Try a Craft- Needle felting

For January, I’m trying out needle felting. I’ve worked with sewing pre-made felt for years, but have been intimidated to try the art of needle felting.

What it is: creating flat or 3D art using sheep wool, by repeated stabbing the wool with a spiked needle or group of needles to tangle up the fibers. This can be used to make sculptures or images and is often used to make adorable animal figures.

Books on the topic:

• Happy Wool Felt Animals by Makiko Arai
• Needle Felting: 20 Cute Projects to Felt from Wool by Emma Kerrigan
• Needle Felting for Beginners: How to Sculpt With Wool by Roz Dace

Needle Felting for Beginners was the best of the bunch. It showed techniques, materials and project advancing in difficulty, giving tips with each step.

What tools and materials are needed:

• wool
• felting needle
• pad to work on

This craft doesn’t need much to get started. I bough a kit on Amazon that had lots of little tufts of colored wool, needles of different sizes, a felt pad to work on, little leather finger protectors, and wooden needle handles. It also came with other accessories like eyes and pins. Strangely, it came in a cosmetic bag with tropical leaves on it. I changed my storage to a clear plastic box, because putting your hand into a bag looking for sharp objects seems like a bad idea. (The needles came in tubes, but if I wanted to keep them assembled in the wooden handles, I needed a better solution.)

After trying out the first project, making a flat shape using a cookie cutter, I decided I need a slightly larger work surface, and perhaps one that my work won’t adhere to. Some felters use a foam pad, others use what looks like a large scrub brush.

I made a dinosaur by stabbing the wool in a cookie cutter. This project took longer than I anticipated, and there was a bit of disbelief that I could create a solid object from a bit of fluff. But if you’ve ever brushed a matted dog or cat’s fur (or a child’s) you know how solid a hair tangle can become.

Do I want to pursue this craft more? The jury is out. This is not a craft recommended for anyone who is clumsy, impatient, or has poor vision. You can’t watch a tv show while doing it (but you can listen to one). I will do another felting project next week.