How to use wool nepps (knops) in wet felting

I was happily placing wool nepps onto my felty beach postcard and I remembered how I'd struggled with nepps in the early days, so I'd like to share this tip.

Wool nepps are small balls of tangled fibres that can be bought in many colours, or you can buy natural and dye your own.  

They are good for adding texture and colour to felt but they can be tricky to felt in.

After you've placed the wool nepps in the design you want, on top of the final layer of dry fibres,

cover them with just a few wisps of fibres to anchor them in place.  

Take care not to place the nepps too close to each other because as the felt shrinks the nepps could clump together - although there may be a time when that is exactly the effect you want.

Nepps are good for giving the impression of lots of flowers in the distance, or placing a dot of colour where it's needed or stones on a beach, as above.  

 

I love reading about fibres and textiles on the internet and if you're as fascinated as I am, have a look at the Felting and Fiber Studio Blog.  

If you want to join in with the forum discussions, you would be welcomed to the Felting and Fiber Studio Forum - it's a great place to exchange ideas and techniques.

Have you visited World of Wool? The website has a wealth of information about wool and textiles; beautiful fibres and silks etc for sale; workshops; books, dvds and magazines, and a recently introduced pdf downloads section.

We're delighted that our pdf 'Creating Felt Artwork' and Chrissie Day's pdf 'Nuno Felt' are the first two downloads to be offered on World of Wool's website.