Most of the textile materials are woven which means that they are made on a loom and are interlocked with thread which is strung vertically and the thread which is strung horizontally. The thread which is vertically strung is called warp and the thread which is horizontally strung is called weft. When the warp and the weft are interlocked together, they form a flat piece of cloth.
Needle felt can be described as the easiest and quickest way to add embellishment to plain felted knitting. Needle felting fuses a layer of fiber onto the base fiber which is also known as the felted fabric.
Felt is a form of textile that is prepared through pressing and condensing the fibers with no apparent threads. Rugs, pillows, quilts and many other things are produced through felt. Decoration felt is pretty much in fashion these days. Stylish rugs, wall hangings, mats and many different forms of felt arts crafts are being used in home décor. Decoration felt items are produced industrially as well as individually to sell to the people demanding it.
The process of quality control starts when the materials arrive. The felt is checked for its weight and quality particularly. Some of the companies purchase wool which has been baled and scoured, the originality of the bales is tested when it gets in.
Originally hats which were made from felt were produced by using animal fur, mostly beaver fur. The fur was combined with other fiber like wool by adding pressure, moisture and heat. At that time the best hats were made of beaver skin and many a time’s the men’s hats were referred as beavers. These hats had become very famous in the middle ages. But by the end of fourteenth century the cost of the beaver hats came down and was mostly produced in Low Countries.
Felt can be called as the oldest fabric known to man and to prove this there are many ancient writings on felt. As felt does not need to be produced by loom and is not even woven, it was easy for the ancient man to make it. Some of the remains of felt products were discovered in the tombs of horsemen of ‘Siberian Tlai Mountains’ in 700 BC. The tribes of nomadic horsemen made saddles, tents and clothes from felt material because it had high resistance against snowy and wet weather.
Needle felt
This kind of felting does not require any water. Needle felting is a popular technique where special kinds of needles are used in the machines of industrial felting and is made use by artists in the process of shaping them. As the needle enters the wood, the needles have cuts along the tube of the needle that hold the top layer of the fiber and knots the top layer of the fibersin the n the inner layers together. Once the fiber is knotted and condensed using the needle, the felt becomes strong and can be used for making sculptures or jewellery. You can reach the fine details of the fiber by making use of methods of hand held tools, such as, using a single needle or small groups of needles around 2 to 5. At the end of this it is used to produce 2D and 3D felted products. Thus, we can see that needle felting is a completely different job when compared to water felting process. More hard work is seen to put in the needle felting job and it is unlike the previous mentioned job.
Felt is a fabric made out of the fibers of wool or hair of the animals entangled together by steam or pressure without weaving, knitting or spinning. These kinds of fibers include fur, wool and certain other type of hair fibers that are matted together under right conditions because of their peculiar structure and high degree of crimp. Continue reading
The name of the company that manufactures the felt products is Felt Corporation of Aetna. It was established in the year 1930. It is one of the principal developer and dealer of consumer and industrial felt products along with. This company offers a large number of felt goods, like the paper sheets, craft material, felts that are pressure sensitive, etc. felt products are also used in some of the following processes, such as, Gaskets, filtration, polishing wheels, craft felts, wiping strips, wicking, and many other presentations. The green coloured material that is used at the soft board also known as the bulletin board is the felt itself. In gymnastics when you ride a horse then on top of it is placed with felt, known as the shock permeable layer. It is also present inside the gloves used during baseball and inside tennis balls as well. While practicing penmanship, the green or black coloured felt is placed under your paper.Ink pads that are red or black in colour have in them which is called the felt. The sheet of felt can also be placed below the carpet.
Either you are looking for an activity for a rainy day or you want to amuse children and teach them to create new toys, there is a trend that is spreading all around the world, craft felting. Continue reading