Angler Fish: Day 4

Man... yesterday was long!!! I felted for about 4 hours straight. I took my time & felted in smaller sections, and I think it worked out pretty well. I ended up felting an entire layer over the previous felted layer. The felt was a little thin before. Yesterday - Not as frustrated & pretty much happy with how the wet-felting step turned out.


So started out by researching wet-felting advice sites. They all agreed

"If your felt is uneven and too thin, you are better off trashing the piece & starting over...."

Well that wouldn't do, so I took it upon myself to fix it. I started by brushing the felt to bring some fibers out to help with entangling them to the new wool I was going to add. This was suggested for prepping Pre-Felt for attachment, but whatever.





Then I took Lance's advice to cut off the jaw. And it totally helped with keeping the piece much more manageable. Great idea to keep the wet felting part easy, then I can attach the piece later & needle felt over the seam!!







I noticed when I cut off the jaw that my felt was pretty thin... so I decided to cover the entire fish with an additional layer of wool.








So I started with much smaller sections this time. I worked slowly & lovingly, and I think it went much better. It took alot of time & my back hurt, but I think it was worth it.











I also used the plastic-bag glove type thing to help felt the fibers while also not pushing then around. So first I lightly felted with the netting over the fluffy wool, being sure not to nuno felt the netting to the piece. Then I rubbed the thing with a plastic bag glove, this really got to felting the fibers down, I used more aggressive touch. Then I finished with my hands and a bit of hand soap, I really scrubbed it then!!




Had to take a Banana Break about half way through.










Finally I rinsed the soap out with water alternating between hot & cold. This helps "shock" the wool And tighten it up a bit more.








Overall it's not super tight around the form, but I'm happy with how it turned out. There will be A WHOLE LOTTA needle felting in my future. I'm letting him dry outside all day today too, so I might not have much to post tomorrow. i want to be sure he's completely dry.

Next Step: Millions of pokes with the needle!!!