yesterday. It was an activity that both my children (5 and 2) could do together. They both have played for ages with their stones and I delight in watching them focus their imaginations on something their own hands created.
We needed some clean stones, colorful wool roving and some warm, soapy water (we used dish detergent).
I used my felting needle to secure the wool in place. This is not necessary but did make things easier for them as it helped the wool to stay in place in the beginning. This activity can definitely be done without using the needle, just use a little more care at the beginning of the wet felting process.
Try not to fight over the stones at the very start… but then, if some sibling rivalry didn’t raise it’s head, your mother might faint with surprise! So, fight away, if you must…
Chose a color of wool. Divide the wool into two strips. Start wrapping the stone with one of the strips, like this…
Make sure the wool wraps over its self, like this…
Then the ‘tufty’ sides wrap over, like this…
place the second wool strip in your hand. Place the stone you have just wrapped on top of it, unsecured side down, like this…
Wrap as before.
You can start the wet felting process now or you can needle felt the wool into place to make the wet felting process a little easier.
Your wrapped stone is now ready for the wet felting process…
Dip it in the warm, soapy water.
Begin wet felting by gently rubbing the stone. K pointed out that it felt like she was making mud pies. The wool is all squishy at first and it’s important to agitate the stone very gently in your hands so that it remains evenly covered with your wool.
Once you feel the wool firming up over your stone, you can start rubbing it more vigorously. The soap, warm water and agitation makes the wool fibers intertwine and hook together, shrinking them and making them lock tightly over your stone.
When the wool is tightly wet felted over your stone, it’s time for rinsing…
You want to rinse all the soap from the wool. As you can see from the expression on T’s face, this is a VERY important and serious task…
Squeeze the excess water from your clean, felted rocks and put them in a sunny spot to dry.
Aren’t they beautiful…
K has used her pretty stones in her play scenes and even just played with them as if they were the characters from her imagination. T has lined them up, switching the colors around, and stacked them to make a pretty tower.
I made myself a set too… they sit in the center of my table to bring the color and feel of the outdoors to into our house… They are so pretty, I doubled up and mede a set for my Etsy shop too.
ps – I get my felting supplies (wool and needles) from Weir Dolls – http://weirdolls.com
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Donni
Donni Webber is the mom behind the popular natural living Waldorf website and blog, The Magic Onions - where the magic of nature and the wonder of childhood collide to make each moment a precious gift. She is a photographer, writer, crafter, wife and mother of two inspiring young children. Her work has been featured in many popular publications, including HGTV, Better Homes and Gardens, Disney and Apartment Therapy.
24 Responses
Gorgeous! This is one of the few felting projects I’ve ever tried. I had limited success…couldn’t seem to work out how much roving to have on each stone (I either had too much – had to hack off bits – or too little – had holes where the stone showed through). Will certainly try again, though. Yours are so beautiful!
Those are so cute. We’re heading to a lake (with many waterfalls nearby) next week so maybe I’ll take some roving with us to felt some rocks. Thanks for the idea! :)
Thanks Ladies… it is a fun project and it’s nice to have something to ‘show off’ afterwards. Sarah, I get my supplies from Weir Dolls http://weirdolls.com/ They have everything you’ll need. Blessings and magic to all.
Quite pretty and a great way to add color to the seasonal nature table too. We just completed a similar activity though I found the idea at Martha Stewart’s kids’ page, :-)
Mr T and K look like they really loved this! We like wet felting too. Such a sensory activity with all that warm water and wool, and the shape of the rocks. I really love the last pictures of the various shades of green felted rocks.
Yes, those are so beautiful! I have been planning on doing this for a while but never even thought about the great color combination possibilities. I know my littlest one will especially love this.
Your stones are gorgeous! Green is my favorite color, I love seeing all your greens together! We have enjoyed felting river stones this summer, mine never seen to get as tight as yours thanks for the tip about needle felting I think I may just make some right now! : )
Hi! Could you give me some technical advice for Acorn Pies? I love the way you archive your crafts with photographs. I’d like to do that, too, because I have lots of crafts tucked away in my blog which people probably wouldn’t find otherwise. Your layout makes crafts so easy to find. I can’t figure out how to do it, though. Could you email me, when you have a chance? Thanks.
Felted stones has been on my list of to do things this summer. I found a beautiful felting book with amazing ideas – stones included. You chose lovely colors for your stones – so inspiring! I’ll send pics of mine once I get to it!
Thanks so much for inspiring us to do this! I have 3 kids home from school today and we’re all expert stone felters now. I’d like to dye some roving with Kool-Aid for even more colors but all the processes seem to require heat; will that pre-felt the wool and make it unfeltable?
Hi Elizabeth, we’ve also had a wonderful day at home today. I do love the Waldorf breaks as they allow us to spend whole, lazy, days with our kids again. So, dyeing wool with Kool-Aid is really easy. You’ll be totally amazed at how quick the dye takes – quite scary that kids drink it. Here’s a tutorial on how we do it in a kid-friendly way… http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2009/07/dying-with-kool-aid.html
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24 Responses
Gorgeous! This is one of the few felting projects I’ve ever tried. I had limited success…couldn’t seem to work out how much roving to have on each stone (I either had too much – had to hack off bits – or too little – had holes where the stone showed through). Will certainly try again, though. Yours are so beautiful!
Those are so cute. We’re heading to a lake (with many waterfalls nearby) next week so maybe I’ll take some roving with us to felt some rocks. Thanks for the idea! :)
I’ve been wanting to try felting “sometime” in the future, but this post has sent me over the edge. I want to do these with my girls.
Where is a good place to buy the supplies (wool/needles)?
Thank you for sharing that! We’ll have to try it after the move.
How pretty! This looks like a great camping craft!
Have a great day!
Lisa
I hopped over here from 5 orange potatoes. These little felted stones are fabulous – such gorgeous bright colours!
Those felted stones look so pretty sitting in a bowl like that. I love simple and sweet projects like this. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks Ladies… it is a fun project and it’s nice to have something to ‘show off’ afterwards.
Sarah, I get my supplies from Weir Dolls
http://weirdolls.com/
They have everything you’ll need.
Blessings and magic to all.
I’ve been wanting to do a felting project with my girls for awhile now, and this is perfect!! Can’t wait to try it… what a great idea!
Quite pretty and a great way to add color to the seasonal nature table too. We just completed a similar activity though I found the idea at Martha Stewart’s kids’ page, :-)
Mr T and K look like they really loved this! We like wet felting too. Such a sensory activity with all that warm water and wool, and the shape of the rocks. I really love the last pictures of the various shades of green felted rocks.
Oh what a fun project, I may have to try this one! Would make great ‘paper weights’ for Christmas gifts!
Jamie :)
D, thanks so much for sharing this. We will try this tomorrow. The girls will love it!
Lisa ;)
Yes, those are so beautiful! I have been planning on doing this for a while but never even thought about the great color combination possibilities. I know my littlest one will especially love this.
Thank you all for your fun comments. I hope you enjoy felting some colorful stones.
Blessings and magic.
Your stones are gorgeous!
Green is my favorite color, I love seeing all your greens together!
We have enjoyed felting river stones this summer, mine never seen to get as tight as yours thanks for the tip about needle felting I think I may just make some right now! : )
Hi! Could you give me some technical advice for Acorn Pies? I love the way you archive your crafts with photographs. I’d like to do that, too, because I have lots of crafts tucked away in my blog which people probably wouldn’t find otherwise. Your layout makes crafts so easy to find. I can’t figure out how to do it, though. Could you email me, when you have a chance? Thanks.
These are so pretty!
That looks like a such a fun project for kids. We will be doing that. Thanks for sharing!
Felted stones has been on my list of to do things this summer. I found a beautiful felting book with amazing ideas – stones included. You chose lovely colors for your stones – so inspiring! I’ll send pics of mine once I get to it!
Jill
Thanks so much for inspiring us to do this! I have 3 kids home from school today and we’re all expert stone felters now. I’d like to dye some roving with Kool-Aid for even more colors but all the processes seem to require heat; will that pre-felt the wool and make it unfeltable?
Hi Elizabeth, we’ve also had a wonderful day at home today. I do love the Waldorf breaks as they allow us to spend whole, lazy, days with our kids again.
So, dyeing wool with Kool-Aid is really easy. You’ll be totally amazed at how quick the dye takes – quite scary that kids drink it. Here’s a tutorial on how we do it in a kid-friendly way… http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/2009/07/dying-with-kool-aid.html
Have fun!
Blessings and magic,
Donni
Excellent! Thanks for the quick response. It looks like yet another great tutorial. But will the wool still work for wet felting?
Yes, the Kool-aide is a colorfast dye… it wont wash out once it’s in.
Love Donni