What's all the chatter about felted soap?

There has been a recent revival in the craft of felting around a bar of soap. The process involves matting and pressing together wool fibers using heat and water which creates a dense fabric that encases a bar of soap. The felted fibers act as a washcloth that gently exfoliates as it cleans. Merino is the wool of choice when felting soap. Two ounces of wool fiber will easily cover four normal sized soap bars. The felted soaps pictured (above) were created by Trinity. Note the use of different colored fibers which lend themselves to unique patterns and textures.

Felting is not difficult. If you're interested in learning the basics, I suggest watching this video on how to felt soap by Suzanna Anna. An sample of one of her felted soaps is shown below. The lime green, hot pink, and orange fibers work together brillantly.

Felted soaps make great Christmas and housewarming gifts. The cost to make is relatively low and it's something you can do with the kids (or grandkids, in my case!). I have ordered some colorful fibers and plan to spend a weekend making felted soaps for all the ladies in my "breakfast club". It should be fun. If I'm successful, I will post photos of the finished soaps.