Sculpting with felt.

As for my project I want to make felt tea cups and tea pots I experimented with sculpting felt through the rolling technique.

To do this is started like I would when doing any normal felting, I placed 2 layers of multi coloured wool fibres and wet them thoroughly, I then placed a cut out of plastic sheeting what was in the shape of a 2D tea cup, I then placed more wool fibres on the top of it to pack it in the middle and folded all excess round the sides over and wet again thoroughly. I then continued in the same way I would when doing any felting in the rolling technique. I did have to be more aware off the amount the fibres shrunk; once the plastic started to ravel I had to make an incision where the rim of the cup is going to be and remove the plastic sheeting. Once it was removed I could carry on felting as normal but with regular intervals to separate the centre and stop it felting together. When the process had been completed and all fibres are combined I had to stretch the 2D cup over an actual cup so it could dry and take shape as a 3D cup. I also made a saucer by just felting some fibres then stretching it over the top of a cup and placing an elastic band to create the lip, I also cut round it to make it a circle shape.

Once they had both dried I wasn’t happy with the outcome as the cup doesn’t look like a tea cup, I’m really impressed at how easy it is to sculpt but getting the shape correct is incredibly difficult. I feel this technique would not be strong enough to follow through into my final piece. I have been made aware of sculpting using needle felting but I haven’t before experimented with this so I’m going to look further into it and hope it gives a better outcome.