Hand-Felted Beads

Last year I bought some lovely wool roving and needle felting tools, intending on embarking on a new craft. I ended up putting all of the felting tools up in my closet, but recently they have been calling to me. Over the past week, I made a few embarrassing attempts at needle-felted brooches and so forth, when I decided to try hand-felting some beads since it looked like a lot of fun. Last night, I made my very first batch, which you can see above. I'm quite proud of them!

Basically, you take some wool roving, wrap it up into a ball, very carefully pour hot and soapy water onto the wool, roll it about in your hands for several minutes (add more water and soap), add pressure more and more as you go, until you are happy with the shape. Once you are, rinse the ball in hot water, and then rinse it in cold. Let dry overnight and you have your beads! I plan on doing more experiments with this new medium because I find it so very fascinating and so much fun.

I love new crafts!