Wet Felting Raw Hemp fiber

My attempt at wet felting raw hemp bast fibers into a hat.
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[@deancameron7694]

Paper only has strength when dry this is because of hydrogen bonding. As soon as you wet the paper or cardboard the hydrogen bonds all along the fibres break because water is polar and the water breaks the Hydrogen bonds. It could be interesting to try making a hat etc by placing randomly oriented hemp fibres over a shape and let them dry and the hydrogen bonds to form then fix them in a flexible nonpolar resin like silicone resin. It would be waterproof and strong but would not breathe like fur felt but it could make a great reinforced silicone mould. Silicone usually has low tensile strength so it could make a useful composite material

[@stopit4uca]

They're both plant materials hemp and those burs that get stuck to the bottom of your pants because the birds they had the little hooks necessary like Velcro which may help bind the hemp together. Or even a hybrid felt made with either mix with hair or cotton.

[@tenlittleindians]

They are in the process of approving growing of hemp here in Iowa. A farmer friend said the licenses to grow it are all controlled by the elite and a normal farmer has no chance of getting a license. It's a corrupt world we live in.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

That's crazy!! The federal government approved/legalized the growth of industrial hemp last year, so I don't understand why some states are dragging their feet. Up here in Maine they are charging farmers a $100 application fee, $500 license fee and a $50 per acre fee and I think that is crazy!! I feel if the federal government says its legal there should be no issues. Your right, we live in a corrupt country.

[@jroar123]

Harrison, time to get back in the saddle. Make more videos!

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

I plan on it!! Just catching up on the honey do list. LOL

[@Koldatt]

Dont give up man. Ive been following yoir work for a while now. You keep me inspired

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Thanks for the support!!

[@missioncreekfarm7715]

I am a 'felter'. I use wool. Hemp by itself is not a good fiber to felt. It is a baste fiber, not protein and doesn't shrink or have 'scales' which are what help wool felt into a good solid fabric. You can however, blend hemp "tow" with wool and felt that. In 'the old days' they would blend Flax tow with wool, called Linsey Woolsey, and felt that or spin it and weave it into fabric. The function of flax or hemp in that respect is strength, not 'felting' that is the wools job, and warmth.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Thank you so much for commenting and you knowledge on felting hemp fibers. I will try that on my next project.

[@m.s.7150]

Seeing how translucent thin that is i think if you make it thicker it would felt beautifully

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Thanks for the tip, I will give that a try

[@ToothpasteCylinder]

I saw this video after I successfully made a plant based felt, not out of hemp but from wild nettle. what I found to do is not to rett the fibers but boil the fibers while green in a baking soda solution and then beating them into a flat sheet with beater such as a meat tenderizer or rolling pin but any rounded log with a handle would do just fine. the reason why the fibers are not binding in your case is because plant fibers like hemp don't have microscopic hooks like animal hair.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Thank you for your helpful tips on processing plant based fibers!! Your Awesome

[@madthorn3094]

Really liking the videos, but best to get a tripod for your camera; the hand held is very hard to watch. Looking forward to more hemp content. p.s. your daughter is adorable :)

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

I will do, I had one but it was MIA when I shot this video. Thanks for commenting

[@schandler4958]

A couple of suggestions. Are you a member of the Ravelry.com site? You may want join and post your questions there, it is free. Have you considered using this with wool as a blend? A blending board would be useful to mix the fibers together to blend.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Nope, I am not a member of Ravelry.com, but I will look into it. I have read blogs on felting hemp and they say it's possible, but in my experience it's not unless you blend it with a fiber better or felting. Thanks for commenting!!

[@missioncreekfarm7715]

Ravelry discriminates based on politics. I don't recommend them to ANYONE!!

[@randybradshaw7060]

I’m totally talking out of my arse on this subject. But when you card a fiber you are creating an orientation to the fibers, usually as a step before making yarn. If you are felting, don’t you want the fiber orientation to be random? It seems like that would add strength in all directions. Maybe use an approach similar to making paper. 1)Create a slurry of fibers in a tub with a screen on the bottom. 2)Lift the screen and filter out the fibers on the screen 3)Let the water drain out, then flip over the fiber on a surface to dry 4)Then look at the camera and tell me I’m an idiot and don’t know what I’m talking about

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

I would need to be able to poor it onto the hat mold and allow it to dry. If I did the flat screen I don't think I could get it to form to the mold without it coming apart. It might work if I can make a hat mold out of a screen like material. Thanks for the comment!!

[@heathboeddeker5401]

​@@MainelyAcresFarmBrooksmaking a hat out of felted material you start with a flat peice/sheet of felt and then steam shape it over your mold Sir.

[@chrisapattee]

Are you still answering questions on the shoe patcher machine?

[@deankay4434]

+chrisa pattee If you click on the Mainley Acres name at the bottom left, where it says "Published on", it will take you to his "KZbin" page. You can click on videos, scroll down to that date in time and see the videos he made on all of the Chinese Shoe Patcher sewing machine. I have one of these machines and this how I find other video I would like to learn from. Life gets in the way, but better to learn when you want to know how it is done. Best of luck Viewing! I should tell you to subscribe!

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Yes, I am still answering questions on these machines.

[@BensWorkshop]

Out of interest have you put up a video of successful felting of other fibres? It looks like an interesting process.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Not yet, but I plan on doing one very soon. Thanks for commenting.

[@BensWorkshop]

@@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks Many thanks, I'd be interested in seeing if you can do it with sheep's wool amongst other things.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Yes, I have made felt using wool and alpaca.

[@VRtechman]

DUDE I'm pretty sure your supposed to squeeze out the most of the water before you pick up the felted material. Use that window screen (Reinforced) over a bucket and press it really hard! If you can do it that way it should not fall apart!

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

I did squeeze most of the water out, but I ended up with the same results. I found out that other fibers are needed to successfully felt hemp bast fibers. One way I thought of to get around felting is to make a hat mold out of fine mesh wire. Then lay the wet bast fibers on top making sure to over lap the fibers. That way you can pull a suction and allow it to dry like making hemp paper. You would end up with a stiff hat, but it might work.

[@starsilverwillow7625]

No you can't felt hemp like wool. You have to let the fiber dry completely before moving it pressing it on a screen to remove the water and then let dry. You can take the wet fiber laying on the screen, turning the screen over onto a dry surface as it peels off the screen to let it dry

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

I found that out the hard way. LOL I have seen felted hemp hats, but your correct they lay the wet fibers on a mesh hat mold and allow it to dry.

[@leonidkolerov6024]

Interesting experiment. You can't felt cellulose fibers like you can animal based fibers. Wool and such have small scales on the fiber that "open up" in wet condition and grab onto each other like small hooks. This is also the reason why wool fabric shrinks after washing. You can see a picture of these scales by following this link www.quora.com/How-do-wool-and-other-fabrics-shrink Cellulose based fibers like hemp and cotton do not have these scales. however, you can probably make a non-woven type fabric by needle-punching which create a natural entanglement and hold even smooth fibers by friction.

[@MainelyAcresFarmBrooks]

Your 100% correct I tried everything possible to get these fibers to felt by themselves. I tried needle felting with no luck too. I ended up mixing the hemp fibers with some wool to make a felted hat.

[@coburnlowman]

From the beginning you were off key. Like first you need someone to do it for you and when it failed you can run him down to make you feel better. If it had of worked you then take all the credit and make fun of your helpers shoes , alcoholic mother or whatever. Just never let the blame of a failure fall back on you. This is actually a true story here. My Grandpa and me would buy up all the goats we could get and sell to the Mexicans. They were always ready to BBQ a whole goat. Anyway a woman wanted us to come and check out her rabbit and goat fiber operation. She made carding that dander into felt and ready to spin yarn look like a children's game. She wanted us to buy like 19-15 goats ,and rabbits. The market was there for fresh carded felt or yarn as well. After talking around we found out that it took a long time to get proficient at doing that work and the lady who was showing us the how to's had been doing it her entire life and was a master at it. Later we found out that she had suckered bunches of small timers into buying a bunch of goats , rabbits ,+++the carding , sheering ,wool washing equipment. The excited buyer had watched her do the entire process and with hardly any effort had $$$$$$$ worth of usable products , then the new buyer tries to follow up with how they had seen it done and end up with a total loss and a mess. The process was interesting to me ,and I'd love to learn it. You could keep the same animals for a long time and get close to them and make money off of them without having to be processed for meat.