3D Cut Layers Felting Technique

Wet Felting with 3-D Cut Layers 

             

I wet the whole piece down with netting over it with warm soapy water. Then placed a piece of bubble wrap on top. The wool was all layed out on a piece of bubble wrap also. So now all the wool is sandwiched between the bubble wrap. Instead of the time consuming backbreaking rolling I usually do I used my husbands sander to do the felting. It was felted in a quarter of the time. Using the sander you can't leave the netting on too long as it will felt in very quickly. So check it often and remove it soon after wool begins to felt. Once you do the pinch test and it is ready to full, take it to the sink and rinse in hot water. Squeeze out excess water and wad up and throw it several times on the floor of the sink. This will cause it to shrink and harden up a bit. Now rinse in cold water and soak in cold water with a touch of vinegar in it for 15 minutes. Rinse again, squeeze excess water and roll in a towel to get last bit of water out.  Unroll lightly stretch to shape. Now you can find the center of the circles by feeling and then make a snip in the center with sharp scissors going just down to the plastic resist. Now you can slit from the center of each circle out to where the layers are felted together, like cutting a pie to create the petals that will fold back revealing the purple wool underneath. You can now remove the plastic circle exposing the yellow centers.

To add some detail I hand needle felted the stems and needle felted the tips of the lower flower under so they stay curled. This was a very simple design I created to try my first attempt to create the cut layers technique. I had seen it in some photos but could not find instructions. So I tried it on my own. I think it was pretty successful as far as how to do it. Here is a sketch showing the layers of wool.