Do all materials need to felt in order to be used in machine needle felting?
&A: Some of the materials must felt, but you can combine some of the unwilling with the willing! To discover the potential of various materials, test em out! Both fiber content and weave structure have an effect on the felt-ability of materials. There are some differences in the way the various manufacturers needles work. In general, materials from animals are most likely to felt. Plant based materials offer some great possibilities, and some synthetics may surprise you. Metallics and ultrasuede dont felt at all…. but you can combine them effectively with materials that are highly willing to felt. Its fun to learn more about the characteristics of the materials you would like to work with. Youll soon find that, similar to the way different pigments in watercolor possess various innate traits (more or less opaque, willing to granulate, different degrees of light fastness, etc), youll be able to recognize and expect somewhat predictable behavior from certain materials. Most have charac
