Making Felted Soap At The Mansion

Alice took the knee-hi, stretched it out, then let it snap like a giant rubber band.  We all laughed as she pretended to aim it at each of us, as if it were a slingshot.

I brought a 10 pack of Ivory soap, roving from my sheep, some colorful yarn, a bowl, some towels, a rug mat and metal bowl to the Mansion Assisted Living facility yesterday.  Once a month I teach an art class there.

This week we made felted soap.

“That sounds like a good thing for kids to do”, Madeline, who is in her early 90’s  said from the couch where she was doing a Word Search.  The woman on the video where I learned how to make felted soap said the good thing about it was that you could do it if you were 8 or 80.  So Madeline was right.

There are lots of videos demonstrating different ways to make felted soap, so I chose the easiest way.  Wrap a bar of soap in roving, put it in the toe of a knee-hi, dunk it in water then rub it on a rough plastic surface till the roving turns to felt, tight around the soap.  The whole thing took about 20 minutes.

Alice was happy to have something to keep her hands busy.  Every one made two bars except Peggy, who chose not to make another.   I explained that when you wash with the bar of felted soap, the felting became like a washcloth, the soap bubbling through.

Yesterday felt more like five women working together than an art class.

The conversation was easy and we found a lot to laugh about.  I feel really comfortable with these four women now.  I’ve spent enough time with each of them to know something about them.  There’s an ease to being with them, more like friends than anything else.

I’m always a little unsure of myself when I go to The Mansion to teach a class. But yesterday I completely enjoyed it. I was in good company and we created something beautiful and something we could use in an everyday way.