Felt Beads

A couple of years ago I thought I would have a go at making felt beads, how hard could that be? Well disappointingly it proved to be more tricky than I anticipated and I failed miserably. Recently my friend Sue gave me what I can only call a couple of 'master classes' in felt bead making. It became clear where I had gone wrong, with my initial beading attempt, I was too quick to form a 'ball' and it separated. The secret is to take the initial forming of the 'ball' slowly then gather momentum.

All you need to get started are some merino wool tops/roving, a bar of soap, warm water and your hands!

The basic felt bead technique

Start with a small wad of wool, then wrap lengths of teased wool tightly around it. Keep adding layers until your bead is approximately twice the size you want it to eventually become. Saturate the bead by dipping it in the warm, soapy water, and then gently roll it in your hands. Do this for about ten minutes, dipping it in the soapy water as required to keep it lubricated. Soon the ball will begin to harden and felt. Rinse the bead under a cold tap to wash out all the soap, leave to dry.

Sue also showed me another felt bead technique, this time we made a kind of wool swiss roll. We layered the wool and wet it with soapy water, then rolled it like a sausage, agitating it until it became felt. After rinsing the felt sausage, in cold water, we cut it into sections to make discs.

I now have to decide what to make with my beads.