Felting With Kids

At my "real" job I am a preschool teacher.  In the last year I've been able to do a couple of project with the kids at my school.  This first one was done at Family Art Night.  Family Art Nights at my school are themed art events where the whole building  is filled with art activities that parents can do with thier kids.  This night's theme was fiber arts.  In addition to other weaving and fabric related craft offerings was felt making.  The children helped me lay out the wool on a big tarp, then pour the hot soapy water on it.  Then we all took off our shoes and socks and stomped on the wool.  The children loved it.  However when they were finished the felt looked more like a 3D spider web than a rug.  I was afraid we had ruined it by letting the children twist too much, causing so many holes. I took it home and finished it with about an hour of rolling in my felting mat.  The finished piece has so many interesting visual layers and wholes.  I don't think I've ever made a more beautiful piece of felt, and couldn't make another just like it even if I tried.

This piece was done with the help of six, 4-6 year olds that attended my afternoon art classes.  My director asked if I would be willing to make a rug with the children that could be donated to the Ann Arbor Art Center's fundraising auction.  One of the children in this class had been repeatedly drawing the same picture of flowers for weeks.  I thought the design was simple enough to show children how to make in felt. This time after laying out the wool we rolled it right away and skipped the stomping to avoid messing up the design.   Here is the original drawing and the finished felt.