Today our craft group gathered to make wet-felted soap. Antoinette said, “I love this craft! These soaps make very great gifts for teachers, family and friends.”
Some finished and unfinished wet-felted soaps basking in our Southern Californian spring sunshine.
For $5 we had access to all the materials to make as many soaps as we wanted. Christine Newell taught our group to make this craft. Thank you Christine Newell and Rachel Skelly for organizing our craft group!
Menu
- Craft Group Shenanigans…
- Today we made wet-felted soaps
- Click here to view our gallery of past craft group projects.
- Nuno-felted Scarves made on April 17, 2013 and some inspirational samples
- Wet-Felted Bags Wednesday, April 24, 2013.
- Jzin’s Crafts…
- Jzin and her little sidekicks performed “Snow White and Rose Red” table top puppet show for Miss Tiesha’s aftercare last Thursday April 25, 2013.
- Jzin’s recent handmade Apple Cake Table Top Puppet Show set, sold to Brazil.
- Gorgeous Crafts Available from our community…
- Gorgeous handmade and other goodies available online to support our Waldorf School of Orange County Golf Tournament Fundraiser.
- Buy Raffle Tickets for Some Awesome Handmade Love. Support Maple Village Waldorf School in Long Beach, California May 18, 2013 Gala fundraiser
- Southern Californian Crafting Fun …
- Christine Newell’s Upcoming Doll-Making Class.
- Thinking of summer classes? Peacemakers Country Store in Costa Mesa has craft classes for children and adult. Click here to view list of classes for adults and children.
- Angela and Jzin are buying some wool batting (From Peace Fleece in the East Coast) for personal use. Who wants in so together we can get their great wholesale pricing (which will be lower than what is listed on their online store) ?
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Today
Today our Wednesday craft group gathered outdoors in the garden of our Waldorf School of Orange County school store, The Company of Angels, to make wet-felted soap.
I reached out for a bar of Trader Joe’s honey oatmeal soap and wrapped that in my first layer of wool batting. This layer was too wide and had to be trimmed by pulling off some of the edges.
Christine’s soap, snugly wrapped up in 2 layers of wool batting.
Wrapped in lime green pencil roving…Christine added chartreuse and rose red corriedale wool tops in thin layers to the soap. Thick layers of wool will felt into detached bumps that will have to be cut off and discarded.
Kimmy (with her baby girl resting inside her belly) laid down thin, flat strips of colorful roving on her soap.
Rachel and Debbie making wet-felted soaps.
Christine misting her soap with hot water from a spray bottle.
{For those lacking spray bottle and patience, I would boil hot water and drip thin strips of hot water and liquid soap onto the wool. Boiling water makes the wool felt faster. You will however, need to wait to hand felt your soap when it is touchable with bare hands or gloved hands. My hands are made of steel so I can handle felting with hot water.}
Dr. Bonner’s liquid soap was added to the wet soap bar. Actually, most soaps will do. At my home I use my liquid dishwashing detergent or laundry detergent, they work as well. Here Christine was rubbing her wet and soapy soap into shape on top of bumpy bubble wrap.
Gloria had help from little Catherine.
Christine rigorously rubbing her soapy wool on top of bubble wrap to felt it in place.
Rachel rubbing wet-felted soap on washboard
Rubbing the soap on bubble wrap to felt the wool into place.
Gloria and little Catherine crafting in the garden.
After the soaps are semi-felted on the bubble wraps, Rachel and Antoinette applied rigorous rubbings on washboards to further felt them in shape.
The last step was to rinse the suds off our soap in cold water to shock the fibers in place. We rinsed our soap in the red tub of cold water pictured in the background below. Here are soaps from our first batch of wet-felting.
I decided to try a second bar of soap. I wanted to add needle-felted words to this soap.
I started off the same way, as if I was making a regular wet-felted soap. However, I needle-felted my designs on my final layer atop my needle-felting foam board first, before I wrapped up my soap with that needle-felted, final layer.
I wrapped my tea-tree oil soap bar in 2 layers of wool batting. I trimmed off excess wool to make a nice wrap.
My craft box: I did not want the white to show, so I added a chartreuse layer next.
I practiced wrapping my chartreuse green soap with the red roving piece first, to determine if the size of the red layer was big enough for a good wrap. Before I added the red layer to the green soap, I needle-felted the word “love” using white mohair yarn. I wanted to achieve a “glowing” look for my word with the flyaway wisps of white mohair fibers.
Not satisfied with the fuzzy and unclear look of the first (white) yarn writing, I added the word “Love” again, this time using Christine’s thin and flat yellow pencil roving, to the opposite side of the soap.
I fell in love with this yellow pre-yarn. They are awesome for making words and designs on felt projects!
Note: I needle felted on a foam pad in my tiny craft box, and NOT directly onto the hard soap.
I practiced my cursive writing until I am satisfied, then I wrapped the needle-felted piece of red roving around my green soap.
My handwork was intended for my favorite young man…
My soap moistened with hot water and liquid soap, before subsequent squeezing and rubbings.
I handled my soap more gently (I did not rub on washboards) to preserve the design. I will carry on my wet-felting fun in the showers at home.
Gloria and Catherine were leaving early and wanted to take their finished soap home. Wanting to include my unfinished “love” soap in the group picture, I placed it on the drying table even though it was wet and not completely felted yet. The loose felt needed some gentle squeezing to get into shape.
Our wet-felted soaps, some were waiting to fully come into being.
This craft is also suitable for children. (They will need help with the hot water). The children and I wet felted soap for Anicka’s 8th birthday party recently. Anicka’s soap has a rope for hanging. To make it, you can first tie your soap with yarn as if you are tying a gift. Then, you cover it up the tied soap with colorful roving.
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Nuno-Felted Scarves
Craft group made Nuno-felted Scarves on April 17, 2013. Wednesday. I was told that the scarves came out beautifully! I missed it that day. I photographed 2 of the scarves made that day (above and below).
We are hoping to Nuno-felting again. The next time, we shall make LARGER Nuno felted shawls/ scarves. Please e-mail and let Christine know if you are interested in doing this project so she can order the silks for it: [email protected]. Below are the prices of the scarves you would like to make…
- 22 x 90 inches $25
- 43 x 72 inches $30
- 11 x 90 inches $18
- 14 x 72 inches $18
Here are some inspirations from Pinterest.com…
Nuno-felted bag by Beata’s Soul on Etsy, $99.00
Judith Dios Three-Dimensional Surface Effects with Nuno Felting. Check out the works of Judith Dios on her website.
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Wet-Felted Bags. Wednesday, April 24, 2013
I missed this day at craft group. May 1, 2013. I managed to photo a tea cozy wet-felted by Rachel Skelly (Rachel is in the background, very much blurred out).
Thank you Rachel Skelly for always taking good care of us with teas and biscuits at craft group gatherings! Here is Rachel’s iconic sunshine yellow teapot with her new wet-felted tea cozy.
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“Snow White and Rose Red” Table Top Puppet Show Performance for Miss Tiesha’s Aftercare Last Week.
Thursday 3:30pm April 25, 2013. This afternoon, we performed a homemade “Snow White and Rose Red” by The Brothers Grimm Table Top Fairy Tale puppet show in 7 scenes for Miss Tiesha Hutchins-Utai’s aftercare program at our Waldorf school. It ran exactly 20 minutes with live piano accompaniment by my 8 year old pianists and assistants Nunu (nickname) and Anička. I am so proud of my girls!
Here, Anička played a lively Lemuan Etude while my girl took the stage to perform a short comedic sequence. I am so grateful for all the smiles and laughter of the children.
Click here to visit the page of photos from that afternoon.
We have also donated a Table Top Fairy Tale Puppet Show to Maple Village Waldorf School’s Under The Stars Annual Gala Event on Saturday, May 18, 2013 in Long Beach. Check it out, you may win a table top puppet show for your next gathering!
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Jzin’s Apple Cake Table Top Puppet Set, Sold to Brazil
Hurray! I made and sold a set of dolls to faraway Brazil. It makes me so happy to think that my handwork will live in the happy memories of a group of little Brazilian children so far away! Here are some photos of the dolls I made for this large order. Click here to view page.
Click here to view more photos and the crafting process of this large set of Table Top puppet show dolls and props.
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Shop for Gorgeous Treasures and Support Our Waldorf School of Orange County Golf Tournament Fundraiser, May 17, 2013.
Click here to enter our Waldorf School of Orange County DRIVING FOR THE FUTURE – Golf Tournament and BBQ Fundraiser. Some of the gorgeous finds you will encounter on our auction site… Beautiful Fall Needle-Felted picture handmade by my friend and fiber artist, Cathrine Ji. Thank you Cathrine! 
Cathrine Ji’s breath-taking needle-felted firebird puppet mobile!
Click here to bid on Cathrine Ji’s firebird.
Andrea Hubert’s Handmade Double Necklace of pearls, semi-precious stones, glass beads and silverstone metal accents.
Click here to bid on Andrea Hubert’s Double Necklace.
Click here to bid on Gisela’s handmade mermaid above
Julie Fish’s Waldorf Palette Cookbook is also available. Buy one for yourself, buy 20 more as gifts for your friends!
The Waldorf Palette Cookbook, compiled by WSOC’s Julie Fish, is full of delicious culinary contributions from WSOC parents. Recipes include Thai Green Chicken Curry, Raw Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Bread Pudding, Bok Choy Shrimp Soup and more! All proceeds benefit our school. Get your copy and support our Waldorf School of Orange County on this link!
Get your copy of The Waldorf Palette and support our Waldorf School of Orange County on this link!
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Buy Raffle Tickets for Some Awesome Handmade Love. Support Maple Village Waldorf School in Long Beach, California
My friend Jen’s sweet little girls happily checking out the actual play set available for this raffle.
The Maple Village Waldorf School in Long Beach, California is selling raffles for a handmade Knitted Blanket AND a handmade Felted Play set for their annual fundraiser. Both raffle items will be shipped, free of charge, to anywhere in the world.
Buy some raffles and support the Maple Village Waldorf School! Click here to go to the Maple Village School Website. Click on pictures below to share this news with your friends on facebook. 
Please give our friends some help. Click below and share this on facebook!
We have also donated a Table Top Fairy Tale Puppet Show to Maple Village Waldorf School’s Under The Stars Annual Gala Event on Saturday, May 18, 2013 in Long Beach. Check it out, you may win a table top puppet show for your next gathering!
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Peace Fleece Wool Batting Group Purchase
Angela and Jzin are buying some wool batting from Peace Fleece in the East Coast for personal use. If collectively we spend $100 or more, we can go with the wholesale pricing which is an incredible discount. Who wants in so together we can get their great wholesale pricing?
Why Peace Fleece?
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So easy to needle-felt with. It is “sticky” and takes shapes much faster than wool tops. Great for beginners
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Wet-felting: Covers wide areas more easily than wool top.
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See the recent playscape we made: https://castleofcostamesa.com/dolls/making-anickas-first-felted-playscape
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- I love the textures
- colors are delicious!
Peace Fleece Regular Pricing Catalog: http://www.peacefleece.com/catalog/catalog.php?category=wool_bat
If you want to check out the wholesale pricing, you can leave me a message or e-mail me and I will give you the link to the discounted wholesale prices.
“The Magic Meadow 2” Etsy store also carries them if you want to buy at retail price…(The below pictures were taken from “The Magic Measow 2” Etsy store.)
Not know what to get? You can try out the Rainbow pack of colors either on …
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Buy at your own leisure: The Magic Meadow 2 on Etsy (22 colors, about 11 oz, $25+ shipping).
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or buy with Angela and I using the discounted wholesale pricing (drop a message below or e-mail me) from Peace Fleece website (21 colors, about 6oz, $10.25 wholesale price). Pick up from me at school.
- You can also buy directly from Peace Fleece, retail is $17+shipping.
….otherwise, you can think of what you want to make for your next project: e.g. if you are wet-felting a woodland playscape, you can stock up on the browns, greens (Hemlock, Shaba) earth colors. I plan to make an ocean playscape, so I will be stocking on the sand colors and sea colors.
You can also get them at The Magic Meadow 2 on Etsy.
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Christine Newell’s Upcoming Doll-Making Class
Christine’s last doll making class of the year will be held at Hilltop school in Fountain Valley, California.
- Starting May 13th for 4 consecutive weeks: May 13/20/27 and June 3
- Time: 7/9 pm.
- Cost: $90 all materials included.
- Contact Christine Newell if you are interested: [email protected].
Remember: No experience necessary just a willingness to learn. Happy Crafting! – Christine
Click here to see our 16″ Waldorf cuddle dolls made with Christine.
Click here to visit our gallery of craft group projects.
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Visit My Handmade Dolls Page
Click here to view my other handmade dolls. I take custom orders. You can contact me on Etsy. My store name is CastleofCostaMesa. Thank you!
Please “Like” Us on Facebook
I giveaway my Handmade Dolls periodically. Please “Like” my facebook page so you will be informed when I announce the next handmade doll giveaway. Thanks!
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