felting with kids

A guild friend phoned me yesterday and asked if I was interested in
helping out with a felting day for 6 kids, who where staying at her house
for a couple of days.

We had a great time. I found all the little remnants of fleece, and bits
of coloured stuff as well. Got little freezer plasitc containers, a old
spray bottle and Murphies soap. The kids fluffed little bits of fleece by
gently teasing it apart in the bottom of their freezer container. Each
child could spray it with a bit of sudsy water. The fingers and knuckles
pushed the fleece down and gently rubbed the fibers. Once it all hung
together I made them turn it over and do the same thing on the other
side. When the felt held well together, the soap was washed out and the
felt squeezed so most of the water was gone. At that point the older
children could use a felting needle and add a design. Most of the kids
had a handle on it very quickly. The youngest one, only two years old,
demanded all the colours of the rainbow and had a whale of a time. He was
the one to rinse all the pieces in the bucket with water. It is nice and
sunny here today, so it did matter little that he was wet from top to
bottom. All the kids ended up with a small round or square pouch, not one
was the same. For the older children I had brought a kumihimo circle and
some pearl cotton so they could make a braid for their little pouch. A day
of lots of fun, and free designing, and each child made several fun picece
they can use.

If you have kids over during the summer holidays it is a great way to
spend the day.

Els

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In article ,
"Jennifer Schmidt" wrote:

Els,
Sounds like the kids (and you) had a blast! What a great idea!!

Just thought I'd share what my daughter's class got to do while studying the
colonial period. Felt balls were toys that kids made to play with, so they
made felted wool balls with jingle bells in the middle... I loved that! I
know that they were instructed by someone from the local weavers/spinners
guild.

Jenni in Missouri

Now that is a great idea....I have to tell the kids about it..... well
maybe not such a good idea for the two year old, but he was mainly into
the water thing and also trying to eat all my bananas and all the pickles
on the table.

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"Els van Dam" wrote in message
...

Now that is a great idea....I have to tell the kids about it..... well
maybe not such a good idea for the two year old, but he was mainly into
the water thing and also trying to eat all my bananas and all the pickles
on the table.

giggle - what is it with kids and pickles??? I've never met a kid that
didn't LOVE pickles.

Shelagh

| On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 01:09:00 GMT, "Jennifer Schmidt" wrote:

Felt balls were toys that kids made to play with, so they
made felted wool balls with jingle bells in the middle... I loved that! I
know that they were instructed by someone from the local weavers/spinners
guild.

Those are such fun. I've made them by starting with those plastic jingle
ball cat toys and the cats just love them. I think it was someone on this
group who first mentioned it. Anyway, they're great and when the cats rough
up the surface, I just run them through the laundry again.


Helen "Halla" Fleischer,
Fantasy & Fiber Artist in Fairland, MD USA
http://home.covad.net/~drgandalf/halla/

In article , "Shillelagh"
wrote:

"Els van Dam" wrote in message
...

Now that is a great idea....I have to tell the kids about it..... well
maybe not such a good idea for the two year old, but he was mainly into
the water thing and also trying to eat all my bananas and all the pickles
on the table.

giggle - what is it with kids and pickles??? I've never met a kid that
didn't LOVE pickles.

Shelagh

Yes you are right, my granddaughter loves pickles and olives
Els

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