Felting soap is really easy to do and the results are very pretty (and practical). If you make home-made soap for gift giving or have a market stall, felted soap is a great item. It is sure to garner plenty of attention. Felted soap is basically a bar of soap and a wash cloth all in one.
I've been making soap for a few years, and had never heard of this process until recently. I saw some felted soap bars at a farmer market and just had to inquire about it. She was kind enough to give me a big bag of carded wool so I could try it for myself. Today, being a bit tired of this everlasting winter, I decided to get crafty. Surprisingly the whole exercise, including photos was finished in 25 minutes. It really is very easy to do!
Lessons Learned
You need more wool that you think. I skimped on the second bar and ended up with some bare patches where you can see the soap. It takes a bit of practice to get the right ratio of wool.
The Benefits
Wool offers a light ex-foliation and also contains naturally occurring anti-fungal properties. Home-made soaps also last longer when encased in wool. The felt is reusable as well, just slit it open and fill it with another soap bar or even soap scraps.
Materials
- Carded wool (wool rovings) 2 ounces per bar. Don't skimp.
- A bowl of hot water
- A Bar of soap with the corners rounded off
This process requires natural fibres such as wool. Do not use synthetics.
The Process
If your soap has pointed corners, take a knife and gently round the corners. You only lose a little bit of soap doing this. You can set that aside for a future soap making event.
Wrap the wool around the bar of soap. You'll want to wrap wool around the length like this
Then wrap another length of wool around the width. You want all surfaces, especially corners to be well covered.
I also wrapped a strip of white wool around the bar. You can wrap small, thin, pieces to make patters or colourful streaks on the felt.
Dribble a little bit of warm water on the felt and squeeze the bar. Keep squeezing without rubbing until the wool starts to later up.
When the soap starts to lather this means it is felting up. Once this happens its time to rub the felt.
Keep rubbing and squeezing all the sides and surfaces of the bar, like you are scrubbing your hands, rotating the bar and making sure you work on all sides. This took around ten minutes.
You'll notice the felt becoming tighter around the bar. Keep rubbing until it feel quite snug. you can dunk it in your warm water to rinse off the suds and inspect. If it still seems a bit fluffy continue rubbing for a few more minutes.
When the felt is snug around the soap, run it under cold water. This will tighten up the wool, and rinse off the suds.
Squeeze out the excess water and let dry!
The soap pictured here is a very firm bar that I call "Rustic Coffee Cocoa Salt Soap". It smells really good. You can find the recipe on my website here.
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