Members Area
Congratulation on your purchase of a Gentle Roller.Â
You should have received via email from info@gentleroller.cn the following 4 pdf file:
   * Gentle Roller Packing List (Feb 2026)
   * Owners Manual Part 1 – Assembling and Testing the Gentle Roller (Feb 2026)
   * Owners Manual Part 2 – Key Components of your GR (Feb 2026)
   * Owners Manual Part 3 – A Guide to Using The Gentle Roller (Feb 2026)
If you decide to work through the assembly videos to assemble your Gentle Roller, hard copies will not be required for the Packing List or Owners Manual Part 1.Â
However, it is recommended that you download and read Parts 2 and 3. These contain valuable information and tips, and you will gain more understanding of your Gentle Roller if you read these resources before undertaking a big project.
If you have lost the email and did not save the pdfs in a Gentle Roller folder, you can request they be re-sent through the contact us page. But please make sure you have added info@gentleroller.cn to your safe senders or contact page so our emails do not arrive in your junk or spam folders.
Also, when you first start using The Gentle Roller it is highly recommended that you begin with some small test pieces.  This give you time to understand the correct operation of the Gentle Roller and keeps your ‘working mistakes’ small scale rather than on a major piece with your most expensive wools and silks.
And when you are starting, and having difficulties, here is a bonus page just for good measure:Â Â When the felting gods are against me!Â
To avoid adding ‘everything’ to the website we also have a lot of additional content in the Gentle Roller Blog.
Owners can also join the Facebook User Group.
And we have an OWNER’S Question and answer section that addresses all the questions and issues we have received from Gentle Roller owners over the past 24 months.
1. Assembling your Gentle Roller
Let’s get started.
Work your way progressively through the following videos and your introduction to the Gentle Roller will be trouble free. (Apologies for the picture/sound quality but we are confident that you can follow the required steps.)
Below for V5 (wider motor housing) and earlier models
Now check the Section 2 – The Drive Roller and Idle Rollers and Section 3 – Felting / Fulling on the Gentle Roller.
2. The Drive and Idle Rollers
Learn why there are apparently ‘cracks’ in your roller, what to do if your roller is too long, how to load/unload your drive roller and what to do if your motor spins but your drive roller doesn’t.
Owners Manual Part 2 – Key Components of your GR (Feb 2026)  has several pages dedicated to the drive roller and idle rollers. Â
Video:Â PU Roller Information
Key Notes for this video: Don’t worry about gaps, what to do if your drive roller is too long.
Key Information on this video:Â Â Roller high spots, roller gaps, trimming the drive roller pin, also a tip if your hex drive keeps falling out.
NOTE:  If you have a new GR, ignore the comment about flexing idle rollers and pvc tube. From the 2020 model onwards, the idle roller has aluminium tube and will not flex. Â
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Video:Â How to Remove the Drive Roller
Key Notes for this video:  A quick explanation of how to remove your drive roller from the roller assembly – take the weight of the drive roller, move it to the left, move it to the right, LIFT at right. Or to keep it simple – Left, Right, Lift at Right.
Key Information on this video: Correct technique for removing the drive roller, and a fix if your hex keeps falling out.
The only part designed to ‘wear out’ on the Gentle Roller is the Orange Aluminium Hex Drive. This item takes all the stresses of the GR constantly changing direction and absorbs the shock and load so that it isn’t transferred to the motor.  (Much like your car tyres wear as they absorb bumps and the jagged surface of the road that would otherwise be transferred to the car chassis giving you a very uncomfortable ride and gradually wearing out other parts of your car in the process.)
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Over two or three years you will find your hex drive exhibiting a sloppy feeling and not rotating with the drive shaft.
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Video:Â Loose Aluminium Hex Drive
Key Notes for this video:Â Â What to do if your motor is turning but your roller isn’t.Â
Key Information on this video:  If your aluminium hex drive is worn don’t let it get this bad. Contact us for a replacement aluminium hex drive.
Video:Â Loose Plastic Hex Drive
Key Notes for this video:Â Â What to do if your motor is turning but your roller isn’t.Â
Key Information on this video:Â Â Very occasionally, it isn’t the aluminium hex, but the plastic hex that is causing your felt not to turn consistently with the motor.
3. Felting and Fulling on the Gentle Roller
This is the big one!Â
Learn how to use The Gentle Roller to felt and full your projects. Â
The first series of videos that you should definitely watch whether you are experienced or not, are to be found through this link.
It isn’t our most striking work, it is a very simple nuno felt scarf, and the purpose of the videos and explanations are to take you slowly through the felting and fulling process on a Gentle Roller from start to finish.
Don’t worry that it isn’t exactly what you make. Don’t fret over the simplicity of the work.  The important part is the process. Make it your first video view and then come back this video page for more.Â
The link is Making a simple nuno felt scarf
After you’ve finished there, you may find more tips below.
We begin with 2 videos that will probably be obvious to experienced felt makers – they are snippets taken from the ‘must see’ video mentioned above. Then we’ll look at a false end fold before we delve into some projects we have completed and recorded over the years.Â
Key Notes for this video: Joni looking at some thick silk hankies on wool to see if they are ready. The wool under is clearly felted as it adhered to the silk carrier fabric.
Key Information on this video:Â Is my felt ready?
Key Notes for this video: How much water is enough? Â
Key Information on this video:Â Make sure your felting is evenly wet.
Key Notes for this video: There are a few ways you can create false ends and you may see slightly different methods on other videos. The important point is that you are trying to give all areas of your work equal exposure to the idle rollers. (note: the green roller is an original soft feel roller which is now coloured aubergine.)
Key Information on this video: False ends, and an ‘alternative’ false end. (For more information on false ends please refer to the Owner’s Manual – Part 3:  Comprehensive User Guide)
It is worth mentioning that nearly every project on here is an ‘original’ and most videos are a first attempt at using the Gentle Roller for that specific material mix and design.Â
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Key Notes for this video: A start-to-finish sided vest using merino on a silk carrier and embellished with silk hankies. A lot of the rolling is at high speed and all is carried out in lots of 250 cycles.
Key Information on this video: Rolling with two drive rollers, how to add soap to your project, checking for felting at 12:45, drying at pre-felt to join two panels, creating an invisible seam, fulling to size and checking on a dress maker’s dummy.
Key Notes for this video: If you use two rollers at the same time, you can make two panels or two different items simultaneously improving your efficiency if you are a busy felt maker.
Key Information on this video:Â How to make a soft drive roller from a hard drive roller.
Key Notes for this video:Â Your carrier fabric selection will impact your finished item.
Key Information on this video:Â Crisper silk gives more texture.
Key Notes for this video: A double sided silk scarf – that is, two different layers of silk bonded together with merino so that each side has its own style. The entire process is shown with repetitive parts on fast forwards. All rolling is sets of 250 unless otherwise specified.
Key Information on this video: Repairing your carrier fabric, orthogonal laying of wool, using patchwork panels for effect, false ends, how the GR frees you to do other things while your felting is rolling, fulling in your plastic in the fulling bag.
Key Notes for this video:Â An early demonstration at a potential customer and felt trainer (c2018).
Key Information on this video:Â Rolling Alpaca for the first time, wall art.
Key Notes for this video:  An early demonstration at a potential customer and felt trainer (c2018).  Rolling 100gm of wool in a 30cm x 30cm square to make dense wool tiles.
Key Information on this video:Â Rolling a thick wool ‘brick’ to make tiles.
Key Notes for this video: Another visit to Cheryl Cook (c2017/18) to complete a piece of wall art. Includes a mix of fibres and threads. Still using the prototype drum. And a big tick from Cheryl.
Key Information on this video:Â Wall art, thick felt, introducing the fulling bag.
Key Notes for this video: Felter’s gauze (muslin) base and cotton fabric pieces on top. Shows you don’t always need to work in silk.Â
Key Information on this video:Â Amazing fulling.
Key Notes for this video: Video from 2017 introducing the GR to the world. Â
Key Information on this video:Â Irregular shape, rolling from both sides, uneven bundle, protective layer, checking pre-felt quality, tidying edges, comparing hand rolling with GR rolling.
Key Notes for this video: This home designed hooded scarf project includes the first detailed explanation how different parts of your item receive different amounts of work and the necessity for folding your felting and creating what later became known as false ends.
Key Information on this video: Rolling an irregular shape, soap solution, the first explanation of the necessity for what later became known as false ends.
Key Notes for this video:  We detail how a large 2.7mt x 1.4mt template is used to create a beautiful jacket with 4 deliberately difficult decisions taken to really test the GR. The final jacket is only 25% of the original lay-up.
Key Information on this video:Â Using a resist, using multiple folds to share the ‘work’, using hand touches in finishing.
Key Notes for this video: How to create texture with embellishments while creating a patch work cotton top. Despite Joni’s concerns when pre-felting this item finished beautifully.
Key Information on this video: Aiming for texture, 4 paneled garment worked together to create invisible seams, mixing materials on one project, incorporating sewing, lots of rolling to make sure the difficult silks felt, benefits of using cold/cool water to full rather than shocking the fabrics with hot water.
At 5:30 there is mention of a complimentary hand rolling tool that is no longer included.Â
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Key Notes for this video:Â Guest felt maker Jillian joins us to try out the Gentle Roller and discovers she can save hours or even days of work.
Key Information on this video:Â Silk tissue and floral decoration, how the GR avoided the need for needle felting, the stability of the GR in handling design elements, clearly visible fibre migration.
Key Notes for this video:Â We started with conflicting goals of thick embellishments on a difficult silk which we didn’t want to over work as we wanted minimum fabric rauching.
We used 5 momme silk for this project – this is the max momme we would recommend for felting. If you shrink your fabric by 30% in length and width, you will effective have 10 momme at the end. Joni was over-worried about the level of finishing which proved an unnecessary concern when the GR was finished with the project.
Key Information on this video:Â Using thick embellishments, trying not to over-rauch the carrier fabric, introducing off-set fwd-rev settings, rolling wool side down, how to hand finish if required.
Key Notes for this video:Â Felting without rauching on fine chiffon – to avoid rauching implies minimum fulling as the fulling shrinks the wool which would in turn pull on the carrier.
This video featured a ‘home’ modified grey drive roller as we discovered the hard roller diameter was too small to get good idle roller contact. This was the impetus for the development of soft drive roller for rolling fine felts. Â
Key Information on this video: Using embellishments only, soap solution mix, rolling with wool face down (recommended), modifying a hard drive roller for making fine felts, false ends, checking the pre-felt.
Key Notes for this video: A repeat of the above video with pre-felt flows for embellishment. The highlight is really our great teamwork 🙂
Key Information on this video:Â Using pre-felt embellishments, false ends.
4. Odd Stuff & Miscellaneous
A few bits and pieces that had nowhere to go.Â
Key Notes for this video:Â A few words about maintenance.
Key Information on this video:Â Â Â Maintaining your hex drive.
Key Notes for this video:  The “Machine Noise Levels” video that follows is from the first production run.  It shows old colours and the original fulling drum design – this is NOT the current fulling drum.
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We have left the video here primarily for the ‘noise’ recording at the start of the video (and as a trip down memory lane!)
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Key Information on this video:Â As quiet as a library.Â
Key Notes for this video: Introducing the fulling bag. These were designed to help minimize tangling when using the fulling drum. Don’t worry about Joni quoting prices – we give the with our compliments to all GR owners.
Key Information on this video:Â Fulling bags.Â
Key Notes for this video: We created these ties to hold heavier bundles.  You’ll get 6 pieces free with every GR.Â
Key Information on this video:Â Elastic straps or velcro ties.Â
