How to Make Wet Felt Beads

1. Pull off a piece of merino wool of your chosen colour. This should be roughly the length of your open hand. Lay the wool length over your hand so that the centre rests over your open palm.

2. Add a small amount of hot soapy water.

3. Using a pinching motion, gather the wool from the centre until it shortens the overall length, tuck the ends over and in. . .

4. It should look something like the 4th picture

5. Roll the wool between your two palms. You shouldn't use any pressure at this point. You are simply guiding the wool and it will automatically form itself into a rough sphere. Keep rolling with no pressure. You will start to feel the wool tighten. Add a little more water if needed at this point.

6. As the wool tightens, you can start to add some pressure. Keep rolling and persevere. The whole process shouldn't take more than ten minutes max. Keep adding more pressure. When you are happy with the density of your bead, you may stop. Rinse all the soap out of your bead. Voila!

1. Lay all of the different colours of merino wool on the open palm of your hand.

2. You can make other shaped beads besides spheres. Make a bullet shaped bead by rolling it between your palms with a backwards and forwards motion before the bead has shrunk and hardened too much.

3. The finished bullet shape felted bead.

1. In the palm of your hand bundle your wool yarn into the centre of your hand.

2. Drizzle with a little washing up liquid, and continue as illustrated in the tutorial above.

3. The completed wool felted bead.

Once you've made your beads, you could string them together as they are or to make them really unique, try needle felting a pattern on to them.