Felting is the ancient process of turning wool, hair, or any protein-based fiber into the material known as felt. There are two ways to make felt:
Needle-felting - Mary's Preferred Method
Mary's primary method of felting is known as needle-felting, which involves using barbed needles to stab the fiber repeatedly ( hundreds or thousands of times) to interlock the fibers in the wool. Using her needles to shape her objects, Mary sculpts the wool until she is satisfied with its desired three-dimensional form. For her wool "paintings", Mary creates the image by stabbing the fiber onto wool fabric, which serves as the canvas for these paintings.
Wet-felting
The most common way to felt is to use hot water, soap and friction to rub wool together so its fibers interlock. This method is known as wet-felting. Mary uses this technique to make the wool beads for her jewelry.