Wet Felted Rug
The magic of gathering a group together to create something beautiful…
We have a yearly fundraiser at our school where community members (teachers, parents, students) create works of art to auction. This year a group of moms in our Knitting/Handwork Circle decided to make a wet felted rug to donate.
We gathered one morning with our wool stashes and plenty of snacks. We knew that we wanted to finish our project in the 5 hours while our kids were in school. 
As a background we decided on an earthtone palette laying down 2 1/2 pounds of chocolate, butterscotch and light cocoa wool…yummy…
Then the fun began as we started making 60+ “prefelt” flowers. We sat around a table with a mound of wool making sure to take time to take breaks to eat. Everyone had their own unique spin on flowers–that’s the true beauty of working in a group. If only ONE or even TWO of us had made the flowers they would have all started to look similar–no matter how hard we tried…With seven of us working, we ended up a full bouquet of vastly different flowers.
As we laid all of our flowers onto our earthtone background, we were a little scared…Would a bright pink flower look okay with a red one? Would teal go with a mossy green? Was there such a thing as a brown flower and would it even show up on a dark brown background?
In the end we just trusted our work and started felting…After we were done we sat back in awe–genuinely surprised by what we created together…
The magic of working in a group… 
Linking to: Creative Friday
That’s so lovely. We did a similar project for our auction with kindergarten children contributing flowers and butterflies that we needle felted onto the background that the kids helped wet felt. I don’t know how it would stand up as a rug though. Looks like you’ve felted rugs before. I wondering how they stand up to traffic and wear?
Hi Dionne,
Your school project sounds like it was gorgeous! Our rug was felted for a fairly long time, but it was mainly a decorative rug, not intended for high traffic. I made a rug for my son’s room and with his rough treatment, it pilled up a little. I easily re-felted it and it looked as good as new. I imagine that high traffic rugs need to be felted and refelted until the fibers are tightly, tightly compressed together–like “boiled wool” fabric. Let me know if you try making one. I’d love to see it!
Thanks and aloha,
Lori
That is adorable felt art!
Hi Teje,
It was really fun to make and hope you can try to make one also. Thank you for visiting!
Aloha,
Lori
Beaitiful and inspiring! Question:do you have any backing behind the chocolate background?
Hi Carolyn,
This was a decorative rug, so we just used wool batting as a background. I have seen handmade rugs online that start with a premade base with a muslim backing. It’s on my “list” to try soon. Thanks for stopping by! Aloha, Lori
Twitter: homewithcarol
says:
This is beautiful! Instructions please.
Carol J. Alexander recently posted..Choosing a New Calendar–A Review
Hi Carol,
You can find a tutorial at “www.waldorfmoms.com/2012/02/wet-felted-rug-fall-flowers-tutorial”. (sorry, the link button doesn’t seem to work in this comment section). Thanks for visiting! Aloha, Lori
This is so cool. It turned out beautiful. I love all of the flowers.
heidi recently posted..Live From Seattle It’s True Holland
Thank you Heidi! Aloha, Lori
Twitter: joanveron26
says:
Lovely idea, lovely group product! Congratulations! There are few things more satisfying than the production of a work of art, I do wish I could join a group like this one! Not possible, living where I do, but I can still dream! Have a good day!
Joan Veronica Robertson recently posted..LEJANA TIERRA MIA, BY CARLOS GARDEL