The Handwork teacher

I am a mother to two beautiful girls and I teach Handwork and Fine Arts in our local waldorf charter school in Arizona.

Monday, August 31, 2009

7th grade felted slippers in a waldorf school



Here is a preview of what 7th grade will be making this year .....along with a felted ball for their felting needles and 2 felted people....if we have time they will make a felted picture or landscape for the auction.

This is the tutorial again
http://rayreynolds.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/felt-slippers/

and I used white wool batting from west earl (where Ray in the video talks about some place in the UK...but since I am in the US....I went with West Earl...I love how the batting at west earl felts!)

8) wool batting and roving. they only do phone orders...there is no web site....$5.85 per pound! West Earl Woollen Mill, Ephrata PA 717/859-2241

and colored wool from Harrisville Design (they have great fleece for wet felting and needle felting)
http://www.harrisville.com/categories.php?cat=20

5 comments:

Theresa said...

Oh, we are going to felt slippers too!!! We are going to use the plain felt, then paint them with food colour dye...it worked on a smaller project, so we'll see...start in a week or two!!!

Jamie said...

Help, Please!! I am a parent who will be felting slippers with 5th graders in a few weeks and I am still trying to work out some kinks. Can you start the wet felting then store it in some way between classes for a week and then continue the wet felting process? Did you do the process in a day or did you space it out?

Teaching Handwork said...

Hi Jamie
It took the kids about 6 classes to "properly" felt the slippers. We let them dry on the windowsills of the classroom. Really the wet felting and needle felting took all of 3 months to do properly.
it might take 5th graders longer (but don't have them needle felt)...depending on how focused they are...elbow grease is the key....if you are lazy about the process it takes longer. let us know how to goes

Ray Reynolds said...

These look great! Glad they worked for you. I am adding other people's slippers to the tutorial page and would love to add yours too. :-)

Ray.

vanessa Jansen 3rd grade teacher Cal. said...

Can you send along directions for the slippers? The tutorial isn't working and there aren't directions. My sister was a handwork teacher and suggested that the children wrap there feet with the wool and put plastic bags on then rain boots and walk around with them on and they become felted. I would also learn the wet felting method, but don't know where to start.