Felted Soap: How To

While I am usually a potter, sometimes I like to keep my hands clean instead of dirty! When I take a break from the wheel, it's time for a foray into a new realm of craft. I have a huge collection of soap, so this time, I decided to try felting soap! This a form of wet felting. Wet felting is a form of felting with good wool and water. The wool interlocks and shrinks as it is kneaded and rubbed with soapy water.

Here's what you need:

A bar of soap

Scissors

Old nylon stockings

Sheep's wool (other pure wool works as well)

One bowl of hot water

One bowl of cold water

 1. Spread out the wool so it is almost see through ,as show in the picture below.

2. Lay the bar of soap in the middle of the spread wool. Make sure the wool is spread out enough to cover the entire bar longways and long enough to wrap around the bar at least once. 

 3. Wrap the wool around the bar of soap. Make sure it is fully covered. Don't let the soap peek out!

 4. I wanted to use do some different colors, so I wrapped some white wool around the purple wool.

5. Place the wrapped bar of soap aside for a moment. Pick up your nylons and cut the foot off. It needs to be about 4 inches long. It will stretch as it gets wet.

6. Drip hot water onto the wool-wrapped soap and pat it down. The wool should be entirely wet and the soap will be bubbling a little when you are done. 

 7. Carefully drop the damp, wool-wrapped soap in the nylon sock.

 8. Now dampen the soap and sock with cold water. Start rubbing it around in your hands, just like you were washing your hands. Once it isn't cold anymore, dip it into the warm water and do the same thing. Go back and forth between the cold and warm water, constantly rubbing the soap between your hands. It will start to lather. Repeat this for about 15-20 minutes. You can peel the nylon back to check to see if the wool is shrinking and interlocking over the soap.

9. This is what the finished product will look like. Once you see that the wool has shrunk around hte soap, remove the nylon and put it out in the sun to dry! 

This is a fun easy project and it comes in handy in the shower or at the sink. It's handy because the wool will continue to shrink down as the soap wears down. Eliminates gross wash clothes! And when the soap is all gone, you have a nice little scrubbie for your dishes. 

Tons of Teabowls

Well, all those teabowls have come out of the kiln. Some came out really well, some needs a little more work next time. But what fun!

Scribbles

Striation 

Gearhead 

Ripped

Spun

River Roll

River Ride 

Dragon 

Barely There

Tipsy

Raindrops 

I am really enjoying these, I think I will keep working on teabowls. I love the way they feel in my hands and I do drink tea of of them. Nw I just need some green tea matcha to make some traditional tea! Learning a traditional Japanese tea ceremony would be excellent...