Message #1332

[unschoolbus]

This is how we made them.

Gather materials: wool roving, a bowl of warm water, dish soap and eager children to start the wet felting process.  In this photo below, you can see the roving and also the wet felted "snakes" (as the children liked to call them).

To begin, pull out small bits of roving and lay them in a pile.  By wrapping one color around another beautiful patterns in the beads can be made.  Once you get a good sized pile of wool, as seen in the photo below on the left hand side...

 ...have the children begin to roll the roving between their palms to get a good feel of the motion of the movement. 

Take the bowl of warm water and very gently roll the wool on the top of the water to try and saturate it evenly.

Once the wool is completely wet, squeeze out excess water and add a bead of dish soap along the side.  Then begin rolling the wool between your palms, very lightly at first until the roving begins to bind.  After a few minutes there is a noticeable change to the wool as it begins to turn into felt.

 With a very sharp scissors, cut the "snake" up into discs, which are the beads.

Once there are plenty of beads, you can begin stringing them.  We used clear nylon beading cord which requires a lobster clasp that I attached for the children.  I would imagine using elastic cord for jewelry making would work just fine and the children would only have to knot it together. 

They all turned out beautifully.