Mobius Textile Felt Bracelets

I gave a workshop recently at the Gathering for Gardner on how to make topologically interesting surfaces in wool felt. After the workshop, I was asked to write a short article for Math Horizons, which you can expect to see published next fall sometime.

After making some samples for the article, including this one

I had the wool out, so I kept making felted objects, including this one.

These pieces can be worn as cuff bracelets,

but they are also fascinating objects in their own right. As bracelets, they are large and bold. They are soft and so light, you'll barely know you're wearing one. I added a few seed beads to this one to give it some extra texture and sparkle.

These textile cuff bracelets are felted with fluffy merino wool with silk fibers felted right in.  The shapes are organized but organic. They have a lot of holes to stick your fingers inside. They're fun to play with.

The combination of needle felting and vigorous wet felting permanently binds the fibers together. As you can see in the photos, the felt is stiff enough to hold its shape, but it's still very soft and quite flexible.

If you bend them out of shape or flip them inside out, they will pop right back into position. If they ever get bent out of shape, wet them because they are totally hand washable, very strong and won't shrink, crease, crumble or tear. When they are wet, you can reshape them in position to dry, and they will stay like that. Since they are wet felted, I already pre-washed them.

These pieces are for sale in my Etsy shop, gwenbeads. Check out the Section on Bracelets to find them. Thanks for looking.