How to use our Earth Friendly Felting Mat 'EARTH MAT'

 

Both Mats (soft and firm) - put together in your preferred combination - make the Earth Friendly Felting Mat or Earth Mat.

Soft Top Mat: Pure natural off-white in colour, 100% wool felt and totally compostable. It is the best working top to needle felt with all sizes of needles from fine #42 to coarse #36 and multi needle tools. The top mat works well with 2d and 3d projects.

Firm Base Mat:  Cream with odd dark fibres, 70% wool and 30% manmade fibre and non-compostable but there should be no reason to discard of it. Its best use is as a base mat underneath the softer top mat. You can use it to needle felt on but coarse needles are too thick to penetrate into the mat.

For the Earth (Friendly Felting) Mat to work best we recommend to have at least one Firm Base Mat and one Soft Top Mat. However, you can also ‘sandwich’ the Firm Base Mat between two Soft Top Mats and use from both sides. Some people like to use one side for darker makes and the other for lighter ones to limit fibre colour contamination. You can also use two Soft Top Mats on top of each other. Perhaps you will find other combinations that work for you? Tip: You may also use the Soft Top Mat on top of felting mats you already use such as a foam mat, rice mat or other!

In time the Soft Top Mat will become more condensed and you can either add a new Soft Top Mat or dispose of it (it is fully compostable) . Also did you know that wool deters slugs in your flower and vegetable beds? You could use either mats as a border for your beds. The Firm Base Mat should not need to be replaced as often if at all!

You can also cut either mats easily with your scissors to suit your project you are working on.

 

As the two mats are separate you may want to felt them together first by stabbing a few times with a coarse needle into the Soft Top Mat. Do this in each corner. This will stop the mat from moving. In time the two mats will become more attached as you are using it to felt into.
Your Earth Friendly Felting Mat is ready to be used now. Use it as a general base for all your 3d needle felting projects.
Use it for your 2d projects such as pictures, flowers, butterflies...
...as well as flat shapes that attach to 3d projects (note, no mouse has been harmed in this process!)
Use with multi needle tools such as the 7-needle tool, 3-needle tool, Prym Needle Handle, wooden multi tool. As with other felting mats it is important that you insert the multi tools at a right angle rather than at a shallow angle.
If you decide to have a ‘3-layered’ Earth Friendly Felting Mat then use the Firm Base Mat between the two Soft Top Mats. You can layer more and in different orders as long as you use the Soft Top Mat as your most versatile felting base.

 

Cleaning your mats:

As with any felting mat you will end up with wool fibres that will get felted into the surface. You could pick them off after each use if they bother you. You can also use a rubber pet hair removing brush or a squeegee or rubber gloves or similar. As it is wool felted into wool you will find that keeping your mat entirely fibre free is impossible. On the upside that also means that they are less likely to come out again into your felting project.