. The fibers will all cinch up just like they are shaped in the cloth. Now, I usually wet, felt a bunch of these bases at once so that I can needle felt them later as time permits. Before you proceed to the next part of class, you'll want to have several bases that are completely finished and all the way out of the dryer, dry, all the way through. Right now I'm going to put this little mushroom cap that I've made in the center of my hanky. This is just a cloth bandianna, but I also use handkerchiefs and other things. Then I cinch it up in here, all the way, making it a little ball on one side. And then on this side I put the rubber band. Now it'll dry just in that shape. When I put it through the dryer here, you can see some that I've already done. They come out perfectly. They're nice and firm based to work on. And then there's sometimes a little wool. You can either leave it or you can just snip it right off. Now, in the next step, I'll show you how I make the stem with a pipe and secure a loop for hanging from. 5. The Stem: Now that you have your bases ready, we can build more of our mushrooms. I usually cut my pipe cleaners into three sections with some sharp scissors. You could also use wire cutters. Then I make a small loop for my thread on one end and twist up the other end so there's no sharper, pokey bit sticking out. To make the string extra secure, I put it through the loop and not it using a square knot. I'm just going to go ahead and thread my needle now to put it through the loop because this part is a little easier. If I just go ahead and do that, then right here I'm going to match up the ends first so I have it pretty even. Then I'll tie my square knot right on this side, right over, left under, and pull left over, right under, and pull. Now I'm going to need to thread my needle again. Just one side. I'll put it straight through the middle of my mushroom and have it come out the top center. I don't need this to be exact. I'm doing this separately with each thread that I'm actually nodding it on top and making it extra secure. It's tied around all this wool that way you can always cut the loop off too if you decide you don't want to use it as a hanging ornament. And the stem portion will still be knotted on there tightly. Again, another square knot, right over, left under and pull, and then left over, right under and pull. Now after it's secured on there, I tie an over hand knot on the very end. And you can see my threads got a little uneven. I'll just tie it down here and then I'll be able to trim the very top right there so that it's even just like that. In the next section, I will show you how to start needle felting. 6. Needle Felting: You'll want to get your foam or wool pad for this part. I'm going to begin with felting the stem of my mushroom and adhering it to the base as well. I usually just start by wrapping thin layers around the pipe cleaner and occasionally using my multi tool to shape them. Another artist once advised me that it takes more wool than you think, and I have found that to be very true. You can always continue to compress and guide the wool with your felty needle to sculpt it into the shape you want. I like a bulky looking mushroom too. I tend to leave it a little fluffy. The trickiest part is joining the two pieces of the cap and stem. I make sure I do that a whole lot. I build up the layers all the way around the cap. I also like to make sure the end of the stem is well covered. I'll probably go back to this part and put some extra wool on there for the whole long part of the stem. It's helpful to use this multi tool and turn it as you go. You're not making it flat and you want to hold it in place while you're doing it. See how it's flattening out. I'm going to want to turn it and go on the other side since the pipe cleaners in here, it's still really bendy. Now I'm going to wrap this wall around the base right here. I'll use my single needle to really adhere that because these are the two parts that aren't yet joined. I'm going to want to join them pretty thickly. Honestly, like with quite a bit of wool, I'm just poking everywhere to really join those layers. It's really well joined on this side, but this side, it needs some work. I'll go around here. Usually when I'm making these mushrooms, I tend to work in a circular motion with the wool the whole time. It really makes the shape come out nicely. I think it helps the wool affix together really well because it's all directionally going together. This is pretty good. But my stem is still, I'm going to need a lot more layers there. When I add the layers onto there, I'm going to want to adhere it to the cap again. I'm going to get another thin layer. Actually one trick you can do to make the base thicker is I'm taking it like this and I'm going to fold it. And then I'm going to turn it like this, roll it up and then I'll use my multolops. Broke a needle. That's okay. Because you can replace the needles in the mult tool. Oh my gosh. I broke more than one needle. I maybe have to do a replacement soon and then I'll need to go ahead and felt it on all sides on the. You want to be real careful, but you can actually felt this end. You just don't want to accidentally poke yourself. There are little covers you can buy for your fingers, but I don't usually use them because I prefer to risk it. All right, that's looking pretty good. I've got to this part, again, like I was talking about, be since I added another layer, this part is not attached to the mushroom cap. I think the stem could actually use a bit more felting because right now it's a little too fluffy. I know I said I like it fluffy, but it's a little too fluffy. At the moment, I might go ahead and change out the needles in my multi tool and just give this some good rounds of felt. I like to roll it on the mat while I'm doing this because then I know I'm getting all the different sides. But I think having the mult tool right now would really help. I actually have one, it's not springy, it's a wooden handled multi tool. It's not quite as satisfying as the springy mult tool from clover, but it has more needles. It's a little bit more powerful, getting all the different sides of that stem and really rolling it around. Wow, I'm working to make it look at the shape that I want. That's actually looking pretty good. Feeling pretty good too. I think I could do the base a little bit. It looks a little flat on this one side. I'll do a little more. You can keep compressing the wool for quite a long time. It will compress more than you think if you don't like the look of it, you can also always tear wool away and then felt it again. That's just something good to know. All right, after you have joined your stem and your base and you like the overall look of your mushroom, it's time to add the color. In the next step, I'll show you how to cover the top of your mushroom. 7. Adding Color: I'm going to go with a classic red and white Amonito mushroom look. I'll be putting on a layer of red roving. I don't want to see any white parts on the top, so I'm going to use a good bit of wool. Now, I'll start by putting it around the hanging loop. I'm also applying it in a somewhat circular pattern to encourage that mushroom cap shape. Then I'll use the barbed needle to poke it in accordingly. I'm just going to keep that circular pattern going around the top and really getting a lot of coverage here. I think I might have to, oops, just apply a thin layer and then do another layer. It's almost like sculpting as so many of these things are because using your fingers to guide the wool where you want it to go, holding it in place, and then using your tool to it, that looks good. I like how that's looking. Now I'm going to need some more roping because I really don't have enough to do much more. I'll just tack that down in a few places and get my next layer. Now on the lower edge of the cap, I actually do like to fold the wool a bit because I can make the colored area look more like the edge of a real mushroom. And I use a single needle to help sculpt it into shape. This really helps me achieve the look I want. I can even fold it under a bit and make it bulkier right in this area as I'm working around the edge and even work on the underside a little bit to give it that thicker look right on the edge. Now, it will take me a little time to finish this up. I'm going to go ahead and work on this and you go ahead and work on yours. After you've fully covered your mushroom cap with the red or whatever color you choose, you can then choose to embellish it if desired. In the next video, I will show you how to add some white spots. 8. Adding Spots: To add little white spots. You will take a very tiny amount of white wool or whatever other color you prefer, and roll it up in your fingers into a little round ball. You can also tear it off to. Then you decide where you want to apply it and you will use a single needle to sculpt it into place. First I'm going to adhere it in the center of the white dot. Then I will use my needle tool to really get the edges sculpted on there the way I want a little lint or something right here, you can tuck the wool under a little bit and shape it behind that area as well as compressing it on top. I usually do a little trio of white dots on my mushrooms, but you are free to add as many or as few as you like. You can also try adding different shapes or stripes or whatever your creative impulse. It can help to shape the wool with your fingers like we did with rolling into a ball and then using your needle to finesse it. You can always add more wool or even pull it off to by learning the basics of wet and needle felting. With this class, you are well prepared to create whatever your wool loving heart desires. 9. Thank You!: Congratulations for completing this course. I can't wait to see some of your charming woolly mushrooms. I hope that you've loved learning more about working with wool through wet felting and needle felting. Thank you for joining me in this course. I truly appreciate you spending your time learning with me and I can't wait to see your creations. Please do share your ideas in the project section by creating your own project. If you have enjoyed this class, I would love for you to leave a review. Your feedback is so valuable and it helps me to keep making and improving my classes. If you enjoy this class, please check out my other courses and follow me here on skill share. You can always be in touch with me at Byhandathome.com Thanks again and have a beautiful day. 10. Bonus — Storing Your Wool: Oh my gosh. I really want to share this with you because it's my very best tip of all. This was passed on to me by an artist who works exclusively with wool. Now, if you've ever had moths get into your closet, You know how devastating it can be to find a hole in your favorite cashmere sweater. A great way to keep moths out of your wool is to store it in a plastic airtight bin covered with a layer of cotton. Since clothing moths are really only interested in your wool, they will not go through the cotton cloth. They can still sneak into a plastic bin without the cloth covering. So don't skip this extra layer of protection. If you do end up finding signs of clothes, moths in your wool, put those things in the freezer for a few months to freeze out those buggers and stop the spread. Then get yourself a bin and cover it with cotton. You want to go ahead and snap, seal that cotton over the top? This has really worked for me and I hope it helps you keep creating lovely woolly goodness.