Project 3: Me and Sustainability

Me and Sustainability

The project that I created was a scarf which is made of leftover wool by using an old felting method, wet felting. The idea of this scarf is instead killing sheep, getting wool from them, this vegan, organic wool material was very sustainability and useful, as well as they were all leftovers that I used left from last semester textile class. First, I used the technique of wet felting to create felts in all nude colors, then I cut them to three pieces and I needled them together all used the oldest making methods. At last, it came to be a long felted scarf, which is double sustainable.

What is welt felting:

Wet felting he process of combining layers of wool roving and/or wool yarns into one flat piece of felt fabric. This is what folks think about as the traditional or oldest felting method.

Working process:

Carding is the act of combing and untangling the wool. A specific weight of fibers is passed into the cylindrical carder to form a standardized web and the fibers are combed so that they are parallel to each other. This allows evenly layered bat which is rolled with water and soap to make it felt. The working processes are very easy. First, in the dish tub, make a bath of hot soapy water about an inch or so deep, and place a piece of the textured material you choose in the bottom for friction. Hot water and soap help open the wool scales. Use cooler water for Nuno technique. Then, lay down the roll-up mat. Then, lay down on top of your roll-up mat the tulle fabric. Then lay out thin layers of wool roving and wool yarns on the tulle fabric, building up evenly. Next, wet down everything on your roll-up mat with some of the hot soapy water. Then immerse the bundled tube in the hot soapy water bath and start rolling/rubbing it on the textured liner you placed in the bottom of the dish tub. Push down while you roll to increase the friction on your felt. When you are happy with the degree of felting, unroll the project and rinse out the soap. You can rinse and dry the piece before or after removing the tulle base. Dry out the felt by blotting it with a clean towel.

samples of welt felting: