'Fake' felted moss

One of the projects in a school I'm working on at the moment is making a tree trunk dolls house for a world of tiny woodland people. Although we are using some found natural materials like sticks and twigs, I didn't want to damage anything that was living. But it seemed like our world wouldn't look right without moss for the forest floor, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to do some felt making with the children. 

I'm not a very experienced textile artist, but its such an easy and fun process to make felt I thought I'd share it here today. I know there are a million felt making tutorials online, but I couldn't find anything about making 'fake' moss, so perhaps it will be of use to someone else in the future. So first things first, I looked at some moss.

I then collected the materials together. I put down some bubble wrap on the tabletop to protect it, and then lay an old towel over the top. I then used a bamboo mat, a piece of netting, a bar of soap  and some beautifully soft merino wool rovings.

To begin I tore off tiny pieces of wool, and lay them all horizontally on the mat.

Once I'd laid out a thin rectangle of one colour, I began to add different shades of green, this time putting the wool on vertically. 

Then I added a few haphazard bits to make it look more organic.

I lay the netting over the top, and squirted it all over with soapy water. 

I rubbed it with my hands in circular motions. I then rubbed the whole thing with the bar of soap and added more water.

Now that it was nice and soapy I continued rubbing the netting in circles until I could see that the wool beneath was felting together. 

Once I was happy it was working, I removed the netting, rolled the felt up in the bamboo mat, and rolled this back and forth 15 times. 

I turned the felt the other way round, and did the same again. (At this point I added another cloth underneath as my towel was getting a bit soaked).

I peeled my felt off the bamboo mat, and rinsed it thoroughly in hot water, then cold water, then warm water. I also rinsed the soap off the bamboo mat. Finally I placed it on the mat one more time and rolled it 10 times, before rinsing it in warm water and placing the felt flat to dry. 

I thought it looked pretty mossy! Maybe not botanically correct, but a lovely colorful material to add to the tiny world.

The children at the school really enjoyed making their felt too, they seemed to appreciate doing an activity that was so immediate and tactile. I love how different every piece is, and how the colours change depending on how the wool was layered.

Of course when Mildred saw the felt pieces the children had made she thought it looked like the perfect comfy bed for a tiny person to rest on! I'm looking forward to showing the class her cheeky use of their artwork at the beginning of the workshop next week.

Happy felting!