Felt Sculpture: Combining Needle and Wet Felting

 I've been off on a tangent, branching off further from the techniques that I learned from an Andrea Graham workshop in 2015. I am really loving the new set of additional techniques that I am figuring out - they are great for dealing with some of the challenges of needle felting alone. Essentially I start with a close to finished needle felted piece that is firm but not necessarily as hard as in the quirky felted sea life - it just needs to be firm enough to hold when wet - too soft and you end up with a wet, soggy mess. In this little guy there is a wire armature (use wire that will not rust e.g. galvanized or copper) and a tightly wrapped core to provide support.

Gently add warm soapy water to the areas that you want to wet felt and carefully work the area with your fingers, guiding the fibres to do what you want. Use disposable vinyl gloves or a fine mesh to avoid moving the fibres too much.
The benefits are that you end up with a smoother surface, you can securely attach wet felted pieces as in the fairy wings below, and clothing feels much more durable without endless needling. If you are careful, you can also wet felt the whole piece to refine the shape of the body.

I bought some great bunny coloured alpaca fibre only to learn that it is not so good for needle felting. This little guy (my first attempt) took about 3 times as long as working with my normal fibre and was incredibly hairy and no amount of wet felting helped - he still needed a shave.