Needles for soap felting?

[Tara_H]

I have some ugly loaf ends and other lumpy soaps that I've been saving to try felting with. I knit and spin so there's plenty of roving around, but I've never done needle felting before so was looking at the options.

Most of the felting needles I can find are made of iron (where it's specified at all) so I was curious as to people's opinions on whether this increases the risk of DOS? I guess it would be harder to detect in a felted soap but I presume the smell would still come through at some point and I generally wouldn't want to be washing with rancid soap

Is there any special kind of needles recommended or are the iron ones good enough?

 

[earlene]

I have made felted many soaps using felting needles and never ran across the odor of rancid soap used after felting. I believe the ones I have are stainless steel. Doesn't iron rust? Not that I felted wet soap or roving, but I do think the rust would show up at some point just as a matter of course. (Edit: Well, actually now that I think of it, I do believe at least one of my designs may have been wet when I needle-felted the flower onto.)

Here is a company in Germany that makes SS felting needles: Single Felting Needles

Maybe you can find their brand in or arround Ireland.

 

[Tara_H]

Thanks @earlene, I was hoping you'd weigh in!

Yes, what drew my attention was the instructions to dry them well after use to avoid rusting! I'll make an effort to find stainless steel ones.

 

[earlene]

Tara, When I felt soap, I don't usually use the soap for the base underneath the felting. I use a needle when adding embellishments like flowers, hearts, letters or what not, but only when I am sure I won't be going deeply into the soap.

Another way I have used needle felting for a specific scene, for example, is to create the scene first, not on the soap but on top of foam. Then the scene was applied to the soap later.

I learned to avoid needle felting directly onto the soap when a needle broke and the tip ended up inside the soap. So since then, I do my best not to use a felting needle directly on the soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't needle felt over soap; I use a wet felting technique instead. I needle felt only if I want to add some kind of detailed embellishment over the wet felted covering.

I needle at an angle into the felt, rather than stab directly downwards into the soap. I'm sure the needle goes into the soap some, but hopefully at a shallow angle. So any iron contamination would be limited to the surface of the soap, not deep inside. And, as Earlene pointed out, the needle is less likely to break if you don't stab into the soap. I just whatever needles I happen to find -- nothing special.

I think it would be really tedious to needle felt an entire bar. JMO, of course.

 

[cmzaha]

I would do the same as Earlene and DeeAnna. I would wet felt my soap then add embellishments by needle felting trying not to stab the soap.