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!

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!

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/

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!