Felting, Day Two

Day two of my soap felting project was lots of fun!  I took all the different colors of wool roving, coordinated combinations, then weighed out half ounce portions and bagged them to make it easier once I started the assembly line.  The 12 bars drying on the towel are the work of a couple hours this afternoon.  Below I have detailed my technique and put in a few tips to help anyone that wants to try it on their own.  

1. Prepare your bar of soap by trimming the edges with a potato peeler if they are sharp.  I took off my usual amount--not more--and had no trouble felting the edges.
2. Prepare 1/2 ounce of wool roving for the felting.  I did this ahead of time, so all I had to do is grab a bag and empty it--all the pieces were cut to size and the colors were all coordinated.   Try to wrap the soap from both directions with even layers--I had enough for three layers.  The colors used to decorate should be thin--thicker pieces are harder to felt.  The bar in the picture that is the second from the left on the bottom row shows thicker pieces of roving that could have been thinner.  
3. Use a knee high or 6-8 inches of the toe-end of a pair of nylons to contain the soap wrapped with roving.  
4. Run hot water in the sink about 2-3 inches deep.  Dunk the soap in the water and then squeeze out the water.  Repeat until the soap lather just starts to come out.  It takes maybe 30 seconds of doing this--about four dunks.   
5. Remove the nylon--if you wait too long the nylon will start to felt too and it is hard to peel off.  It will still be quite fluffy and some pieces will be sticking out a bit.
6. Squeeze soap on all sides adding water as needed until the roving all starts to "stick" together and starts to loose the fluffiness.  As you rotate the soap you can feel if the roving is even on all sides.
7. Use a felting board (or sushi mat, bamboo placemat, bubble wrap, rough piece of material, Tupperware lid with ridges, wood soap dish with slots or rubber drawer liner with nubs--whatever you have).  Rub the soap on all sides--circular, back and forth movements.  Do it more gently at first, increasing your pressure as the wool starts to tighten. 
8. Dunk in water periodically to remove soap suds and then use your hands to rub and squeeze all the wrinkles and looseness out of the wool.  It should be getting tighter as you handle it.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 until the wrinkles are gone, all the seams are sealed and the felted case is tight.  Once I got the hang of it, most soaps took 8-9 minutes to get from Step 1 to Step 9.  The mainly orange soap in the picture above took over 20 minutes and it did not felt all the way.  The other pictures show the wrinkles left.  
10. Rinse the bar once more in hot water to remove suds. Shock in cold water and then remove as much water and suds as possible.  Put on towel and apply pressure to remove more water.  
11. Dry on wire racks to get air to all sides.  

I am going to reserve that one for myself and see if the wrinkles result in the soap 

coming out or if it is just a cosmetic issue.  Good timing!  I am ready for a new soap in the shower!