Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Sham Wow!

Felting doesn't require many tools and the tools it does use are simple. Often I first get excited to find a new shaping tool in my ditchen drawer or at a flea market and then when I use it I find it does the trick but it doesn't usually knock my socks off. So I have a drawer of tools that "work" but I'd never go out of my way to recommend a felter go find them.

But my sister gave me some super absorbent towels that she found in Maine that are UNBELIEVABLE! I've never thought of a towel as a critical piece of my felting armamentarium, but I do go thru quite a few in the course of a big project....mopping up the floor from the drip, keeping the table tops dry and rolling in one for traction. But with these super-absorbent...no, uber-absorbent...towels you'll find 1 towel will keep an entire class dry and you won't spend so much time doing laundry afterwards!

I don't own any stock in this company, nor does my sister (at least I don't think so), so my recommendation here is completely without any vested interest. I just think that if you felt, you need to have some of these around. They are called Sham Wows...and when you use them you'll get the "wow" part. It's not that I use an excessive amount of water, but some seepage is bound to happen as you roll and, especially in classes, puddles form. I used to use 3 or 4 towels in the course of a project....1 to sop up the floor where the water dripped after rolling it up for the first time, one or 2 to keep the table neat and another to roll in. But now I roll my piece up in the bubblewrap and then roll that in a single Sham Wow and not only do I get fantastic traction, but it completely absorbs all the water. Your workspace is so neat and dry when you use these.

You're probably surmised by now that it doesn't take much to get me excited, but sometimes its the little things that make such a difference in life!