We had young and old house guests this weekend. A whie ago, I learned how to make felted soap and thought that would be a fun project for the kiddos. So my brother-in-law, 3 kids, and I got the supplies ready: A bowl of water, a bar of soap, and feltable wool (from rough sheep not smooth alpaca).
To felt soap, you simply gently rub a thin layer of wool onto the soap, moisten with water, and continue gently rubbing until it becomes felted (you'll feel it go from furry to firm). When that has happened, you add another layer of wool perpendicular to the first and repeat.
After you've built up several layers of the felt and there are no empty spots, you can add colored wool to make a wonderful design.
Here's my brother-in-law's soap. He and one of the children are natural felters. The other 2 kids were a little young (3 and 4 vs 6). And I am sad to say that although I've tried several times, I am a horrible felter! I'm not sure whether it is that I'm too impatient, or I'm rubbing to hard, or what. I'm just no good at it. However, I LOVE the idea of it, so will continue to invite others to do it and be humbled at this thing I can't quite master.
Oh! And when it's all done, you simply wash your hands or body like normal with the felted soap. And as the soap shrinks, so does the felt. When the soap is gone, they say you'll just be left with a little felt ball for your kids to play with in the bath, or to play with in the park, or to slice thru to make buttons or flowers or do any number of things with. Our felted soap is still 98.3% of it's original size, so I can't speak from experience about this, but I'm looking forward to playing with the felt ball in the kid's bath.
2 comments:
cat's also think felt balls are the BEST toy -- lots light enough to bat around and yet they can sink their claws in easily...
Ooh! I'll have to try this! My 11 year old is kicking around the house looking for fun things to do so this seems like a fun summer project! Thanks for the lesson!
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