Needle Felting Festive Blog - Feltworld

Hello and welcome to my creative world.

In previous posts, I’ve written about wet felting techniques. Wet felting is where you use soap and water to felt 100% natural lambs wool fibres together to form a durable material, the tiny hooks that are on the individual  fibres link together due to the action of rubbing the wet fibres. This month I want to tell you about needle felting.

Needle felting, is classed as dry felting and doesn’t require water but a sharp needle with barbs /niks in the needle, these little niks with grab the fibres and bind them together to make felt like magic.

These needles come in a variety of sizes. There’s a thicker blunt end that you hold and a much finer end that you use to stab into the loose woollen  fibres. And make sure it is the fibres you are stab, not your fingers, ‘cos they are sharp! But this technique is fun and it never ceases to amaze me what you an make from just stabbing away at the fibres. 

As with wet felting, needle felting will allow you to make flat or 3D items. For flat pieces, the wool is placed on a piece of foam or polystyrene that will let the needle penetrate the wool easily . Further strands of wool are added and joined to this base later using the same technique. Pretty soon you will have either a 3 dimensional animal or  flat picture that can be framed and hung on a wall. 

To get started with 3D pieces, you first make a ball of felting wool and gently stab the needle into it until it becomes a compact mass that holds together on its own.  Once you have this basic ball, you can add to it and begin to give it shape. 

In the pictures, you’ll see how I’ve formed the felted wool into the shape of a rabbit.  Little animals lend themselves to this kind of needle felt sculpture, and you can make small birds or other furry animals. Once you are proficient at needle felting, you can even include wire formers inside the arms of an animal to allow limited movement. 

If you would like to learn how to do needle felting, I offer half and one-day courses. All the materials and refreshments are supplied.  The full-day session also includes a light lunch. 

Why not come along and see how it’s done – or perhaps give a Feltworld gift voucher to someone you love.

Details of all my courses and gift vouchers can be found on my web site:

www.feltworld.co.uk

Feltworld – Creative Art Courses; felt making and other creative skills Feltworld – Creative Art Courses offer a variety of fun creative courses covering wet-felting, needle felting, batik, and textile printing techniques. Based in Penkridge we are easily accessible from the M6 and the Rail network. www.feltworld.co.uk

Have a very Merry Christmas however you spend it.

Barbara 

Winter Woollies – with a difference in the Midlands UK – Please click on previous Blogs

Winter Woollies - with a difference in the Midlands UK

Winter Woollies – with a difference in the Midlands UK

The clocks have gone back, any hope of an Indian summer has faded, and winter woollies are making their annual appearance. But while the weather may be drab, there’s no reason to dress in a boring way.

 

In fact, you can dress warmly and still turn heads with a unique scarf that you’ve made yourself at a Feltworld Creative Art Course.

Feltworld offers scarf making courses several times each year, with a number of them over the winter period. Why not come along and see for yourself the beautiful designs that are possible with felted wool.

You have two options. There’s the traditional warm woolly scarf that’s ideal for keeping out the cold on long winter walks. There’s also the beautiful Nuno felted scarf which allows you to create really stunning and unusual designs. You can even decide what sort to make on the day if you aren’t quite sure which one you prefer.

The word ‘Nuno’ is Japanese for cloth. It is a wet felting technique that merges loose woollen fibres with a sheer fabric such as silk gauze. When felted the wool shrinks during the felting process it leaves a beautifully subtle texture on the silk, unlike any other technique.  This texture and drape lends itself to the beautiful movement required in a scarf. While the warm woolly scarf does not require a base layer, it still allows for beautiful designs using different coloured woollen fibres.

You can make either one of these scarves in a day with expert tuition from Barbara at Feltworld Creative Art Courses.

Why not take a look at the course page on the https://feltworld.co.uk/courses page

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Gift vouchers are available £30 -£65 or £130 if you are looking for a unique and practical Christmas gift.

Details on the website- Up and coming dates: 9th December -16th December and more…

For details visit https://www.feltworld.co.uk/felt-scarf-making

Special offers at Hobby Craft Stafford -£25 Classes

Christmas Needle Felting at Stafford HobbyCraft -Taster classes – Animals and Picture  https://www.feltworld.co.uk/hobbycraft-courses

Funky Felted Footstool - Made in a Day

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Make an upholstered footstool in a day

Felted wool lends itself to all sorts of uses, an upholstered footstool for example.

Did you know you can make upholstered footstools out of felt?

OK, so not entirely out of felt – there’s a wooden frame and some foam upholstery padding as well (which I supply on my courses) – but the star of the show is the piece of feltwork that you create in my class.

Felting dates back many years and relies on the natural property of wool to bing with itself when worked in a special way. The resulting cloth is very durable.

Courses are now available

Feltworld Creative Art courses are an ideal way to learn a new skill. You can arrive knowing nothing about felting. At the end of the day take home something that is beautiful as well as useful around the home!

If you’d like to see more examples and book a place for yourself or a friend then click here or on the photo to go to the Footstool Courses page.

A footstool made by Barbara at Feltworld Creative Art