Wet felting on a ball

Are you having trouble with creating the perfect rounded felt shape using a 2D resist? Shaping a felted 2D object into a 3D form can be difficult, it takes a lot of time and know-how to get the perfect result. An easier option is to keep the entire project 3D, and using an inflatable rubber ball as a felting form is the way to do it. Say good buy to unpredictable outcome shapes and tiresome edge management and say hello to wet felting 3D objects. This free tutorial, on how to make a felted vessel, involves felting on a ball to create a hollow felted sphere, it is beginner friendly and takes about 4 hours to complete.

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Felting equipment needed

Rubber ball (I used a 7.96 inch (20.22 cm) diameter ball)
Ball pump and pin
Felting mat (such as a solar pool cover or bubble wrap)
Ball sprinkler (having pressurized water is important for getting the sides of the ball wet)
Polyester gauze or tulle netting (not a fiber glass screen)
Felting soap (I used Murphy’s oil soap)
Plastic bag
1 tooth pick
A jar lid and chalk, or a circular cookie cutter
Sharp scissors
2 large bowls or pails (holding about 4L each)
Sponge for soaking up spilled water
Towels – one for under the felting mat and one for drying your hands
Knee pads (these are optional, but are highly recommended if you felt on the floor like I do)

If you would like some advice on choosing a felting mat, check out A review of 5 of the best felting mats available

Felting wool needed

Felting wool (such as merino or corridale, and silk top for decorations).
I used 58 grams of yellow roving for the first layer, 17 grams of green roving for the second layer, 33 grams of turquoise roving for the third layer. For the decorations I used 5 grams of black silk top, 2 grams of blue silk top, 1 gram of white silk top, and 1 gram of green merino-silk blend. You don’t have to use the same colours or amounts of everything I used but you should have 108 grams in total of roving for making a good thick felt for the urn. The amount of silk top you use (if any) is up to you, you shouldn’t need more than 9 grams. If you use a smaller ball, you will need less wool.

Felting directions

Step 1. Inflate the ball

You must be able to inflate and deflate the rubber ball for this project. The material the ball is made of must also be flexible enough that when deflated, it is easily rolled within the felted vessel and extracted from a small opening at the top of the vessel. With that said, inflate your rubber ball and place it on top of an open jar with the ball plug at the top of ball.

Step 2. Setting up your felting station

Lay your towel down on your work surface, with your felting mat on top, and the two pails side by side, on top of the felting mat. Place the jar with the ball on it in one pail and fill the other pail with warm soapy water (I used 2 – 3 tablespoons of liquid soap for 3.5 liters of water). Have your sponge or dish cloth handy to mop up spills.

Step 3. Insert a tooth pick to mark the top

Gently insert a tooth pick into the plug of the ball so that you can tell the top from the bottom when is is covered in wool. Be careful not to push it in too much or it will deflate the ball, but enough that it won’t fall out when the ball is turned upside down.

Step 4. Begin to layer wool onto the ball

Using a similar technique to laying wool for a 2D project (if that is a new concept for you, please work review the ‘Wet felting for beginners – your step by step guide to wool felting‘ first) add ‘shingles’ of wool at perpendicular angles to an area no greater than 1/4 the area of the ball at a time, otherwise the wool will fall off. Once you have laid down a patch of wool (of many shingles), gently sprinkle on some water until it is completely wet and the air has been pushed out (you may have to press the wool down with wet fingers to release all the air trapped in the wool).

Step 5. Completely cover the ball with wool

Rotate the ball on the jar. You’ll notice that the water sticks the wool to the ball and stops it from falling off. Apply more wool and water to the edge of the previous wool ‘patch’ and keep working all the way around the ball. Eventually, you should have a complete wool layer around the ball.

Step 6. Drain the water and add new water

The water drains naturally to the bottom of the ball but too much water can cause the wool to come away from the ball. To prevent this, rotate the ball in your hands and squeeze gently to get rid of excess water. At this stage, or later when your water is cold and lacks suds, make up more water. It is important to do this three or four times throughout as the suds help the wool stick together.

Step 7. Looking for thin spots

Take a good look for thin spots in the wool layer. If you see the colour of the ball coming through the wool, it means you need to add another ‘patch’ of wool to that area before moving on. I find using a contrasting colour of rubber ball and wool to be very helpful with this. You should also use your finger tips for detecting thin spots too.

Step 8. The second layer

Now it is time for a second layer. You can use the same colour if you like, but I find it helpful to use a different colour to easily detect thin spots in the wool layer. Using the same technique , lay the wool on the ball and sprinkle on water until it is completely wetted down and free of trapped air. Do this until the ball is completely covered with another layer of wool. Then check for thin spots again, looking to see if the first layer of wool can be seen through the second layer, and using your fingers to touch the ball all over and evaluate the consistency of wool thickness. Where there are thin spots, apply more wool.

Step 9. The third layer

Repeat step 7 for a final layer.

Step 10. Adding a decorative layer

You can leave the ball as a single colour, or you can add some decorations. Just as you laid the wool in the previous steps, make sure you lay your decorations thinly and not in thick clumps or it wont felt. Getting decorations to felt to the wool layers on a ball is more difficult than if it were a flat surface. Gravity is not our friend, but if you are aware of this, and layer on the decorations in thin wispy bits of fibers, then you should have no problem. Like the other layers, as soon as you have placed some wool, spray it with water so it doesn’t fall off when you rotate the ball.

If you are looking for other decorative ideas for your vessel, head to etsy for some great ideas.

Step 11. Secure the wool with gauze

Now take your nylon gauze or netting and wrap it around the ball. Be careful not to move or dislodge the decorations in the process. Take an elastic band or string and tie the loose ends of the gauze up around the toothpick. The gauze should be very snug around the ball to hold the wool in place during the pre-felting stage.

Step 12. Get felting

It is time to get felting! Re-apply warm soapy water to the wool if it has since cooled down. Rub the surface of the ball and roll it around on your felting mat gently, going back and forth and around in circles, in every direction, over every area of the ball (except where the extra gauze and tooth pick are).

Step 13. Loose the gauze

After about 15 minutes of rolling, take the gauze off. You’ll need to do this before the wool fibers start to felt too it and you need to rip it off (this can pull off your decorations and create holes).

Step 14. Loose the toothpick

If the top of the ball is obvious from the bottom base on your decorations, you can completely remove the toothpick. If it’s not, then you will need to break or cut the toothpick off near the ball surface so it isn’t poking out too much. This is necessary as you need to felt the wool on the top of the ball.

Step 15. Wrap it up in plastic

Wrap the ball up in a plastic bag (the thinner the plastic the better). If the decorations haven’t already felted in place, then tie the ends of the bag up as you did with the gauze but at the bottom of the ball instead of the top. If the decorations are secure and felted on (do the pinch test), then you can wrap the ends of the bag over one another.

Step 16. Roll it

Now for more rolling, about 20 minutes of it. If you tied the ends of the bag up, you’ll need to re-tie it in a different position every 7 minutes or so for an even felt.

Step 17. Cutting the urn opening

Before the vessel is felted too much, it is time to give it an opening. Placing the ball upright on the jar, press a round cookie cutter into the top so that it leaves an impression. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can use a jar lid and trace around it with some chalk which will wash off afterwards. Using a sharp scissors with pointy ends, cut the circle out. The round piece of felt can be used in another felting project as a pre-felt decoration, to learn about how to use pre-felting and design see ‘Pre-felting and designing a wall hanging (coming soon)’.

Step 18. Opening size – some advice

The size of the cookie cutter or jar lid you use should be smaller than the opening you want in the end product. This is because the hole will become larger as you felt, as the fibers are drawn more tightly in as the felt thickens, moving them away from the direction of the opening edge.

Step 19. Felting the edge

The edge of the opening needs to be felted to look more natural. Apply warm soapy water to the opening edge and rub along it using you fingers and thumb until the edge is smooth and well felted.

Step 20. Apply some pressure

When the wool around the entire ball has been pre-felted and has a ‘skin’ on it, it is time to felt more enthusiastically and add more pressure to speed up the process. At this point you can take the plastic bag off the ball and roll it with wet hands. Use one side of your felting mat (or a separate section) to cover the top of the ball and push down on it as you roll it over the felting mat. After 15 minutes or so you can progress to rolling it along a washboard if you have one.

Step 21. Drying the felted urn

When it is good and felted it is time to let it dry. First deflate the ball and rinse out the soap using fresh tap water. Then fill one of the pails with 2 liters of water and a teaspoon of vinegar. Soak the felted urn for 15 minutes to neutralize the pH, then rinse again. After this, you can put the deflated ball back in it and inflate it again. Then place the urn on the jar and let it drip dry outside or put the jar in an empty pail to contain the dripping water if you are drying it indoors.

Step 22. Deflate the ball

Once the felted vessel is completely dry (this may take a day or two), take the pin from pump and insert it into the ball plug. This will deflate the ball. Remove the pin and ball from the vessel. Gently push the urn onto a flat surface to give it a flat base so that is doesn’t roll.

That’s it, you’re done! I hope you enjoyed this 3D felting techniques tutorial and are pleased with your felted vessel.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the art of felting vessels, try reading

Or perhaps you are ready to move on to felting something completely different? If so, check out Cobweb felting tutorial – learn how to felt a cobweb scarf

Selling your felted arts and crafts

If you’ve been felting up a storm and are ready to start selling your artwork online, check out this great article on how to start selling your crafts on Etsy. Tiffany Davis at ‘the Imperfectly Happy home’, has done a great job in this article of explaining the ins and outs, pros and cons, of selling products online. She then goes through, step by step, how to set up a store on Etsy and list items to sell. It’s a great guide for those new to selling their work online.