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Wet felted beads are easy and inexpensive to make - you only need a few grams of merino wool top and some soapy water.
On their own or combined with glass, metal or ceramic beads, they make beautiful jewellery and they can be made into decorations, zip pulls, hair pins, charms for phones and purses – the list is endless!
To begin, put some very warm water and a squirt of washing up soap into a bowl.
Take two tufts of merino wool about 4 – 5 inches / 10-12 cms long. This amount will give you a bead about the size of a small cherry.
If you want to make lots of beads of the same size, weigh the wool so that you know exactly how many grams to use each time.
Roll up one of the tufts, quite tightly, as shown.
Place the rolled up tuft at right angles on to the bottom of the other tuft as shown.
Roll them up together, quite tightly, starting at the bottom, until you have a rough ball shape.
Holding the ball firmly, dip it into the soapy water for a few seconds.
Still holding the ball firmly between your fingers, turn your palm upwards and squirt a tiny amount of washing up soap into your palm.
Put the ball between both your palms and very gently and slowly and with no pressure, roll it around.
It’s important that you only just lightly hold the wool ball between your palms when you start to roll it – if you try to force it at this stage you will end up with a rough bead that resembles a ‘brain’.
The photo above shows the ball about halfway to becoming a bead.
As the ball starts to shrink and harden, increase the pressure of rolling until you have a felt bead.
The finished bead should be very firm but with just a little give so that you can poke a hole through it.
Rinse the soap off and leave it to dry then poke a hole through it with a darning needle – you may need pliers to pull the needle through if your bead is very firm.
Finished felt bead - about the size of a small cherry.
Felt beads have a gentle fluffiness about them, but if you prefer a smoother finish, use a jumper shaver on them.
You can make different shaped beads
To make a long bead, roll the bead in one direction rather than round and round, when the bead is about half felted.
To make pointy ends on a long bead, roll it in one direction in the cups of your hands.
To make a cube, shape the sides by squeezing with your fingers when the bead is almost felted.
To make a disc shaped bead, make a round bead then hammer it flat.
Variegated beads
You can make your beads using more than one colour of wool at a time and you can add a wisp of silk top.
A simple bracelet can be made from felt beads and shirring elastic. Measure your wrist and line up the correct length in felt beads. Poke a hole in each felt bead with a thick darning needle - you may need to use pliers to pull the needle right through - then string them together with a double thread of shirring elastic. Tie off and thread the ends back through a bead before cutting off.
This bracelet was made from plain, round felt beads and glass beads.
The felt beads shown are the size of large cherries.
Update to this Blog Post 14 Oct 2024:
Embellishing Your Beads With Hand Embroidery
Adding hand embroidered patterns to your beads is such a lovely thing to do. You can make a huge range of designs from just a few basic stitches and once you get started the possibilities seem endless.
Wet felted beads have so many uses in craft projects, from jewellery to home decor.
Please take a look at our instantly downloadable PDF tutorial now available on Etsy to learn how to make, embroider and string wet felted beads - get felting and stitching today!
Click here for our tutorial available on Etsy
For further inspiration please see our blog post about making a home decor project using hand embroidered wet felted beads:
Autumn Inspired Wet Felted and Hand Embroidered Beads
