Saturday, February 20, 2010

doggie grooming tools are not just for doggies

 
This week I have continued to experiment with my birthday present, a needle felting machine. This tool is turning out to be oodles of fun, and I am learning a lot: felting needles are very expensive, they break easily, and they leave little tiny holes in the wool roving.

Thinking that these holes are unattractive, I embarked upon a mission to minimize them. I didn't have access to any wool carding tools, so I hightailed it down to the local animal grooming purveyor in search of something I could use to comb those craters away.

Nothing in the horse grooming section looked appropriate, so I settled on a doggie grooming brush:

Using tiny little strokes, I put brush to felt, entreating the holes to disappear. First result:

 
Hmm. Okay, but still lotsa holes. More doggie brushing.

Uh oh. A little wispy. Did I overdo it? I saw somewhere you could cover it with parchment paper and iron. Let's try that.

No perceptible difference, methinks.  I think I like door number 2, before the more aggressive grooming.

Experimentation continues.

2 comments:

Fulvia said...

Pamela, the dog slicker brush is exactly what many of us use as an alternative to more expensive hand cards; it is also welcome if you have small hands. I do not quite understand how you are using them in order to eliminate or close the holes so perhaps you can tell me more about it and I can help. On the other hand, holding a stem iron just over them and using tons of steam tends to restore and relax the fibers back to their original form and most holes usually disappear. Hope this helps.

Judy Rys said...

You crack me up!!

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