But just in case I don't survive.... I want to get this up now. This was a REALLY fun project that you can't really mess up. The term 'wool fusion' emcompasses everything from felting to glueing, and is a bealutiful way to create wool fabrics.
A friend had shared this super simple technique with me a few weeks ago and ever since I have been dying to give it a try.
What you need:
Un-spun wool in pretty colors and a larger amount in un-dyed
Mesh or screen (I used fiberglass window screen... $5 for a roll at Walmart)
Elmers glue (or wallpaper paste, or fiber medium)
Brushes
A plastic covered workspace
Here's how:
First, get your work space ready and covered in plastic. You will need two pieces of the screen/mesh, each slightly larger than the size of your finished piece.
You want the glue to be watered down a bit. Just pour some into a container, add water, and stir. Don't try to hold a camera and do this at the same time, or you will end up making a mess like I did! How much glue and how much water depends on how stiff you want the finished product to be. I really had no idea how much to use and guessed. I ended up using about a tablespoon and a half of glue in 3/4 cup water, which made the finished product pretty fluffy and not as stiff or stuck together. It's fine for what I want to do with it, but if you want something sturdier add more glue.
Once you have your watery-glue ready, it's time to start laying down the fibers on top of the first layer screen (the container on the right is just water).
When you lay the fibers you want them to be wispy, and every layer should be at a 90 degree angle to the layer below it. Like this:
An easy way to get the fibers to be wispy is to pull (not cut!!) pieces of the wool from the skein that are about a foot long. Divide each piece into thirds the long way, so you have 3 long skinny bits of wool. Take each piece and spread it out so it is nice and thin. Then pin the top part down on the screen where you want it and pull back on the rest (like in the picture) it should pull off and leave a little wisp on the screen.
I started with 3 layers of un-dyed wool as a base and then did my colors. I didn't want the colors to get too muddled together in different layers.
Once you're done, put the other piece of screen over the top and get all the fibers really, really wet. I ended up ditching the brush and just pouring water on a little bit at a time. I used my hands to move the water around and make sure all the fibers were covered.
After the fibers are all soaked, start adding the glue-water. I sloshed some on, brushed it around.... and repeated several more times until it was all gone.
Then turn it over, just to make sure all the water and glue-water is distributed around.
Roll it, to help drain the extra water.
And then set it out to dry! You can hang it if you have a place, but I just set it outside on the table (it has little holes in it, so air could still move around and it worked pretty well).
Once it's dry, carefully peel off the screen and admire what you did! You can get really creative with these and sew pieces into quilts (Mom, I know you want to try it!). Or simply cut them apart, tie on some ribbons and use them as bookmarks. You will want to use a lot more glue if you do that last one.
As soon as I get a chance to work on the next phase of this project, I'll get pictures up to show you...
And before that (hopefully) I'll get pictures of the what my wool fusion pieces look like after they dried.
I definitely want to try it!
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