Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Felted Rainbow Rocks


The girls recently returned from a visit with their Oma and Opa with these beautiful, smooth river rocks.
We have wanted to try felting rocks and these ones felt just perfect ~ so we gave it a go!


Creating the felted rocks turned out to be easier than I expected and the results were lovely. 
They have such a nice weight and feel... thinking would make great gifts for little ones (or big ones ;). 

To create you will need
Rocks
Wool roving
Felting needle (optional)
Hot water
Soap 

~ To begin ~
Pull off a chunk of roving that is about three times the length of your rock.


Tear it into strips.
 Lay the strips side by side ~ slightly overlapping them. 


Pull off another chunk of roving and tear into strips. 
Lay the strips on top, going the other direction.
Be sure your layers are thick enough so that none of your rock will peek through.


Put your rock at the bottom of the roving and begin rolling it up...


folding in the sides as you go.


Soon your rock will look something like this.


Take your felting needle and poke it into the roving, focusing on places where it is loosest.
This part of the process isn't necessary, but seems to help keep it from falling apart when it hits the water.


Give your roving wrapped rock a generous squirt of dish soap and 
immerse into hot hot soapy water.


Gently toss between your hands, dipping back into the water and tossing some more.


After it seems to be holding together fairly well, begin to rub (and as my daughter says "pet") your rock, adding more soap and water as needed.


Finally when the felt feels tight and smooth (it seems to take about ten minutes or so), rinse it under cold water.
 Then lay it out in the sun to dry.

There you have it!


Our new little rainbow rocks found their way to our gnome home
and seem to find many other imaginative homes throughout the day!




"Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
                                                    The lovers, the dreamers and me
                                      La, la la, La, la la la, La Laa, la la, La, La la laaaaaaa".


With Love
~ Shanti ~ 



21 comments:

  1. Very nice tutorial! I have tried felted rocks before, but they didn't stay together as well as I would have liked, next time I will have to needle felt them a bit to keep them in place.:) Love the way your rocks turned out, beautiful colors!

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  2. They look great! Certainly something we need to try over the school holidays next month. The big girl and I tried the plastic eggs around Easter but they didn't work out - I guess to little wool and no needle felted securing. Lessons learned!

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  3. what lovely bright rocks!!!! you have to trust me as I'm a geologist!!!! ;-)))
    xxxx Alessandra

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  4. Oh my crafty co-hort! Normally I wouldn't comment on one of our own posts, but I have to say...needlefelting before wet felting=GENIUS!!!! How many times have I tried to do something like this only to have it all fall apart in a wet, wooly mess!!! They're gorgeous!!! xo maureen
    ps...can you make me a stack ;)

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  5. I love them! I just showed them to Lola and she loves them too. It just might be time to learn how to wet felt.

    I have to ask. Opa and Oma? That sounds very Dutch...

    Hanneke

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  6. Such a great idea! We're definitely going to make some!

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  7. Oh, the baby wants these. Badly. Hint hint! :)

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  8. They are gorgeous! And I love the pathway to the gnome house!
    xoxo
    ~ joey ~

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  9. What a lovely and simply idea. I will have to try it. Thank you. :-)

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  10. Gorgeous. Great tutorial too.. I almost believe I could do this! My KCCO project is here: http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2012/06/crafting-along-with-needle-and-thread.html

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  11. Those are so beautiful, and so very desirable :-)

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  12. Where do you buy your felt roving?

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  13. joyfulwriter ~ The roving I used was from the store we used to run. I found this online store though, it looks like it carries beautiful roving and ships to Canada and the U.S.A.

    http://www.fibersden.brightwebsite.com/wool-roving-to-spin-or-needle-felt/

    Hope that helps!

    The Dutch Girl ~ Yes my husbands father grew up in Holland and moved here in his 20's. We have a special place in our home for Dutch customs and culture. We hope to bring our girls there soon!

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  14. this project rocks! I love the simplicity and the happy colored you used!

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  15. I may have to see if we can find some of these nice, smooth rocks over the next few days/ weeks and try my hand at this. I've come into possession of a bit of excess roving, and this sounds fun! :)

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