This is a Needle Felted Pet Portrait Sculpture that I made of a cute Bearded Collie named Sonny! He is sculpted from wool and silk and is poseable! I can make a miniature sculpture of your pet also!

***SEE MORE EXAMPLES BY CLICKING ON FLICKR IN THE RIGHT COLUMN or My SHOP!

Oct

23

Felting Soap Kit Giveaway from SpiderFelt

Leah Adams of SpiderFelt is generously offering one of my readers a chance to win her lovely Verbena Felt Soap Kit, so fragrant and pretty. Leah is a talented felt designer who evolves daily in creating exquisite felted items to wear, hold, as well as kits for those who want to make their own felt items. She is an artist who has taken her felting art into brilliant realms. Her knowledge of felt is amazing!

The giveaway will run for 10 days, from October 23, 2009 through November 1, 2009. To enter, simply go to Leah’s SpiderFelt Shop and select an item you like,  and

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO ENTER

http://felting.craftgossip.com/2009/10/23/felting-soap-kit-giveaway-from-spiderfelt/

This giveaway will end at midnight EST November 1st.

Here are some sheep made from my Needle Felted Sheep Kit. Isn’t it great how everyone has their own style and with the same kit, 3 styles of sheep came out! One sheep is an ancient breed with long ears and a painted bell! One person made baa baa black sheep with 3 bags full of wool!

Thank you for sending me the pictures of your sheep! These were made by beginners!

HAPPY FELTING!

Many people have told me that they have problems using GLUE to attach eyes to their Needle Felted Sculptures.  I decided to try looped wire glass eyes sewn in for a change.

When I make a sculpture, I always mark the eye location with 2 straight pins that have a black ball on the end. I can make sure that they are in alignment BEFORE I permanently attach them.

STEP ONE:  You need to make a socket (hole) to put the eye into so they aren’t just on the surface of the wool. This adds a lot to the realism of your sculpture.

Thread the eye through the wire loop with a needle and strong thread.

STEP TWO: You will also need to make a slit in the wool for the wire loop. I use an exacto blade for this. You can also make the hole a little larger with the blade if you need to. Or you can needle felt a hole where your marker pin was and then just make a slit for the loop.

STEP THREE: Put the sewing needle in the socket and pull it through. The eye will be in the hole and push it in so the loop is in the slit that you cut in the wool. Tie off in back of head and make a knot. Add a little wool to cover your knot and felt it to hide the knot. That’s all there is to it!!

I usually use 4mm glass eyes and I get them from

http://www.glasseyesonline.com/

Please tell him that Gerry sent you! Thanks! If you have any questions, please ask in a comment and I’ll try to answer you asap!

HAPPY FELTING!

My little Needle Felted Yorkie Sculpture is featured in a Wish List on  a site called MY HANDMADE REGISTRY.

This is a great site where people pick out the handmade items that they wished that they could have. Great for weddings, special occasions, and guys who don’t know what to buy you!!

This yorkie is a Custom Pet Portrait that I sculpt from wool with mohair and silk fur. I have more than 100 examples of dogs and cats in my etsy shop.

www.gfelted.etsy.com

CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA!

Squonk is the Winner!

Amanda is a relatively new needle felter that has been felting for about a year. This is her latest creation….SQUONK!

I love this unique creation that shows IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY. You can’t copy something like this from a picture! It is truly ONE OF A KIND! He has lovely detailing like wrinkles and individual toes. Even whiskers! This is a piece that makes you smile as it is a piece done with WHIMSY and HUMOR. All in all, a WONDERFUL, PRECIOUS piece!

Amanda wins a multi-needle felting pen or wool of her choice each a $15 value!

Keep an eye out for my next contest coming up soon! Maybe YOU will be the next winner!

NEW IMPROVED PUMPKIN TUTORIAL! EVEN EASIER THAN MY PREVIOUS VERSION!!

Yes that right! It is easier! I have some Custom Made Wool Batting that is simply gorgeous!

WHAT IS BATTING?

Batting is made of layers of wool in colors carefully picked.  Then the wool is put through a carding machine and the colors are all combed together loosely. You can see the different shades of orange wool that is highlighted with golden silk. There is a brown for the stem and greens for the leaves.  I had this batting made of specific colors that I wanted for my pumpkin kits. All of the details are in the batting, so you can make a base pumpkin and then wrap it up in the batting. It is so fancy it looks like you worked on it all day..but you didn’t!

STEP ONE:

MAKE A BASE.

I like the  pumpkin that is the Cinderella shape. I felted in a line to make ridges that go around the pumpkin. I use coarse wool for the core and it saves on felting the whole thing out of the more expensive colored wool. The coarse wool felts faster and makes a firm base to felt into.

Make a ball and felt it together with a #36 coarse needle.Whatever size that you start with, after you felt it, it will be about 1/4 of the size, depending on how firmly that you felt it.  You may have to add more wool a few times before you end up with the size that you want.

STEP TWO:

Ok , now for the fun stuff!!! Let’s add the color!!

Wrap the base with a piece of the wool batting. Felt it together on the top and bottom.  Next felt in some grooves all around. The batting has darker shades of orange that show in the grooves.

STEP THREE:

Make a stem. To make it interesting I put the brownish purple with the tan and felted it together.I lined them up and folded them in half before felting.I split the base into 3 pieces to form the base of the stem.

STEP FOUR:

I added a leaf and some mohair curls for tendrils. I put a little of the brownish purple on the bottom.

That’s it!  Now you have a little masterpiece pumpkin. Each one is unique!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY MY NEW NEEDLE FELTING PUMPKIN KIT SEE IT IN MY ETSY STORE. **Just click on the “needle felting kit” section on the right contents of my shop list.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

HAPPY FELTING!

Sep

Linda of CRAFT GOSSIP FELTING is holding a FREE Needle Felting Book GIVE AWAY!!

TO ENTER:Just click on this link

DO NOT ENTER ON MY BLOG-CLICK ON THIS LINK TO ENTER! THANKS!

http://felting.craftgossip.com/2009/09/06/%e2%80%9clittle-felted-animals-marie-noelle-horvath%e2%80%9d-book-giveaway-usa/

6

“Little Felted Animals Marie-Noelle Horvath” Book Giveaway!

Little Felted Animals by Marie-Noelle Horvath is a sweetheart of a book for beginner needle felters, with projects that are well illustrated and it gives the beginner a chance at making a charming product your first time.  Create 16 Irresistible Creatures!

Linda

Craft Gossip Felting

1. Congratulations on your little pup, it is wonderful as always.

   I have a couple of questions, lol. First how do I post a question on the “Your questions answered page”? I didn’t see a response box on the main page.

   Second, when you are making a dog that is a breed you are not personally familiar with, what references do you use to get the correct proportions? I search the breed standard, look at tons of photos, but, I haven’t found anywhere that list things like correct length of body to leg length. Or head sits X inches from body, length of neck. I can find many wonderful reference books on human structure, but not breed specific.

   By: Linda on September 6, 2009
   at 6:01 pm

   ANSWER: 1. You can ask a question anywhere as it gets sent to me email so I see it right away!

2. I look at the breed standard. The HEIGHT is always the withers, not the top of the head. Many times the description will give you clues….like body twice as long as height or equal length and height. I gather a bunch of photos on my computer and make a file for that breed. Then I find a picture that is the size that I want the sculpture to be and then felt it to match.  Hold up your sculpture next to the picture, and adjust it as necessary. I really don’t know where you could find  measurements of the body. Wouldn’t that make our job easier! HAPPY FELTING!

Hello, just spent 45 minutes looking through your photostream pics. I love so many of your animals. I had to look twice at the brussels griffon to see which was the sculpture!! (the true test of fabulous!!!)

Love the deerhound and the beautiful coat on the shelty. You did such a wonderful job on all your sculptures.

Would you mind giving us a guide to the size of eyes to purchase for each size animal? I mean

” for one inch use ? sized eyes, up to three inches use? sized. 3 to 5 inches use ? size.” ect.

I wanted to order from the seller you have listed but am overwhelmed by the options!! Thanks marsha kay

• Edit Comment

By: marsha kay on September 1, 2009
at 12:43 pm

Hi Marsha,
Thank you for your kind words on my dog sculptures! I use the same size eye as the inched in height generally speaking. So I use 2 mm eyes in 2 inch, 3 mm in a 3 inch, 4 mm in 4 inch, 5 mm in a 5 inch, etc.
Of course some breeds have larger eyes like a shih tzu  or smaller eyes like chow…see photos.

It’s good to have a couple of sizes, at least so you can see how they look. I get the ones on wire, and cut the wire to about 1/4 inch so I can stick it in the head to see if the size is right. Be sure to check that they line up before gluing. I get my glass eyes from glasseyesonline.com

Please tell him Gerry sent you!

I guess in my enthusiasm I got a little ahead of my self on felting the core of your sculpture. Someone asked me what the wire was that I felted the core on. So I have to back track a little to the WIRE ARMATURE.

**PLEASE CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO ENLARGE FOR A BETTER LOOK!

I make all of my sculptures with a wire armature for two reasons.

1) for strength and durability

2) for posing ability

When I first heard about wire armatures, I thought that it was a big thing. I even looked online for them to see if I could buy ready-made ones!!LOL!! It basically is a wire stick figure that looks slightly like what you’re sculpting.

I recommend using 22 guage steel wire…not pipe cleaners. Pipe cleaners break easily, and they also rust. Can you imagine your beautiful white sculpture with an orange stain on it? yuck! anyway..lets do it!!

1) cut 2 lengths of wire

2) twist them around in the middle

3) cut legs to length desired

4) curl the ends around

5) cut a shorter piece of wire for the head and tail

6) make a little loop on one end for the head, and wrap around body leaving end sticking out for the tail

That’s all there is to it. Make sure to curl in all ends so you or your buyers do not get cut with wire. It is also much easier to work on with out the sharp ends in the way.

That’s all there is to it! I hope that I made this clear! Feel free to ask me any questions that you may have! You’re all ready to start felting!

FELT:

Simply wrap a little wool around the wire and carefully felt it to stay on. Keep adding layers of wool and felt to attach firmly. After a while you will automatically avoid the wire with the needle tip. It usually glides right by it. If you felt it in too fast, you can break your needle.I always use romney wool for my cores. It felts easily and quickly with a firm finish. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14717998

HAPPY FELTING!

THIS IS SUCH A LOVELY POEM ON NEEDLE FELTING, I JUST HAD TO PICK THIS ONE!  I’M SURE THAT WE ALL CAN RELATE TO THIS. I HAVE SHARED THIS WITH THE NEEDLE FELTING GROUP AND THEY ALL LOVE IT! I HOPE THAT YOU DO TOO!

CONGRATULATIONS CINDY!!!! THANK YOU!!

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHICH WOOL THAT YOU WOULD LIKE! JUST GO TO

MY ETSY SHOP AND PICK ONE OUT!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

I sit here in my quiet space
Putting aside the day I’ve faced
Eagerly pulling my basket out
This is MY moment without a doubt.

So soft, the fiber between my fingers
I only wish this time could linger
For so many ideas run through my mind
If only I could find a little more time!

In and out the needle goes
What shape is next? Maybe toes?
Maybe eyelashes, or a tiny pout….
Alas, evening turns night…time has run out!

Yet tomorrow is another day,
I’ll do my work and then I’ll play!
I’ll sit there in my quiet space
and felt away the day I faced.
~cea~

Thanks so much for inviting me to this blog…I was very pleased to see so many instructions as I am always eager to learn. I can see this site will be a great way for me to advance my beginner skills! Felting is a beautiful hobby. I paint pet portraits, and often they keep me in my art room, away from my family. Felting is something that I can do in solitude or in the presence of my family. I can start and stop at the drop of a hat, I can even take my basket with me while I wait for someone at the doctor’s office. I have hopes of using the pieces that I make to help toward the animals I rescue. It’s a very comforting hobby and I am so glad I have stumbled upon it and the wonderful people I have met through it. Many thanks, Cindy

DO YOU WONDER WHAT ALL THOSE DIFFERENT SIZE NEEDLES ARE FOR? FIND OUT!

QUESTION: WHAT DO I USE EACH SIZE NEEDLE FOR? I HAVE # 36, 38, AND 40.

~~~~~~~~~~FELTING NEEDLES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are tiny differences between those visually, but they felt a lot differently from one another. The lower the number, the larger the needle. My 36 needles are also the longest out of all of mine, but that just could be from where I get them from. That makes it easier when the 36 is the longest. That is the thickest one, and the one that you ALWAYS start felting with. You could start with smaller needles, but it would take MUCH longer to felt something.

My barbs on my needles go up about 1/2 inch. Be sure to use that much when you poke in. After you felt with the 36, you can switch to a smaller needle if you wish, The higher numbers are the thinest, and you can tell if you lay it next to a 36 that a 40 would be a lot finer. Use this needle for felting something that you want a smooth surface for, as the thinner needle leaves smaller holes. You can even lightly brush the surface with your hand and the holes will blend in and disappear.

I use a 36 always to start and then a 38 star. There are more barbs on it because it is a square with 4 sides instead of 3 as a triangle. It felts lots faster and really grabs the wool.

Anymore questions about needles?

I get all of my felting needle from “THEREDBARNFARM” selling on eBay!

http://stores.ebay.com/Red-Barn-Farm-Spin-Weave-Knit

On the left side of the page is her store items. Click on SPINNING & FELTING FIBERS

Felting needles are listed in packages of 1o to 100!

Check out her new CIRCULAR KNITTING NEEDLES that are only 9″ and 12 “. Yippee!!! No more dpns!!! I hate those!!! I just got one of each!! ***Tell Rose that Gerry sent you:)

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

I know that needle felting is easy..you stick wool a million times and an animal comes out. There is a technique to it though. If you look closely at your felting needles you will see that there are barbs on about 1/2 inch of the tip. USE IT! I have seen felting demos where  the person felts 100 mph and barely pushes the needle in. DO NOT FELT LIKE THAT!!! This produces a hard outer shell with a soft interior..much like an egg. If your item gets squeezed the outer surface will fold into the soft inside and it will look awful.

One person was making a round ball that was quite small and said that it would take 10 to 15 minutes to make it!!! That would be true if you felted the wrong way like she demonstrated. In reality, if you felt properly, something like that should take 2 minutes TOPS! What you want to do is push the needle in ,so that ALL of the barbs go to work! Yes, you will have to stab slower this way, but you will be felting so much more at a time!! Use a #36 coarse needle and push it in about 1/2 inch. Keep if up and you will soon have a ball. REMEMBER, after you’ve felted something, it will get to be about 1/4 of the size that you started with. So it takes a 2 inch fluffy pile to make a 1/2 inch ball!

Remember to push ALL of the barbs into your item. It will felt together quicker this way!

There is several advantages to firmly felting your items.

1) it will last longer and be more durable

2) if you want to add long fur, the base has to be very firmly felted to hold it it

3) it will have the strength to stand up on it’s on

4) you will be able to pick it up without changing the shape of it

Believe it or not my sculptures I usually take about TWO HOURS just to felt the core. This way, they have the strength and durability to be posed and they will be long lasting. They may become a family heirloom. I know that it’s BORING to make the core, but the fun stuff will come soon enough when you can add the fur and all of the details that will make your sculpture truly unique. Remember, watch the fingers!!

***IF YOU’D LIKE TO TRY MY CORE WOOL FOR FELTING THE BASE OF YOUR SCULPTURES PLEASE VISIT MY ETSY SHOP. JUST CLICK ON THE “WOOL AND FIBER”SECTION ON THE RIGHT CONTENTS LIST OF MY SHOP. THANKS!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

HAPPY FELTING!

HOW’S THIS FOR A GREAT COLLECTION OF NEEDLE FELTED CHIHUAHUAS!!!

Can you belive that most of these are under 4 inches tall? Three of them are mine. They all live in Australia now with the sweetest Chihuahua breeder.

AREN’T THESE JUST THE MOST ADORABLE CHIHUAHUAS! I KNOW THEY’RE NOT NEEDLE FELTED, BUT THEY WERE JUST TOO CUTE NOT TO SHARE!!  They live in Australia are are being raised by the sweetest lady that I call the PUPPY QUEEN! She is raising these pups for one of her friends who are too busy working. They make the best pets!

OK GUY’S, HERE’S MY FIRST FELTIE. I MADE THIS WHEN I STARTED FELTING  TWO YEARS AGO.

I always try to make an improvement on each sculpture that I make. This little pom was made with yarn that I pulled apart as I didn’t have any wool, but I had needles and by George, I WAS going to felt something! It’s very rough and sometimes I feel like fixing it up, but I think that it’s special as it is. It shows me that I’ve come a long way. I used plain plastic beads and no nose, just black wool. You’d be surprised the difference that glass eyes and a sculpted nose makes! When I am felting a dog or other animal, I mark the eyes with straight pins that have black balls on the ends. I mar k the nose with black wool. When I change them to glass eyes and a sculpted nose, a transfromation takes place with a huge improvement.

Anyway, I thought that you would be curious as to what my first feltie looked like!! I tried sticking wires into the legs after I made it so it would stand up on it’s own. LOL!! and no I’m not entering it in the contest!

This is one of my recent poms. Notice a difference? Hey we all have to start somewhere right!

This is ROSIE~

SOMEONE ASKED ME IF I EVER MADE A HEDGEHOG, AND I HADN’T, SO I FIGURED THAT I’D GIVE IT A TRY! This is ROSIE and she loves her felted flower! I used a wire armature in her so that she could roll up as they do. She is 5 inches long and 2 1/2 inches tall. She has black glass eyes and a sculpted nose. I added some whiskers too! She is so cute!

Hi!

Here is a little purse. I really wanted to do a blue bird … i don´t know why ^_^ so there is with a hedgehog friend.
There is a tiny birdie too ( he is trying to enter in the purse LOL )

I felted the birdies and hedgehog first and then i stuck on the purse.

Thank you!
Maru

This was sent to me last night and it is just incredible! It shows a very, very special connection between a dog and his owner. It is such a touching performance, It will bring tears to your eyes . Turn up the sound as the accompanying music is hauntingly beautiful and perfect for the dance! There is just something so special about this. It will WARM your heart! Enjoy!

http://bluecroft.wordpress.com/dressage-dog/

Today I’m felting a blue merle sheltie that looks just like this dog!

This Needle Felted Fox was featured in a treasury on Etsy. 

Her treasury is a collection of Foxes found on Etsy. I am honored to be included!

NEEDLE FELTED DRAGON!!

Okay, here it is. My second, “first” felting. This ended up taking me quite awhile to make because when I tried to work the ideas in my head the felt had a different plan!

My daughter has wanted to collect dolls for awhile, this is her first ball-jointed doll and she requested a fantasy-type pet for her Sprite, Moiety. (The dragon is still waiting for her name!) Try not to laugh too much — my color stock was limited as I am waiting for payday to get a proper felting stock started. It was fun though, and who says a dragon can’t be pink and black?

I LOVE FELTING!!! Thanks, Gerry, for getting us all so involved!

Also, I go out of town tomorrow and will not return until Monday. Since I will be away from computers for that time I want to wish everyone all the best! You are a very talented group for being new felters and I love getting to share in seeing your projects.

Until later,
Carol

I think I have been needle felting for about 4 months…I’m not sure because time flies when you’re having fun!!!

I love to make miniatures, mostly animals.   Here are some pictures of my “Lov’in Bears”having a tea party and a picture of some 1/12 scale kitty siblings that I made.   Thank you for having this contest Gerry, what a fun idea!    I’m always looking to meet and learn from other felters. ~Lisa, Lovinclaydolls

–
Lisa Haldeman ~ OOAK Doll Sculptor
www.lovinclaydolls.com

Barbara said that she is specially proud of this sculpture and I can see why! You can tell that she was truly inspired!!  Soon to be listed on ebay!

DRAGON by CAROL!!

Congrats Carol!!! Look at these eyelashes on her dragon! This is only the second thing that she ever felted! She only had pink and black wool to work with….I don’t know about you, but I don’t know if I would have thought of something to make with those colors. This shows IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY!  She also wanted to make something for someone else which shows GENEROSITY.She made toes with claws and nostrils and wing patterning and individual black scales going down the back and onto the tail!! All in all a really WONDERFUL piece that is uniquely her own. It also shows a HUMOROUS subject choice. She wins a complete needle felting kit with her choice of wool!

I love Carol’s comment below:

“This ended up taking me quite awhile to make because when I tried to work the ideas in my head the felt had a different plan! ” Don’t we all find that out!! Isn’t it amzing that the wool seems to have a mind of it’s own sometimes! Carol had the PATIENCE and PERSISTANCE to keep working at it until she made her dragon!

NEEDLE FELTING starts with an idea in your HEAD. It has to go down your arm  and into your hand and through the NEEDLE into the WOOL. The TRICK IS……Getting the two to match!!!!

HUMOR-some of the first things that you make may be pathetic! It doesn’t matter! You will improve!! LAUGH and learn! Each thing that you create makes you better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I frequently get asked if pet hair can be felted? The answer is…it depends on the fur. I felted cat fur for the cat sculpture that I made here. It was the fluffy undercoat so it worked out fine. I still had to blend it with other wool to get the right color. If you have hair that is short and slippery like lab fur, chihuahua fur,and the like, it would be very hard to felt. The fluffy undercoat of dogs is easiest to felt. Such as collies, sheltie, huskies, shepherds,poms , and any breed that is double coated. Poodle hair works as does yorkie fur. Yorkie fur has to be worker a little more. It is sweet to use your pet fur in a pet sculpture as it makes a special keepsake that can become a family heirloom. The best thing to do is experiment and see what you can do!!

These sweet little bears were felted from pure cat fur made by someone who runs a CAT RESCUE. Now that is recycling!!LOL!!

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

HAPPY FELTING!!

HERE IS A CUTE LUTTLE TINY BEAR WITH A TINY PUMPKIN! ADORABLE!!

Is it too early to send you my “Pumpkin” entry for the next contest?  If not here’s my new little bear “Autumn”and her tiny needle felted pumpkin.

She is 1 1/4 inches sitting and 1 3/4 standing.  Thanks! I can’t wait to see all the new entries!! : )  Lisa

HOW DO YOU ATTACH LONG FUR?

There are TWO important things required to attach long fur to your feltie sculpture..

1) Your core has to be FIRMLY felted to hold the fur in

2) your fur has to be brushed out BEFORE felting on

By firmly felted I mean it should take you about 2 hours to felt the core. Yes, I know it is boring, but it is the most important thing. When you press on the core or squeeze it, it should not move in much and there should be NO finger mark left where you squeezed it. Then It’s firm enough to hold the long fur in without the fur coming out. Nothing worse than a shedding feltie!

***Please see my “TIP OF THE WEEK” POST on felting the core for more info!

You have to brush all the snarls out BEFORE you felt your fur on. Hold one end tight and brush it out with a wire brush. FLIP it over and do the other side. I use a file card which is made for cleaning files, but works perfectly to brush fiber! I get it at the hardware store. About $8!! Of course you could spend 4 times the $$ and buy them made for wool!! You can also use a pet slicker wire brush. The wires need to be fine and it is really best to have TWO brushes. That way, you can blend your own colors to customize your fur.

Lay the brushed fluffy fur across the back. Felt up the middle with a #36 coarse needle . Felt it in until  you can’t pull it out easily. DO NOT brush or comb the fur once it is felted in. The fur is felted in, not glued, so it will come out if you brush or comb it. Trim off the extra. Lift up the fur on one side and add another layer of fur. Do this ALL over the feltie. You can use a large sewing needle to “comb” the fur to arrange it. Groom the fur in the appropriate style for the breed that you are making.

My favorite fiber to use for fur is alpaca….hands down. Any fiber can be used that is long enough. You can use wool, alpaca, mohair, silk, bamboo, soysilk, anything that will felt into the core.

ANY QUESTIONS?

good morning.  thank you for the opportunity to participate.  the tiny pumpkin measures 7/8″ by 7/8″  (or 1 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ measuring from the wire).  its embellished with golden wire, glass beads and Swarovski crystal beads.  thanks again.  jani

MAKING A PUMPKIN IS A GREAT WAY TO START TO LEARN NEEDLE FELTING!

SEE MY TUTORIAL LISTED UNDER   “TIP OF THE WEEK!”

ANYONE CAN MAKE ONE~

I HOPE TO SEE YOUR PUMPKINS! TO ENTER EMAIL ME YOUR PICTURES TO

gfelted@verizon.net

THE PRIZE IS WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE. YOU CAN CHOOSE OUT OF MY ETSY STORE, OR ASK AND I PROBABLY HAVE IT AS I HAVE LOTS OF WOOL NOT LISTED. I ALSO HAVE A PUMPKIN KIT IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY SUPPLIES. EVEN BEGINNERS CAN MAKE A BEAUTIFUL PUMPKIN. GREAT PROJECT TO START NEEDLE FELTING~

http://gfelted.etsy.com

I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUR NEW PUMPKINS~

NOW YOU CAN NEEDLE FELT! See my Needle Felted Pumpkin Tutorial inder my “TIP OF THE WEEK” and you can make a pumpkin in no time! You can even felt it with fat fluffy with yarn if you have no roving! You do need a felting needle which has special barbs on it. I get all of mine from theredbarnfarm selling on eBay.

When you’re done making a pumpkin, please enter it in my contest! send pictures to:

gfelted @verizon.net

WINNER gets FREE WOOL of your choice!

Good Morning,
I have a question please, I see that you have felted in the middle, so the next step, it to lift up one side and felt under that first part of fur? do you again, needle felt in the middle of the next layer, so you will have a piece that is somewhat long, them needle felt in the middle so that this next piece folds down and is secured in the middle like the first piece?
Debra
Thank you

Hi Debra. Yes that is correct. Each layer folds down over itself and that hides the seam. You could also just felt in along one end if you like that method better. I always start at the top and work my way down. You can cut it first before you felt it in, OR you can leave it long and cut it as you go.

GROOMING:

You definitely have to be sure to brush the snarls out BEFORE felting it in. When you are done, take a large sewing needle and “comb” the fur so that you can trim it and groom it in the appropriate style for the breed. NEEDLE FELTED FUR CANNOT BE BRUSHED OR COMBED! It is felted in, not glued. Very gently “comb” it with a large sewing needle. DO NOT USE YOUR FELTING NEEDLE!!  If you push on a felting needle SIDEWAYS they usually BREAK! TRIM off any loose hairs,,,do not pull out! If you are so kind  as to give someone one of your felted sculptures, *be sure to include grooming instructions. You wouldn’t want someone to brush your gift and pull the fur out. Sometimes I can spend 30 minutes combing, trimming, shaping and grooming a long coated dog. The effort that you put into it will show!

HAPPY FELTING!!!!

~~~~AFTER~~~~

OK, You just found a wonderful deal on raw wool and you have visions of beautiful wool. When you get it in the mail, you open the box and your hearts sinks. Instead of your beautiful wool, you have a grungy mess of gray, brown or tan wads that look like they may be wool? And what is that smell? NO WORRIES!  I’ll tell you how to wash it!

People often ask me what is the best way to wash wool. There are many different methods used and after experimenting with lots of them, I’ll tell you what works for me. The above wool is the dirtiest wool that I’ve ever washed. I had to wash it THREE times to get it clean. It is very tricky washing wool because you have to use hot water and as we all know…what happens when your favorite wool sweater gets in hot water??? it SHRINKS..or felts!!! Yes the wool will felt as you wash it unless you are very, very careful!! If this does happen..believe me…it does! DON”T THROW IT AWAY! This wool is perfect for making cores. It is already felted some so you have some of the work done for you already.

HOW DO YOU TELL IF YOU FELTED YOUR WOOL?

If you cannot separate it. The fibers will have interlocked together, and you have to pull REALLY HARD and it doesn’t come apart, or only comes apart a little.

HOW TO PREVENT FELTING?

Never, never, never not even for a few seconds!!! ever AGITATE the wool!! I know, it is very hard not to agitate the wool, especially when it is as dirty as this wool. You just wanted to scrub it and get it clean! RESIST THAT URGE!

HOW TO WASH

Put some soap in the sink..I use the kitchen..and fill it halfway with hot water. put about 4 ounces of wool in the soapy water.Push it under with a tool so you don’t get burned. Yes it does have to be as hot as possible. I use a thick dowel to push it under the water. Set a timer for 30 minutes. Every 10 minutes or so, push the wool back down in the water. DO NOT SWISH AROUND! The wool will float, so you do have to push it down. DO NOT LEAVE IT ANY LONGER THAN 30 MINUTES! Wool has lanolin on it and the hot water melts it off. If you leave the wool in the water too long, the water cools off and the lanolin redeposits on the wool, and you have to start all over again!!

HOW TO RINSE

Buzzzz. Times up! NOW WHAT!!! BE CAREFUL!! Let the water out of the sink. Rinse the dirt away from the wool and from under it. Fill the sink back up with hot water. The temperature of the water has to be the same as the wash water , or it will “shock” the wool, and this can felt it also!!!! DO NOT LET THE WATER RUN DIRECTLY ON THE WOOL!! This can also felt it. OK, now how dirty is the rinse water? If it is really dirty, I wash it again. I drain the rinse water first and repeat the first step. Time it again for 30 minutes. Rinse and if the water is only a little dirty, rinse it once more.

SPIN OUT

I love to spin out my wool as it takes so much water out, it then dries very quickly, especially if in the sunshine! I use a mesh bag used for washing hosiery or lingerie. ( I HAVE ONE JUST FOR WOOL! LOL!!) Put your washer on the spin cycle, and spin away. DO NOT WRING OUT OR HANDLE TOO MUCH. NEVER AGITATE IN THE WASHER OR IT WILL BECOME ONE BIG FELTED BALL!!

SOAP

I use Unscented TIDE. Some people use dawn, but it is too smelly for me. Since so many people are sensitive to fragrances, I wouldn’t want anyone to return my wool if it was too perfumey. TIDE gets the grease and dirt out without agitation. (I sound like a laundry commercial!) WOOL WASH products aren’t any good for washing raw wool.

DONE!

I know it sounds complicated, but you basically soak your wool , and rinse your wool. Don’t worry if you felt it. I have felted many batches of wool until I learned how GENTLE that you have to be. Pretend that you are washing raw eggs and if you handle it that gently, you’ll do fine!! AND for your labors, you will have beautiful, fluffy sweet smelling wool. I love washing wool. There is such a dramatic BEFORE and AFTER. If you buy colored wool, you don’t know how pretty it is until you wash it. Of course, you can SKIP all this washing and pay more money for clean wool! At least NOW you know how much work goes into washing wool and how carefully it was done.

ALMOST….

OH, by the way! This washing doesn’t get the VM out! VM is vegetable matter such as hay and grass. Of course, by now, it is very clean hay and grass!! This has all got to be picked out after the wool dries. It does fall out when you are working with it. So this is more work that was done to the beautiful clean wool that you buy.

HAPPY WASHING!!!

IF YOU DON’T FEEL THAT YOU WANT TO BOTHER WITH WASHING YOUR WOOL, PLEASE CHECK MY ETSY SHOP WHERE YOU CAN BUY MY SPOTLESSLY CLEAN FRESH SMELLING WOOL THAT IS ALL READY TO USE. ***JUST CLICK ON THE “WOOL AND FIBER” SECTION ON THE RIGHT CONTENTS LIST OF MY SHOP. THANKS!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

Hi, Gerry….

The wool arrived late yesterday…. How Luxurious! All I had is something called down wool…and two colors of green that I found…but I thought I’d send it anyway…. See, I need to win the wool!!!! This is Cinderella’s pumpkin after the stroke of midnight….. 4 mice, one slipper, & a pumpkin…. A Fantasy Pumpkin Ending….and just the beginning for great fun for me… I’ve never done this before…

Thank you so much for sharing your expertise & giving us the information needed to succeed….

With great appreciation of your talent & gift….

Lynne

CINDERELLA PUMPKIN BY LYNNE!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!! THIS IS REALLY GREAT!!

I just had to go with this set! The pumpkin is divine in it’s glowing whiteness and the tendrils look like beautiful wheels ready to glide the pumpkin away. Love the deep green leaf also. The cute mice and slipper accent the beauty of the pumpkin. How did you ever make those tiny mice and slipper without poking your fingers??

The props are perfect with the gold material and the thin gold cords. Excellent imagination and great skill. I hope to see more of your creations soon Lynne! Keep up the great work!!

Here is my NEW Needle Felted Pumpkin Kit made with wool batting. This makes a soft pumpkin with no holes from the needle! You make the core pumpkin base out of the white wool then wrap it in the beautiful batting. Great if you need to make a bunch of pumpkins for a function! You only need to attach the ends and felt in the grooves. Add extras if desired like tendrils and a leaf!  It includes:

one #36 coarse felting needle

one #38 medium felting needle

white core wool

custom wool batting in shades of orange with golden silk highlights

green batting for leaves

brown-purple for stems and shading

tan for stems

green mohair curls

This kit is in my Etsy store with my cute Custom Needle Felted Dogs.**Just click on the “needle felting kit” section on the right in the contents of my shop.  I also have a cute needle felting sheep kit there. Thanks!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

This kit will make more than one pumpkin. If you have any questions just email me anytime!

HAPPY FELTING!

I JUST LOVE THIS PICTURE OF MY LITTLE NEEDLE FELTED SAMOYED PLAYING IN THE LEAVES!

WELL, WE HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH THE LAST CONTEST, LETS HAVE ANOTHER! THIS ONE IS FOR NEW FELTERS. YOU CAN ENTER ANYTHING THAT YOU’D LIKE!!

THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE FIRST THINGS THAT YOU FELTED, ALTHOUGH THOSE DO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO START!

JUST THINK…..YOUR LITTLE FELTIE COULD START SOMEONE NEEDLE FELTING!

PRIZES!!!!   WINNER GETS WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE AND A SPECIAL CUSTOM MADE FELTING NEEDLE WITH A LITTLE HANDLE! PICTURES LATER!

YOU CAN PICK OUT YOUR WOOL FROM MY ETSY SHOP. **Just click on the “wool and fiber” section on the right in the contents of my shop. Thanks!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

PLEASE SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO gfelted@verizon.net

HAPPY FELTING!

Attached are some photos of my necklace.

It is called Exotic Tree Frog.

The frog took 20hrs to needle felt.  The necklace is made of leather with a magnetic clasp.  The pendant the frog is climbing on is made of glass with iridescent foil inlaid in it.

The little boy bird is 3 inches tall and 4 inches long.

He is soft yet firmly felted. He has black glass eyes, hand molded and painted polymer clay beak and wire wrapped feet.

Barb

I would like to also enter these two in the contest, The Kitten is named Snickers and she is 2 inches tall.

I made the dog fro my neighbor who has a Grand dog just like this ( except bigger lol)  Her name  is Maggie and she is a tiny 1 1/4 inches tall

Thank you

Mary

Oops! Broke another needle! HELP!

I rarely break a needle. Maybe one every 3 months or so. The number one cause of needle breaking is SIDEWAYS PRESSURE!! If you go in at an angle and don’t come out at the same angle, it creates pressure on one side and SNAP! Always go in and out the same way WITHOUT moving the needle to one side or another.

Another way to break needles is trying to move the wool over a little with the tip of the needle. DON’T do it! Use a broken needle or a pin instead of your felting needle when you want to move your wool over to the side a little.

Another way to break a needle is using a wire armature and hitting it too hard. When you are felting into a sculpture with a wire armature in it, you have to back off slightly as soon as the tip of your needle hits the wire. Try to felt along one side of the wire and then the other. Be gentle when you are putting on the first layer of wool around the wire.

Another way that you can break a needle doesn’t even make sense, but it’s happened to me more than once! Sticking the needle into the foam too hard when you set it down. I’ve broken the most needles this way believe it or not!!

When do your needles break?

SNIFF SNIFF..WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR NOSES? So many people have asked me that! I don’t buy them….I MAKE THEM MYSELF, AND NOW YOU CAN TOO!!

STEP ONE: GET POLYMER CLAY. Fimo, Premo,Sculpy anything like those. I happened to have Premo in black. Break of a small chunk. Click on any photo to see a larger version!

STEP TWO: Break off little bits and roll into small ovals. I only used a 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece. This takes quite a while. Try not to handle the clay too much or it will get soft and mushy. I put all the balls on to a piece of foil.

STEP THREE: Take two pins and stick a pin in each side of ball. With the little balls, just stick the pins in to make small holes. For the larger ones, you can use something larger to make the holes or wiggle the pins a little to enlarge the holes. I make an assortment of sizes as I make different sized dogs. Sometimes I make a little brownish pink clay and make chocolate colored noses that I use once in a while. Some of the balls are a little rounder than others, but since dog noses are different shapes that works perfectly.

You can see the holes made by the pins.

I made 44 noses from the 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch piece!

Chloe has her nose fresh out of the oven. Yes you do cook the noses next!

STEP FOUR: The directions say to cook the clay at 275 for 30 minutes per 1/4 inch. Since these are much smaller, I cook them for 10 minutes at 275. Just scoop up the foil and put the noses in the oven. I use a toaster oven and air it out after I’m done. Let the noses cool off and then you can glue them on in 3 seconds with super glue or tacky glue.

THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT! Take a bow..You did it!

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~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

NEVER FELT INTO A HARD SURFACE!

I guess I forgot to include that one. Always felt into something soft. This isn’t counting the wool that you’re felting. This is what is UNDER the wool! Felting needle tips can be damaged or break when they hit something hard like a table or book. Always use something that gives when hit with the needle….like foam, a towel, pillow, or the like.

You can’t use a regular felting needle on a short felting brush like  the kind that clover makes. That brush is designed for the clover needle only. That needle tool has short needles that don’t hit the brush. I don’t know about you, but my felting needles are 3 and 3 1/2 inches long. That is much longer than the bristles, so if you use them on the clover felting brush they will hit the hard brush and break.

Also when using a wire armature, felt gently. You don’t have to jab the wool so hard anyway. Don’t use much force when you jab the needle and then if you hit the wire, it will usually slide along it. Felt along the wire on one side then the other. Is your needle gets stuck in the wire, VERY gently wiggle it a little and it should come out. If you yank on it when it is stuck, it can snap. Felting needles are hardened steel and are very brittle. Usually though you will get months of use out of each needle.

Be sure not to use sideways pressure on the needles or they will snap. I keep a broken needle for whenever I need to push the wool to the side. This saves my good needles from breaking. After a while you will get the “feel” for felting and not break so many needles. Always use a #36 coarse needle to start your cores. Use fine needles only for the top layers or fine details.

Any other questions about breaking needles?

OK, THIS ISN’T A CONTEST ENTRY BUT I DO FEEL LEFT OUT. HERE IS MY LATEST NEEDLE FELTED DOG. SHE HAS A WOOL CORE WITH ALPACA FUR. DOESN’T SHE HAVE THE SWEETEST FACE? IT WILL BE HARD TO SELL HER. OF COURSE, I WISH I COULD KEEP MOST OF MY DOGS. IF I DID THAT BY NOW I COULD HAVE MY OWN MINI WESTMINSTER DOG SHOW FOR FELTIES!

This Orca whale tote is inspired by the Pacific Northwest where I live. We have resident pods of beautiful Orca Whales here in the Puget Sound. I have always loved these majestic animals.

I first handknit this tote with pure merino wool, then felted it to give it a strong and sturdy shape. I then needle-felted the Orca whales on it. The white bellies are made with my own handspun yarn.

Do you have to use a special roving for the long coat?

I use raw fiber for my long coats. What is raw fiber? It is fiber that is just washed and not processed at all. In other words it is not combed into roving. The raw fiber is more separated like real fur. I take a small pinch and brush it before I felt it in. This gets the VM(vegetable matter..hay, grass) out. Then I felt it in the middle or on the end depending on where I am placing it on the dog. My all time favorite is alpaca. I sell it in my shop and my packages have assorted colors in them, but I also make custom orders of one or two colors or whatever people wish. The sheltie and the pom in my title area were both done with alpaca. You can always practice on a little blob of wool that has been firmly felted. If it isn’t felted firmly enough, it won’t hold the fur in. You can see all my fiber in my shop on etsy.  I also have lots more not listed if you’re looking for anything special! Thanks!

http://gfelted.etsy.com

Washed alpaca fiber in assorted colors. Alpaca is fiber not wool. Wool only comes from sheep or lambs. It looks similar and can be felted very easily. It is very soft and fluffy! My favorite! I sell the same fiber that I felt with.

HAPPY FELTING!

Hi! This is “Felty” : ) He really likes all about needle felting LOL and he has his own needle felting kit with miniature needle, wool roving and pad!! LOL
He is always happy!!
bye : )

THIS IS THE WINNER!!!! I chose this feltie for a few reasons. Maru didn’t just make a feltie…she created a total scene here and you can’t help but smile. I think that’s one of the most important things about a needle felted creation..that it evokes an emotion. I try to make my dogs so peoples hearts are touched by their sweet faces. Maru’s feltie does the same thing.

I think that a needle felted creation should show  patience, persistance, creativity and humor. You can tell that Maru had a lot of patience and persistence to make all the little props to go with the feltie so that he can needle felt in style. The hat has a little strap. The sign has a little lady bug. There is a little bell on his neck.  He has a felting needle and foam with little balls of roving. To make a feltie felting is such a great idea and so creative!! The entire scene is very creative also and colorful.

I love the sweet little smile on his face and aren’t we happy when we are needle felting?

He even has a cute sign that says HAPPY FELTING!!

***THANKS SO MUCH to all the people who participated in the last contest. There were so many wonderful needle felted sculptures…I wish that I could give you all a prize!!! But the real prize is that you created something and you shared it with others. You had the courage and generosity to do that. It is so heart warming to see all of your precious creations and some from people who are just starting. You should all be very proud!! ALL OF YOU ARE REALLY WINNERS:)

~WHY DO YOU LIKE NEEDLE FELTING?~PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT! FREE WOOL!

WIN A CUTE SHEEP NEEDLE FELTING KIT WITH MINI HAY BALE AND COPPER BELL! (pictures soon)

I’ve noticed that I get hundreds of hits at my blog daily and just a few who comment. Thanks to those who do! You know who you are! Lets hear what you have to say about your passion.

~Needle Felting~

Why do you do it?

How did you get started?

What was your favorite creation? You can include a picture if you like! This contest is open to EVERYONE so please leave a comment:)

It will encourage others and it is fun to read what people think about needle felting.

TO LEAVE A COMMENT

Just go down to the bottom of this post..

1) CLICK ON COMMENTS.  There will be a number in front of it.

2) Go to the end of the list and leave your comment in the box where it says YOUR RESPONSE.

3) Leave a name. It can be just your first name or a made up name. Leave email address. This will not show or be used or distributed to anyone.

4) Type in your comment in the response box

5) Then click on SUBMIT COMMENT.That’s all there is to it!

***You can leave your comment on any post as I read all of the new ones every day!!

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE A PHOTO JUST SEND IT AS AN ATTACHMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL TO:

gfelted@verizon.net

It can even be a poem if you like! Your comment can be long or short. Hope to hear from you! We have lots of fun with contests!

THANKS SO MUCH to all the people who participated in the last contest. There were so many wonderful needle felted sculptures…I wish that I could give you all a prize!!! But the real prize is that you created something and you shared it with others. It is so heart warming to see all of your precious creations and some from people who are just starting. You should all be very proud!! ALL OF YOU ARE REALLY WINNERS!!

HAPPY FELTING!

I missed the deadline for the contest….but I’m just in time for the Breeders’ Cup!

Congratulations on your win, Maru!

Lynne

~MEET BAILEY~A NEEDLE FELTED MALTESE~

I’M NO EXPERT, BUT MY HUBBY IS AND I’VE PICKED UP A LITTLE FROM HIM.

The most important thing about taking pictures is what’s BEHIND the object and the lighting. Also it’s good to have a contrasting color behind it. If you have a dark subject, then a black background would make it hard to see. A lighter background would make it pop. Also a simple background is good so the background doesn’t take away form the subject. Your background is great! It’s perfect to have a dark subject in pure sunshine to show off the details.

Something that’s white gets washed out though from being overly bright. If you try taking photos in the shade on a sunny day, then the details on your white horse will show up more. If you are taking photos inside of a white subject, it’s good to do the tissue trick. The flash washes out the details of something white, so you put a tissue over the flash. Then when the camera flashes, part of the light is diminished so the details show up. Experiment with different lighting and flashes and colors behind your subject. I usually take about 50 to 80 pictures of each dog and save the best 12. If you do that, you’re bound to have a few good ones.

POOR BETTINA BROKE HER LEG! ALL HER DOGGY FRIENDS SIGNED THE CAST!

Did this little dog evoke a reaction in you? That is one of the reasons why I love needle felting! You can make something that can touch peoples hearts and it started as a pile of fluff…so it is like a miracle to create it!

WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHY DO YOU LIKE NEEDLE FELTING? COMMENT CONTEST!

FREE PRIZE. NEEDLE FELTING KIT FOR A SHEEP WITH MINI HAYBALE AND COPPER BELL TO HANG ON HER NECK! (PICTURES SOON)

QUESTION:

Hello Gerry, I will be answering your question about why I like needle felting soon , I was wondering if you could answer this question on your site .

I have felted a tiny mouse and am stuck at the legs and feet , I tried making them from clay but I am not good at that so the wee mouse looks like he is wearing stilts. I am not sure how to go about felting the feet and legs because they would have to be really tiny and if they are too thick would look strange , IThe felt probably would not hold up if they were thin , Have you any suggestions?

Thank you:)

Mary

.

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ANSWER:

Well, here’s a mouse that I made. He’s not very detailed as he is just a cat toy. I would have to see yours  I think to help you. What size is your mouse? Mine is only one inch without the tail. You could felt a flat foot all one piece and then cut into it a little to make toes. I know one person who makes tiny foxes and she puts glue on the legs and rolls them to make them thinner and stronger. You could put glue on the tiny toes to make them stronger. If it is as small as this, I wouldn’t bother with legs. I would just do the feet. What position are you making it in? That would matter also. Please give me more details! Thanks!!

.

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PS THIS LITTLE KITTY IS A CALICO LAPERM CAT. THEY ACTUALLY DO HAVE CURLY FUR!! THIS IS THE SAME CURLY WOOL THAT WILL BE IN THE NEEDLE FELTING SHEEP KIT NOW OFFERED AS THE PRIZE IN MY BEST COMMENT CONTEST!! AREN’T THESE THE CUTEST LITTLE CURLS?

This is why I took up needle felting…. to make dogs….and this is my first…. just completed…..

I was looking at dog art on eBay & one of Gerry’s little yorkies popped up…. I did a double take, it looked so real…. and then to find out it was made with a needle & wool……& so small…..

Well….I had to learn more… I bought a book, but had no wool, so went back to see if Gerry sold wool….She did….& bought some and she invited me to her weblog and to enter the fantasy pumpkin contest…..I never opened the book again….all the information needed is right here & Gerry answers any questions that might arise…

Thanks, Gerry!

BRINDLE AFGHAN HOUND NEEDLE FELTED~SHAMU

This is a sculpture of my first dog. I bought her myself when I was 18 and she cost quite a bit especially for a teenager to pay, but little by little I paid for her until she was totally mine! She loved to race the wind and would run for hours! I used to take her with me when I rode my horse and she loved it. Of course if she ran into the bushes with that long fur…oh no what a mess!!! TIME FOR GROOMING!

SPEAKING OF GROOMING…HOW DO YOU GROOM A NEEDLE FELTED DOG?

NEVER BRUSH OR COMB!!!

Felted fur is only felted in, not glued so it can be brushed or combed right out of your core. Oh no!! One safe way to groom your dog is to use a large sewing needle or a broken felting needle.

GENTLY “comb” the fur with the needle. Trim as you go. If you cut a chunk out that is too short…don’t cry…just pull it out and felt in another piece! No problem! Wool is very forgiving and changeable!

Remember that dogs fur is thinner on their tummy so be sure to trim it there. Also inside of the thighs usually has thinner fur. If you felted in too much fur, just carefully pull a little out. Comb it down and blend your fur together. I try to trim the ends so they are wispy instead of straight across. If you do trim straight across, just “comb” it more with the needle and it should blend in better.

My afghan fur was made with wool batting that was specially blended to be brindle. Isn’t it just great! I have more if anyone needs some! That saves lots of work and blending time to create a multi shaded look! I made her teeth individually and they glow in the dark!!LOL!! I had white clay but my hubby said it was too white for dogs so he mixed me the perfect color and I didn’t realize until I was done that her teeth glowed in the dark!!!  This is a larger sculpture at 5 inches tall and 5 inches long. It takes a long time to make larger sculptures, but you can but more details on them. I ended up keeping her for myself:)

Hi, Gerry…

Just completed the Bichon Frise, dog #2…. Please critique…

I am here to learn…

She is smaller than the maltese…about 3 inches….so I couldn’t put the glass eyes in… I almost trimmed her bald… I don’t know how you get all those little hairs not to look fuzzy….and since I felted the eyes & nose… it was really hard to get rid of a stray black hair or two…. I see there are still a few…but I learned not to pull until you know where they are attached…:)

You are right about the grooming…. Take your time, it makes a lot of difference…. I really had a halo around her head & couldn’t see it until I took a picture… Still haven’t gotten in all groomed…. Do you use hair spray? LOL

I learned a lot on this one, too….

Thanks…

Lynne

You can make a cute lamb like this one with my new needle felting lamb kit. It also comes with a couple of surprizes! This is Nibbles and she is a Jacob sheep which have spots everywhere! She nibbles on everything and pretty soon, she’ll eat her whole pink daisy necklace!!

Yes you can make your own lamb with my special kit. All you have to do is leave a comment on:
WHY DO YOU LIKE NEEDLE FELTING?

Contest will end Sunday evening, so you have a couple of days left to think about it. DON”T BE SHY!

What you say may help start someone to try this wonderful needle art sculpting! Please enter today!!

Someone wanted to see the rest of my chow chow, so here she is. She was so adorable…I wished that I had kept her!

I belong to NFEST which is the needle felting group on Etsy and the October theme was things with eyes. My CALICO CAT in the middle was chosen to be in the collage for the month of October!!! Pretty cool!! Congratulations also to Corina who made the felted owl purse. We saw her needle felted ORCA PURSE in my last needle felting contest.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND IT WILL ENLARGE. YOU CAN EVEN CLICK ON IT AGAIN TO MAKE IT LARGER.

November theme is fire, earth, air, and water. ANY IDEAS??? I’m drawing a total blank! I mean, how does one felt air?? or earth. Tricky, don’t you think!

HELP I NEED SOME IDEAS???

CONGRATULATIONS DEBRA! YOU WIN A NEEDLE FELTING SHEEP KIT!

HERE IS HER ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: WHY DO YOU LIKE NEEDLE FELTING!! GREAT ANSWER!! I’M SURE THAT WE ALL CAN RELATE TO THIS:)

DEBRA SAYS:

Well…….there are many reasons, most of all out of my Love for dogs and horses, I have sculpted in clay, BUT it can not compare to taking raw wool and creating a little happy surprise. Not knowing if your hand will transform the roving into, that “darned” little love you want EXACTLY right! sitting, and doing it, there is NO cheating, you must continue using your mind, eyes and heart. Then, after all that poking, and you start to see it come into shape and alive, there is Nothing like it. You tell yourself, “You are getting IT!” It is a Win in a personal challenge and desire. To make a cherished pet that someone will look at and get joy from. It is the BEST, and the finished results are amazing. You walk away from the table, or set it out, and look back at it, and at times, I can’t believe I made that! Its Fun and I have never made such cute and meaningful items, that mean alot to those who see them and buy them. It is PURE JOY! from my hands. Its again, really amazing. As I call these types of things, Its “All the is good and Kind in the World”
Many Soft Nickers,

Debra
I start out determined, “maybe” I will get a bit tired, get up to get some tea, then get right back at it. Its also something, for some reason inside, I don’t quit. I NEED to finish, that in itself is very Inspiring and motivating

NEEDLE FELTERS HALL OF FAME!!!

MARU: FELTIE FELTING

LYNNE:FAIRYTALE PUMPKIN

CAROL: FANTASY DRAGON

CORINA: OWL TOTE

LIRAEL:WOODLAND TOTE-7 year old!!

HELEN:PENELOPE CAT

LYNN:MOLLY PIG

OK..SHARPEN UP YOUR NEEDLES AND GET FELTING!! I’M HAVING ANOTHER NEEDLE FELTING CONTEST THAT IS OPEN TO ANYONE!!! PRIZE IS A COMPLETE NEEDLE FELTING SHEEP KIT OR IF YOU’D RATHER, YOU CAN HAVE FREE WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE!

All that you have to do is send your photos of any feltie to me at:

gfelted@verizon.net

Enter as many times as you wish!

WHAT ABOUT EYES?

Which is best? Glass? Plastic? Beads? Felted?

I thought that this little doxie’s eyes came out nicely and they are ….plastic!!

Yes there are very nice plastic eyes available. I do usually use black glass eyes for most of my dogs, but some dogs have soft brown or amber colored eyes or even blue!

Before you glue STOP! DON’T USE FAST DRYING GLUE LIKE KRAZY GLUE OR SUPER GLUE! If you use colored eyes the paint reacts instantly with the paint on the eyes and  turns bright shocking un-dog like colors. Know of any dogs with shocking orange eyes? These glues are good for black glass eyes as they don’t react. I use the Krazy Glue that has a brush. It doesn’t dry out that way and you can apply just the amount that you like.

Before you glue, be sure to make a socket for the eye. Felt a little hole to insert the eye into it so the eye isn’t sitting on top of the face. I ALWAYS mark my eyes with straight pins that have a black ball on the end. Be sure that if you draw a line up the middle of the dogs face, that each eye is the same distance from the middle.  Also they should be even if you draw a line across.

Ooops!! Spilled the milk. Poor Buster is in trouble now! He is an American Hairless Terrier.(AHT)

It’s much easier to move the pins around until you get the placement just right BEFORE gluing the good eyes in. Of course, you can needle felt the eyes also. I prefer the glass as they make a realistic shine. I did use black beads for a long time until I could invest in glass eyes. I buy my eyes from JNCSHOP on Etsy. Just click on the dropdown box there and type in JNCSHOP. Tell him Gerry sent you! Thanks!

Any questions?

YOU MAY WONDER HOW DO I CUSTOM BLEND WOOL TO GET JUST THE RIGHT COLOR THAT YOU WISH.???   ..WELL SEARCH NO MORE….YOU’VE STOPPED AT THE RIGHT SPOT!

HOW TO CUSTOM BLEND YOUR OWN WOOL COLORS!!!

First gather together what you need. I have my 2 file cards from the hardware store, some black alpaca and some fawn alpaca. I need to make some fur the color of a shepherd with the tan and black mix. Before you start, make sure that your carders are clean. I used a felting needle to carefully pick out the wool, as I had just mixed some white and pink for my chinese crested and I didn’t want either of those colors in the black and tan mix.

STEP ONE:
Lay the black alpaca on the file catching the tips on the teeth of the file. Watch out for the wires! I got poked on one of them! OUCH!!

STEP TWO:

Next I laid a THIN layer of the fawn alpaca on top of the black alpaca. A little goes  a long way to blend color in. I always start with a small amount as more can be added if needed.

STEP THREE:

Next you just brush them together. I like to brush away from my body and then towards it to mix it up well. Keep brushing until the colors are blended in the way that you want them to be. brush…. brush…..brush…..

This is pretty much the color that I needed for my dog. There are some lighter areas on the dog, so I can use the lighter areas out of the mix. That’s all there is to it. Total time is about a minute or so. You can now make your own custom colors!!!

This unique tote is one-of-a-kind, like all my creations. I first handknit it with a wool/mohair yarn and then felted it. I then needle felted this barn owl onto the tote.
This bag is inspired by my Pacific Northwest wilderness backyard. Along with bears, coyotes, bald eagles and mountain lions, we are blessed with barn owls. Their haunting screams wake us up at night and remind us of how blessed we are to live here.
Felted material is naturally water resistant, very sturdy and strong.

DID YOU EVER THINK THAT YOU COULD PAINT WITH WOOL? HERE IT IS !

Here is my entry for the contest ,a wool “painting” of a scruffy deerhound/ lurcher type dog fast asleep in the glow of a fire.It has a 3-D effect due to layers of wool being built up.

DON’T YOU JUST LOVE PUG TAILS!!! GREAT JOB ON THE WRINKLES!!

How sweet of you to invite me. I have been admiring your work for sometime now and I must say that I am a newbie at needle felting and I still have a lot to learn. My 1st try was a bird and then made 2 dogs which I tries to sell on ebay and no luck. I have just finish a cat and I am sending you some photos of her. Her name is Mylou. She is 12 inches long and her tail is 7 inches long. She quite big. She is done in wool. I have a hard time making my small felties. I went to your blog(really nice by the way) and I enjoyed looking at all your felties. Such amazing work you do and your site is informative. I’ve learn a few tips on long hair. I see you have already some really nice entries in your contest. It’s nice to see other people work. Thank you again for inviting me.

Ginette from Quebec, Canada

White tigers are born every so often due to recessive genes. They have snowy white coats marked with black stripes. While white tigers are a major attraction at the zoo, it’s coloration in the wild makes survival more difficult. It does not camouflage itself as well as the yellow tiger so stalking prey is more difficult.

Loki, the white Bengal Tiger, is 4 3/4″ tall, 6″ long with blue glass eyes. Truly a unique one of a kind creation!

This tiny kitty was made very, very carefully! You may think that something so small is  quick to make, but the little ones are even harder to sculpt as you have to be careful of fingers! OUCH!

Many lovely details are included on this little one…even pink paw pads and whiskers!!! Truly one of a kind.

Kitty details: Posy is the name, she measures 1.25″ at the widest point (tail to ear) NO wire armature, horse hair whiskers, otherwise 100% romney & merino wool. She is so tiny yhat her bed is a walnut shell!!

Someone is featuring my little pom in their treasury on Etsy. That means it was picked out of thousands of items for sale to form someone’s favorite 12! It lasts until Thursday, November 21. I am very honored that one of my dogs was chosen. To see a larger view. just click on the treasury!

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

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~WHISKERS~

I have been asked by a few people how to add whiskers…so this is how I do it. Maybe you have a better way. If so, please share!!

I use some hair that is synthetic in black or white depending on the need. I used white on this calico cat. I use a needle threader, put it through the eye of a large needle and put a little pinch of hair in it.

I locate a good spot on the face, where I would like the whiskers to come out of. Then I push the needle through there and try to come out on the same spot on the other side.

Next  I pull one end of the bunch through like you were sewing. I try not to bend the hair sharply so it won’t make a bend in the hair.  Stop when the hair is about halfway through. Be sure to check  that your hair clump will be in about the same location on each side of the face. Carefully remove the needle and put a tiny spot of crazy glue or super glue at the base of the whiskers on  each side. When dry, trim the whiskers to the right size. I also added hair brows to this calico. You would do the same thing except have the needle come out close to the entry spot. Pull through, glue and trim. Arrange as needed.

It is much easier to start out with hair that is longer than you need so you don’t pull in though and only have the hair on one side. Learned THAT the hard way!!

ANY QUESTIONS??

This cat was made with alpaca in assorted colors. You can see  the colors and more wool in my Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095756

I’VE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND HAVE AN OPEN VOTE FOR THE WINNER! YOU CHOOSE! LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR VOTE AND THE REASON WHY YOU CHOSE A CERTAIN FELTIE TODAY! GET YOUR FRIENDS TO VOTE FOR YOU TOO! FREE WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE TO THE WINNER!!

WELL HERE IS THE LINE UP! I CAN’T DECIDE, SO I’M LEAVING IT UP TO YOU!!

CLICK ON A PICTURE FOR A CLOSER VIEW OR SCROLL DOWN THE LIST TO SEE CLOSE-UPS AND MORE PICTURES OF EACH ENTRY.

THINGS THAT I LOOK FOR WHEN I PICK A WINNER:

IMAGINATION

EVOKES A RESPONSE

PERSISTENCE

UNIQUENESS

FUR QUALITY

EXPRESSION

CUTENESS

BEAUTY

YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WINNER!!

HAVE FUN! IT’S IN YOUR HANDS!!

I’m so excited that my polar bear family got chosen for a treasury on Etsy!!! It is such an honor as there are thousands of items for sale there. A treasury only lasts for a few days, but it still is a great thrill!

I put hours of extra work sculpting little claws for the bear mom and cub and then glued them all on. It was fun photographing them in the snow.

Those claws took forever!

Weeeeeeeee!!!

Footprints in the snow….A mother’s love~

This is a lovely piece that really stands out! It is double felted as the purse is made first and felted, and then the wool is feted on to make the “wool painting!” This is such a detailed piece and demonstrates the great possibilities in felting. Also, this is a great piece to help spread awareness of needle felting. I’m sure that whenever someone used this purse in public, that people would stop and ask about it. Maybe we should all make one to help spread needle felting awareness!!LOL!!

CONGRATULATIONS CORINA!!!   YOU’VE WON WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE!!  Just go to my shop and you can see what I have. I also have lots of other wool if you need something special…I may have it.

www.gfelted.etsy.com

HAPPY FELTING!

GOURMET FIBER BLEND-

please see http://gfelted.etsy.com/

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

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Sometimes I’m asked what is the best fiber to use for felting? I spoke of that before but I will expand here. Also what fibers do NOT  felt?

The easiest fiber that I’ve found for felting is romney wool by far! When I first started felting I used pillow stuffing fluff! I wanted to save the wool for the fur, so I used poly fill. I would still use it now if I had a very large sculpture to make…say 12 inches or so. That would use lots of wool, so it would save the wool by using the stuffing fiber. Now for some reason, some of those felt and some don’t. I have no clue why. The one that I used that did felt, even had sparkles in it and it pulled apart like roving. I had another one that was more like pieces that wouldn’t felt. Also the flat batting style will not felt. I got a bunch of it for free and thought I’d be set for a year, but stab as I would…no felting!!

I have even felted with yarn….desperation is the mother of invention!!LOL! I pulled apart some rusty colored 100% wool yarn and made a pom.That was my first feltie.(I entered a post about that) I also experimented with some puffy acrylic yarn that I felted into a kitten. I didn’t believe that it would felt, but it did! It was so easy! I just wrapped around the wire and felted a little…done!! I still have it as a reminder of my early days  felting. I have also seen other sculptures made with yarn.

On a site that sold unusual colors of roving, I saw that she recommended romney wool for beginners as it felts so easily. That sounded good and I was curious to try it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and how much faster I could make the boring cores!! have used romney ever since  Many people sell merino for felting, but that takes about 4 times more work to felt the same thing. Merino is a very fine thin wool so it is harder to felt. It is excellent as a topcoat for smooth coated dogs. It even has a nice sheen if you lay it on carefully. Of course ANY coarse wool will felt well as it is much easier to compress together.

I love experimenting with different fibers. I use a lot of “gourmet” fibers, that’s how I came up with my name, Gourmet Felted!! I have felted silk before, both natural and synthetic like soy silk, bamboo, llama, and  tencel. They are good for the topcoats and are extremely easy to felt. Cashmere and camel down are soft as a cloud . Angora bunny fur is also so soft that you can barely feel it. Be prepared to eat it when you use angora bunny. Did you ever wear one of those fuzzy sweaters? You know, the ones that SHED everywhere? Well, felting with it is worse and the fibers fly EVERYWHERE including on your lips, up your nose, on your food, etc!!

I haven’t tried yak, buffalo, seacell, milk fiber, or corn fiber. Maybe if someone does they could let me know how it felts?

**I have tried the seacell which is similar to silk, but slightly firmer. Also it felts easily. Be careful not to felt it too much or it will all disappear inside your feltie! Same with silk.

You all know that alpaca is my favorite and I also felt mohair which is very hard to felt, but doable if you keep at it.

SUPERWASH  WOOL WILL NOT FELT!!!

I have seen the most gorgeous colors in superwash wool, but had to pass them by as they will NOT felt. Superwash has been treated to remove the scales that cause the wool to felt together or it has been coated with a polymer for the same reason. Sure you can wash it and it will never shrink…but felting??? Impossible!

Felting pet fur has been discussed in a previous post. Basically it would depend on the breed. The fluffy soft second coat near the skin would felt easier that the top wiry coat that is more like hair. I would still use wool as a core and use the pet fur on top unless you have a bunch of it.

So all in all..I say EXPERIMENT! Please let me know what you find out. You will be pleasantly surprised sometimes and when it doesn’t work, you will still learn….. it is a mystery to you until you try it. That was why I bought a little cashmere just to see what it is like!!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FIBER TO FELT ? WHY DO YOU LIKE IT?

WHAT DID YOU FELT WITH FOR THE FIRST TIME?

I’ll be looking forward to your replies:)

HAPPY FELTING!!

IS THIS WOOL?

~~~MORE TIPS and QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT~~~

***After you read this post, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page…..I know, it is a long page, but there are some lovely pictures on the way..At the bottom of this page there are several more “YOUR NEEDLE FELTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED” and also more “NEEDLE FELTING TIP OF THE WEEK” to help you. Just click on the title, and it goes right to the post. Go back after you’ve read it to click on another. Fun right?

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Hi Gerry:

I’ve got a lot to learn. I never thought to ask what kind of wool we use. I know we used some mohair tonight at a special class I went to. But other than that all I know is it’s sheep wool.

So what do I ask to find out what were using? I don’t what to sound stupid. Are these types of animals that it comes from?

Has anyone tried lint from the dryer as “scrap” for a center of say a pumpkin? Just wondering.

What is the least expensive, but good wool to work with?

Thanks for the info.

Janet

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REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO STUPID QUESTION!  How can you learn if you don’t ask questions? Chances are that other people are wondering the same thing as you are, but are too chicken to say anything! LOL!! As long as the wool felts, it’s good!! You don’t want to be a wool snob…”.oh I can only felt with such and such, nothing else!!”

Any coarse wool will felt if it isn’t superwash. Wool comes from sheep only. Lots of other fibers are called wool, even though they are not. If you look at the fiber in my photo on this post, most people would say that this is wool. It is not though, as it is alpaca and that is a fiber that is not wool. Mohair comes from goats and the raw mohair is like human hair and is very hard to felt!!

I don’t know about dryer lint felting. I would think that the fibers are too short to felt together as the strands can’t go into something. Try it! That’s how you learn. EXPERIMENT! Please let me know what you find out. I don’t have a dryer!!!

Wool that is used for felting is really a personal choice. Take merino for instance. Lots of colored roving is merino. Some people swear at it and some people swear by it. It is a very fine soft wool, but it does take lots more work to felt it. Some people love the surface that it creates and only use that. I only use it as a top coat for smooth coated or hairless dogs.

I just shop around for romney which is what I like for felting the core, but that’s just MY preference. If you find some wool that is cheap,  do a search “felting ability of wool” to see what the felting ability of that kind of wool is. There are lots of wool that I haven’t tried yet. Usually the cheapest  wool is unwashed. I did a post on washing wool. I love the before and after of it!

All in all, the best thing is to try it to see it YOU like it! There really are no hard and fast rules for needle felting. That’s what makes needle felting such a one of a kind art.

PS- the photo is alpaca available in my Etsy shop.

http://gfelted.etsy.com/

HAPPY FELTING!

Hey, Gerry! I get my needles from theredbarnfarm too! Top quality! Got a silly little trick to share. . . instead of using that multiple needle thingy with the round wooden cap that uses multiple needles, I make my own out of a wine cork! I cut a piece off the end, carefully stick two or three of the same size needles down through the cork and there you go!! Instant multiple needle thingy!!! Anyhoo, works pretty darned good! Not that I mind the multiple needle thingy a bit, mind you, I just like improvising!!!

AMAZING DANCING DOG~Bluecroft My Blue Heaven~Collie!!~Tina Humphrey

This was sent to me in September and I wanted to repost it as it is  just incredible! It shows a very, very special connection between a dog and his owner. It is such a touching performance, It will bring tears to your eyes . Turn up the sound as the accompanying music is hauntingly beautiful and perfect for the dance! There is just something so special about this. It will WARM your heart! Enjoy

I felted a blue merle sheltie that looks just like this !

http://bluecroft.wordpress.com/dressage-dog/

WILLOW is a fantasy horse that I made with wool, sparkles, and snowflakes. She has a long, crimped mane and tail with blue highlights. Perfect for your favorite fairy!

I was surprised to get an email today informing me that my cute Brussels Griffon made it into an Etsy Treasury!! It is an honor that I would be picked out of thousands of sellers selling thousands of items. CRICKET is leaning on a pumpkin as she was created in the fall. This is an interesting Treasury as it show dogs in all kinds of mediums. Here is a closer photo of CRICKET.

~CRICKET~QUEEN OF THE PUMPKIN PATCH~

More photos in my Etsy store. Please see

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_gallery_4&listing_id=11336702

This photo is raw mohair curls before it is made into roving. It has been washed. Shown with a red felted rose. This is my Silver Ice mohair.

~ROVING~

QUESTION:

I did have a question actually – I bought some kid mohair from a store and it looked like a ball of fluff, but its actually just one long strand of ‘hair’. Is this what is called ‘carded’?

ANSWER:

When fiber is longer than 5 inches or so, it has been carded and turned into roving. Carded is another word for combed. The fiber goes through a machine with hundreds of thin wire teeth on it and all the fibers get aligned in one direction and slightly joined together. If you pull on a little of the roving, the true length will show. Pull on both ends of a little piece and when nothing else stretches out, that will be your fiber length. You can use the roving as long pieces if you were making say, a 12 inch long coated sculpture. Wool and other fibers like mohair don’t growth long enough for the coat of a large sculpture. The roving is combed together to make longer strands. If the long fur is pulled on after felted in, it will separate.

The above picture is mohair curls in their natural state…minus the dirt!!HA! This is called RAW fiber. Raw fiber can be washed or dirty.

(* Please notice my post on washing wool/fiber. ) Mohair is very fine and slippery like human hair and is very hard to needle felt. It can be used as a topcoat felted into a coarse wool base. Mohair is not wool, as it is from goats. Only sheep produce wool. Of course, lots of fibers are called wool just because that’s what they look like. These mohair curls are about 4 to 5 inches long and could be made into roving. You can notice the lovely curls in the natural mohair. This is all natural fiber, not dyed,  and you can notice the variations in the color. I have lots of colors of mohair that I sell mostly to baby doll makers that use it for baby hair.

Here is an amazing doll baby with my golden brown mohair. Doesn’t it look real!

The artist can be reached at

littleonedesigns@hotmail.com

I sell mohair washed, combed and conditioned. This method preserves the pretty curls and gets all of the loose hay and snarls out. There is NO WASTE! I sell it in my new DREAMFIBER shop on Etsy.

Please check items sold, as I only have one mohair listed right now, but I do take orders and have most natural colors of mohair.

http://www.dreamfiber.etsy.com

**Please leave your questions in the “YOUR RESPONSE” box after any post and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability or I will find out the answer for you! HAPPY FELTING!!

LET’S MAKE A SHEEP THAT CAN POSE! THIS ONE IS LAYING DOWN, FOR THE MOMENT.

This is a picture of a sheep made with my needle felted sheep kit. **Your sheep can be ALL WHITE or ALL BLACK if you like. It comes with wire, felting needles, golden glass eyes, core wool and curly wool.  It has 3 free bonus features with it. A bale of mini hay, sparkle wool for snow, and a cute shiny copper bell OR a rusty primitive bell on a raffia loop to hang from your sheeps neck. Please see more details in my Etsy shop. http://www.gfelted.etsy.com

STEP ONE: GATHER TOGETHER EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEED FOR YOUR PROJECT.

Get your foam/sponge and felting needles and whatever wool you are using. You need a coarse wool for the base in black or white. Also some tiny curly wool for the little curls on the sheep. I also have the sparkle wool for snow and the mini bale of hay with the bell on the base in this photo. You will also need a pair of wire cutters and some small pliers to make the armature.

** I use hard styrofoam to felt on.  I recycle the packing foam blocks when I get items in the mail in boxes.

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STEP TWO: CUT YOUR WIRE

CUT TWO PIECES OF WIRE THAT ARE 6 INCHES LONG. TWIST THEM TOGETHER IN THE CENTER

CUT ANOTHER PIECE THAT IS 5 1/2 INCHES LONG. MAKE A LOOP ON ONE END.

WRAP AROUND THE BODY LEAVING THE LOOP UP FOR A HEAD.

Bend the body in the shape of an animal. I curl all loose ends on the wire and feel for safety. That way, you don’t get poked by the sharp wire ends. This is especially important if you sell your sculptures. I use 20 gauge steel wire that is galvanized so it doesn’t rust.

** IT’S NOT A GOOD IDEA TO USE PIPE CLEANERS

AS THEY BREAK AFTER BEING BENT A FEW TIMES AND THEY ALSO RUST.

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STEP THREE: WRAPPING THE WIRE

**IF YOU HAVE NEVER FELTED BEFORE, YOU MAY WANT TO MAKE THE SNOW FIRST TO GET THE FEEL OF THE FELTING NEEDLE. Scroll down to the FELTING SNOW section and start there. You need a sponge or towel to work on that is thick enough that the needle doesn’t go through and hit the table under it…or your leg! OUCH!!

FELTING>Be sure that you use ALL of the barbs on your felting needle. Don’t use just the tip or you will only felt the outer layer of your sculpture and then it will collapse if it is squeezed. There are several barbs along more than 1/2 inch of the tip on the #36 coarse needle. Use the 1/2 inch tip to felt. Then your sculpture will be firmly felted and be more durable.

WOOL when felted ends up about 1/4 of the size that it starts as!!

Wrap your black OR white wool around the wire, section by section. I always start with the body.Don’t use too much. You will be adding layers of wool and felting it in between the layers.

TO PREVENT BREAKING NEEDLES: Be careful when you are poking around the wire. * IF YOUR NEEDLE GETS STUCK IN THE WIRE….STOP….THEN GENTLY WIGGLE SLIGHTLY TO WORK IT OUT WITHOUT BREAKING.The needles are breakable and can snap from hitting a hard surface. When inserting the needle, pull it out at the same angle as it went in. If you push sideways on the needle went it is in the wool or in the foam it can snap and break.

If you have my needle felting kit use the longer felting needle which is the #36 coarse. ALWAYS start every felting project with this needle. Finer detailing can be added with the #38 medium star needle which is also in my kit. ALWAYS BE AWARE OF THE TIP OF YOUR NEEDLE. IT IS EXTREMELY SHARP AND EASILY DRAWS BLOOD. We all get poked with it sometimes. OUCH!! Don’t give up. It will get easier after a while. Use thimbles if you like when you first start.

This core body would be white in an all white sheep. Usually I do the head next. You can tell how large to make the head after the body is made. If it’s the wrong size, remember that you’re working with wool, and you can just trim some off! Sometimes you just have to cut the head off and start over. Mistakes are fixable!!

MAKING MUZZLE> Roll up a little wool into a fat tube and fold in the middle. Felt all around the folded end to make a muzzle shape. Do not felt the other end as you need the loose fibers to be able to attach the muzzle on. After the muzzle is firmly felted, position it where it looks right and then felt it on using all the loose fibers all around the muzzle end. Jab through the muzzle also,  to be sure that it is in securely. Keep felting the base until you can’t pull it off. If the muzzle looks too long, just trim the end with scissors.

Then I do the legs.  ***Try to wrap the leg wire with the smallest amount of wool possible. If you put too much wool, you can spend an hour felting them in trying to get them thinner. Gently felt each area before you move on to the next. Put wool under body from the chest, between the front legs, over tummy and through the back legs.  Put some wool over the shoulders and blend in all of the areas. You will be adding a little more wool to the tummy area, than on the back. Be sure to firmly felt the body and head as it has to be tight enough to hold in the curly wool. It doesn’t have to be rock hard, but if you push your finger on the body, it should not make a dent. You need to felt all over the wool to make it firmer.

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STEP FOUR: ADD CURLS!!fun!!

Add one curl at a time. I felt it in lightly on the creases between the curls. You don’t want to flatten the curls.

Go all over the body little by little. It seems that felting one curl at a time would take a long time, but a curl covers a bigger area

than you would think. It’s really fun when you get going! Don’t felt too much of the curl or you will flatten it..

Here is the little body of the sheep with the curls mostly on. Now we need some ears.

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STEP FIVE:MAKING EARS

Roll up some black OR white wool into a tube shape that looks about the length of two ears…about 2inches. Felt one end, BUT NOT THE CENTER.

I hold down the felted end with a needle and felt the other end. Leave the center UNFELTED.

Cut it in the center and you have two ears! Use the loose UNFELTED end that was the center to felt to attach on to the head. Trim ears to shape if necessary before felting on. Fill in around the ears with the curly wool.

Add the eyes and a little curly wool for a tail.

ADDING THE EYES> The golden glass eyes are on a wire with an eye on each end. Cut the eye off of the end LEAVING about 1/3 of an inch of wire to insert in the head. I mark the eye location with straight pins that have a black ball on the end. Be sure that they are level and the same distance for the center of the face. Take the #36 coarse needle and make a hole where you want to inset the eye. Glue in. DO NOT USE INSTANT GLUE!! It can discolor the eyes and ruin the paint. Use a slow dying glue like white glue.

These are golden glass eyes from my needle felting sheep kit. Also Maggie is modeling her cute raffia collar with her little shiny copper bell. If you’d like, you could add a Y to the front of her muzzle to make a nose and then add an upside down V to make the mouth. It barely shows on the black wool.

This tutorial makes a cute little sheep that is about 3 inches tall at the top of the head, and 3 inches long. See the 5 cent

coin to see how little the bale of hay is. This sheep is just the right size to go with your needle felted dogs.

Here is Maggie the little sheep eating some hay.

And here is Maggie laying down. Because of the wire inside, her head , neck and legs all move.

SPARKLE WOOL FOR SNOW UNFELTED.

~BEGINNERS CAN START HERE TO PRACTICE FELTING FIRST~

FELTING SNOW: Roll up some of the sparkle wool and fold in the ends. Felt it together all over. Trim off the stray wool if desired or leave it for a halo affect. Make it into any shape. This is the sparkle wool after it is felted into little piles of snow.

Congratulations! You did it. You made your first sheep that is able to pose!

STEP SIX: TAKE A BOW!

HAPPY FELTING

If you would like to try my Needle Felted Sheep Kit the link is

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19841413

It really is a great value when you consider all the cute things that it comes with.

If you do purchase a kit please remember to tell me your color choice of wool and if you would like a shiny copper bell or rusty primitive bell. You can embellish your sheep and add your own touches.  Make a primitive sheep and use sticks for legs.

by GERRY

OK, LET’S START OUT THE NEW YEAR WITH A NEEDLE FELTING CONTEST!!

PRIZE:WOOL OF YOUR CHOICE and a CUSTOM MADE FELTING NEEDLE

Send me your entries. Anything can be entered that is needle felted. You can enter a 3-D sculpture, a wool painting, a felted applique, felted beads, whatever you can think of felting.

DON’T BE DISCOURAGED IF YOU ARE A BEGINNER!!!   IF I HAVE ENOUGH ENTRIES, I MAY HAVE A BEGINNER’S CATEGORY AND A MORE ADVANCED CATEGORY. ALL ENTRIES ARE IMPORTANT. BEGINNER ONES HELP OTHERS TO GET STARTED TOO!

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TO ENTER:EMAIL ME YOUR PHOTOS and a short DESCRIPTION TO:

gfelted@verizon.net

I will then post  your photos with your comment at the top of this page.

If you can, it would be great to send me pictures that are larger than 200 pixels.

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PRIZE is FREE WOOL of YOUR CHOICE!

I have some wool listed in my ETSY SHOP, but I can also make you a special custom combination of any wool/fiber that you may need for a project that you’d like to do. I have lots of wool that I don’t have listed for sale. Most are animal colors, but I do have bright colors if you need some of that as shown in the photo.

PRIZE ALSO INCLUDES: a CUSTOM MADE FELTING NEEDLE

This is the cutest needle great for doing fine details and smaller sculptures! The grip is so comfortable and gives your fingers a break with a different grasp than used with a regular needle. You’ll just love it!!

Check out the wool in my Etsy shop to pick your favorite and send me your entries.

http://www.gfelted.etsy.com

WHO WILL BE THE FIRST ENTRY OF THE NEW YEAR???

SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO:gfelted@verizon.net

I’LL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR LOVELY CREATIONS!!

This is a needlefelted snowboarder making a grab trick in the air. I´ve used pipe cleaners as armature, but the rest is needlefelted of swedish wool. I got he inspiration from a photo  found on Internet. I´m planning on making some more snowboarders making different tricks, and maybe make a mobile of them.

~THE THREE LITTLE BEARS~

Little Bears are miniature needle felted bears. These bears have jointed arms and legs and are fashioned after antique bears. I use various fibers for felting, however I have found that real dog and cat hair works wonders. 3 Little Bears were felted entirely from cat hair. I run a no-kill animal rescue and sanctuary, so I am never at a loss for felting material. I don’t mind the shedding.

The rescue is called Safe At Last, Inc.

http://www.safeatlast.org

It’s amazing what can be recycled!

LATTE –

A cream point Siamese Pritten (Pretty Kitten) with her mug of latte foaming over.

Latte was carefully sculpted out of lovely merino wool. Her coat was artfully blended in shades of cream, bisque, and latte colored wool. Shading done in taupe.

By Harlan

Greetings from Finland!

It was very nice to find your site! And I would like to participate on the needle felting contest !

This is a man sitting and enjoying the peace of nature (in the forest) with his best friend (the dog).

~MAN’S BEST FRIEND~

They have picked berries and now they are roasting sausage at the campfire, and there is no rush anywhere.

I love to mix several materials in to my felted products, as you can see at this work too

Best regards,

Sari

This is my first attempt at Needle Felting. It was so much fun. I  made separate arms and legs then attached them.

I added a pink scarf and hat with a little ball on the end. I used the same pink to make the little nose. I used glass beads

For its eyes.   Laurie

Baxter Bunny has been firmly needle felted over a wire armature for strength and gentle posing.

I have used a mixture of wools, a natural light brown Coopworth wool for the bunny and a green Corriedale wool for his felted jacket., and a curly mohair for his tail.   He measures 6 inches from the top of his head to the tip of his tail.
He has German glass eyes and his nose and mouth are needle felted.
His white whiskers are made using hairs from a horse tail and his ”lettuce leaf”  blanket was wet felted.

This is BlueBeary.  He is a firmly felted bear, made from a Corriedale core with colored Merino over the top.

His eyes are black glass, I believe they are German shoebutton eyes.  Once felted, I brushed and fluffed

his hair and legs. He is 4.5 inches high.

BlueBeary is my 2nd freestyle felted piece.

16 ” x 17″ wall hanging

I love Monet’s work, so I created the wall hanging by first wet felting the background then adding some prefelt to create the long vertical lines representing the reflections in the water and then needle felted the water lilies on top — lots of fun to create since

I used both wet and dry felting techniques…It looks much nicer in person.

Here is a mermaid I felted recently. She has no armature inside — unusual for me, and is 16 inches long! She has indigo trim with beaded fringe around her waist, shells for a bra, bubbly looking beads around her head. I used my daughter as a model for the mermaid’s pert nose.

I’d like to enter Penelope, the needle felted cat, into your current contest.

She’s about 9/5″ x 4″, including her base. She is felted over a wire armature

using Polworth first, and adding long hair/fur from a batt of blended wools including:

Merino, Silk, Tencel, Yearling Mohair, Super fine Alpaca, Bamboo, Angelina Shimmer

and Baby Angora. I was terrified to try the long hair; Penelope is my first.

BEGINNERS AND ADVANCED ITEMS WELCOME.

BECAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE IN FELTING EXPERIENCE,  I HAVE DECIDED TO HAVE A BEGINNERS DIVISION AND AN ADVANCED DIVISION.

THERE WILL BE A “BEST BEGINNER’S” ITEM CHOSEN AND A “BEST ADVANCED ITEM” CHOSEN ALSO. SO DON’T BE DISCOURAGED IF YOU ARE JUST STARTING OUT. YOU CAN STILL WIN!!   HAPPY FELTING!!

PLENTY OF TIME. CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 31. START YOUR FELTED ENTRY NOW

OOAK Needle felted Kitten Mulya-
By Olga Schlegel from Germany
I would like to introduce you to my small sweet
sleeping Kitten Mulya. 

She is designed and created by my own patterns
-One-Of-A-Kind-
Mulya was felted by hand out of Mohair wool .
Kitten is about 4” (10cm) with tail.  She is
scissor sculpted, brushed and painted.
Mulya has a crocheted basket and a beautiful
crocheted blanket .
My kitten also has armatured paws and tail.
 Four way thread jointed.

I did the rose on the clover brush felting matt and I use the clover multiple needle tool and crisscross the roving in a few tones of red, petal by petal around a wire flower stem and then began layering the petals and a similar process for the leaves.  I cover the stem and joined area with floral tape.

I used to white wool roving and did the basic shape of the Koi.  I then began needle felting a better grade of white roving on the fish’s body. Once I got the desired shape, I created the tail, fins and top glider fin.  I have a Koi pond and I have a Koi that looks just like the one I made.

My 1st fav is a depiction of Peter Rabbit. I had a wallpaper cutout image of Peter and decided I would try to felt the image. As with everything else I create..the one piece alone wasn’t enough and I had to add my whimsy to the piece. So, after the tiny Peter Rabbit was felted..(I think he stood about 2″ tall) I also needle felted a selection of very tiny vegetables and put them in a small blue wagon/cart I bought for $2…I felted Peter in a pose to where he is pulling the cart direct from Mr. MacGregor’s garden of course. Made entirely of wool roving with the exception of the metal cart.

“Winkin and Blinkin” are baby squirrels created by me on November 14th and 15th. Being brothers they have so much fun together as you can tell by the pictures. Games of chase are the best!!!!”

THERE’S STILL TIME TO ENTER!

ENTER ANYTHING THAT YOU’VE NEEDLE FELTED.

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SOMETHING NEW. IT CAN BE SOMETHING SOLD.

TO ENTER :

EMAIL YOUR PHOTOS

AND A SHORT DESCRIPTION TO

gfelted@verizon.net

In your description  you could include your materials used,

what inspired you to make it,

how long you’ve been needle felting

I’LL BE LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR ENTRIES!

HAPPY FELTING!

THIS IS CHUCKLES.  HE’S NOT IN THE CONTEST. HE’S HERE JUST TO SUPERVISE:)

These are some cupcakes I needlefelted for a swap. I mounted them on gingham and framed them.

I started my daughter who is 7 this Jan 26th, felting in September a part of her schooling in fibers.
I thought I should enter her. This is her first piece, she is quite proud and intends to enter it in the county fair in the fall.

Jocelyn (the proud mom)

Good morning, Gerry.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit my design.

My work is a needle felted “pod” or “nest” with needle felted (and wet-felt finish) balls inside. The pod itself measures 3 feet in height.

While I’ve worked as a designer for many years, when it comes to wool and felt I consider myself a beginner — working and playing with the material since just last year. But, I so enjoy it!

Thanks, again for making this contest available.

Best,

Kim

I just finished this piece. It was done along side Widgets piece to help her learn and to guide her.
This piece will be placed in our classroom at home in the Fall.
The wool was from my Aunts farm who we visited in the summer for sheering. We collected 10 fleeces. Widget and I cleaned, carded, and dyed all the colors with the end result is 7 fleeces after loss due  to mats, or other problems. As part of her class work in science and ecology we collected local fruit, vegetables and flowers along with vinegar and powered Alum we created beautiful colour and a piece of work I am proud of and Lirael (AKA Widget) tells everyone she took the sheeps coat to colour and to give mommy the wool to work with.
The finished piece is I yard by 3/4 yard.
The backing is bamboo fiber cloth and side bias strips is also bamboo cloth.
Jocelyn

Hi Gerry,

This guinea pig is my first attempt at needlefelting. It’s modeled on my old pet guinea pig, Cinnamon, and scaled down to fit into the palm of my hand. I used 4 colours of sheep’s wool roving.

It took me many hours to make my mini-pig. I really made up my technique as I was working, e.g. I didn’t find out that I should make a solid core shape and then felt patches of colour over the top until later – after finding your site, Gerry, I’ll know to do that for my next piece!

I needlefelted in tiny black wool patches for the eyes, and then sewed round black onyx beads over the top to give them that realistic glint. I also used two strands of embroidery floss to stitch on a tiny nose and mouth.

Thanks!

June

Hi, I am new to needle felting (I just turned 17 a few months ago), but I have found your blog very helpful, and have ordered wool from your store before. ^_^
This is my first felted creation, his name is “Alan” and he is a Siberian husky, if its not too late to enter your contest, could you please enter me? Thanks, have a great day.

-Melanie

Here is my submission for the needle felting contest.  I would definitely consider myself a beginner.  I took a needle felting class at Stitches East in Nov. and have made a few felted birds since then.  This was my third project, a pileated woodpecker ornament.  Until I came across your blog I didn’t know anything about using an armature, so except for his pipe cleaner feet, he is just a hunk of wool.  I also didn’t know about using polymer clay to make beaks, so his beak is felted too.  I sure wish I had found you sooner.  What a great resource!  I’m not sure what I will make next… now that I know about making a frame, maybe I’ll try a goat!

Thanks!

Carine

I’ve attached a few pictures of my contest entries – some needle felted dinosaurs. I’m brand new to needle felting. I’ve been felting for about a week, and these are the third, fourth and fifth creations that I’ve ever made. I was so excited when the stegosaurus’ plates tucked right in with the felting needle – it’s so addictive!

So far there’s a brontosaurus, a stegosaurus, and a woolly mammoth. I’m not sure what got me started with dinosaurs, but I’ve always loved them and I realized that a lot of people sculpt mystical creatures out of felt – gnomes, mermaids, faeries, etc. I think dinosaurs inspire a similar fascination.

Each dino is between 5-7″ from head to tail, made with wire armatures coated with undyed wool, then with colorful roving. The stegosaurus’ plates and the mammoth’s tusks are made from a sheet of cream colored felt.

Thank you for considering my entry and I look forward to learning more about needle felting!

Best Wishes,

Lesley

Hi!  I found your contest on Craft Gossip, Felting.  Hopefully you are getting many delightful entries.  The flexibility of felt is one of it’s main joys for me.

Here is my entry, Winter Elf.  He 16″ tall when standing.  Entirely needle felted from sheep’s wool, with wire armature.  I have no idea how many hours of poking.

Cheers!
Michelle

A wizard walking with his travelling companion, a snail, through a mushroom forest.  All on a wood base that is covered with moss and dried flowers.  The wizard carries a staff made of a twig with a crystal tip.  The whole thing is about 6 inches wide at the base and 8″ tall.  I used a vintage millinery flower stamen for the snail’s feelers, and the wizard has a leather thong belt with a little pewter dagger tucked into it.

Three Bags Full

Gerry…

Here is my Baa, Baa Black Sheep with 3 Bags Full of wool…made with the help of your wonderful tutorial & your curly black wool… The sheep is about 3 inches tall & the bags of wool are 1 1/4 inches.

It is amazing to see all the wonderful creations & the different forms of wool art out there….along with the wonderful tutorials & sharing of information & techniques…

Thank you…

Lynne

Hi- I have been needle felting for a couple months now and I am in love with it. I would like to enter your contest. This dragon is the third project I made, it is mohair on a Shetland wool base. The arms and legs are sewn on, teddy bear style, and are movable. I have learned that mohair, while beautifully soft and shiny, is really hard to felt tight.

I raise sheep and have always wanted to have something to do with the wool- I am not a spinner or a knitter but now I can felt! I have not used wool from my own sheep yet but I am really looking forward to it. Thanks for your informative and fun blog, it’s great to see other folks’ projects. A contest is a great way to get people to show off!

well the dragon is just titled “Fairy Dragon” it’s about 8″ tall needle felted wool over soft sculpt body with fimo gel wings (I made the wings too).  I’ve been felting for a little over 2 years now.  This dragon was a custom order piece.  I love dragons & fairies so the combination seamed like a perfect idea.  I love all things fantasy and whimsical Thanks again,

Nina