Wet felt is great fun, but messy and hard on the hands. Last year I almost rubbed the palms of my hands away while making Oliver's felt boots for re-enactment. It is good for constructing seamless garments, like waistcoats as well as bags and boots.
Needle felting adds a whole new dimension - quite literally. I knew the principle but had never seen it in practice. Being a very hands-on and visual person, what I needed was a demonstration. So when I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate last October I was pleased to find two stands dedicated to needle felting. The demo showed it to be even easier than I first thought.
I was so captivated that once I was back from the show I made my first teddy out of scraps of fleece. An instant hit and a good present for mum even though he was quite crude he was my first and I had great fun making him.
Since then I have made a Sky-gazing Hare, a unicorn horn and my latest a bearded man.
He has a loop on the back so that he can be hung. He would look quite good hanging on a tree, making a tree spirit or Green Man - actually he looks quite scary in this picture
This is a sample swatch I made to try out a raised dedisgn. The spiral is built up in several thin layers to create a ridge on top of which I stabbed red fibres to define the spiral - this could look good on a bag or pocket
Next I'd like to make a faerie, a sneaky twisted one like Froud draws or Spiderwick
1 comment:
Hi Kellie,
I like the needle felting you've done. I've never tried it, only the regular shrink in the wash kind of felting. I make mittens and love how they turn out. But this might be something worth checking out.
By the way, I sent you an email so don't forget to check!
Your SP8 Pal
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