Book Recommendations for Needle Felting

Since I've been exploring needle-felting lately, I thought it might be nice to share some suggestions for books to help others get started or to explore their own felted work further.

Let's begin with a comprehensive guide...

The Complete Photo Guide to Felting

The Complete Photo Guide to Felting by Ruth Lane is a excellent place to start.  It's also a great reference book to add to an experienced felter's collection.  This book is broken into five main sections; All About Wool and Other Fibers, Preparing to Felt, Traditional Wet Felting, Nuno or Laminate Felting, Needle Felting.  It's also fully illustrated with both step-by-step instructions and a gallery of work by skilled felt artists.  You can get a peek inside the book by checking it out on Amazon.

Now, if you'd like to try 3D felting the next two books are worth a peek.

Woolbuddies

Woolbuddies by Jackie Huang is great if you are getting started with 3D characters.  This book contains 20 projects with step-by-step photos.  It has three categories of whimsical characters; Simple Woolbuddies, Moderate Woolbuddies and Challenging Woolbuddies.  You'll learn how to make everything from an owl to an elephant to an octopus!

Little Needle-Felt Animals

If you've checked out Woolbuddies and want to expand on your cast of cute characters, then Little Needle-Felt Animals by Gretel Parker is the book to go to.   Inside, you'll find 30 fully-illustrated projects ranging from a moon-gazing hare to a series of fish to a frog princess complete with lily-pad. The shapes of the animals in this book are a bit more complex than in Woolbuddies and will help you build upon your skills.

Art in Felt & Stitch

Now if 3D felting isn't your thing or you'd like to try 2D felting then Art in Felt & Stitch by Moy Mackay is the book you're looking for. 2D felting is a lot like painting with wool.  In this book, Moy Mackay provides both inspiration and technical information with this beautifully photographed book.  Some of the many topics covered include materials & equipment, color, texture, composition and techniques.  This is one of my favorite felting books for 2D felting and I highly recommend it if you are looking to explore this style further.

AJE Contributor, Jenny Davies-Reazor is also a fan of this book and had this to say about it:

"This book I purchased a year or so ago - I believe Lesley introduced me to this Scottish artist? Stunning. Mind blowing. Gorgeous work - tapestry style... and by that I mean "paintings" in fiber. This book is a treat for the eyes, and very inspirational. While my fiber paintings are no where near Moy's in any fashion - this is how I like to use felt - as painting. And then of course I want to bead it too!"

Felt to Stitch

Jenny had another book recommendation to make with Felt to Stitch by Sheila Smith.  Per Jenny:

"This was the first felting book I ever purchased and It has held me in good stead. I wanted to learn to wet felt - both "canvas/paintings" and shaped pieces. The diagrams and directions are clear and informative. In fact - that section of the book is waterlogged from having open while felting! The book goes into Shibori and nuno and other more complex forms I haven't experimented with... yet. But see? One book and every time I dive in there is so much more to learn."

In addition to the many books on the market, you can find some fantastic felting videos online. Here's a few places I recommend:

Sarafina Fiber Art (A great company to buy your felting supplies from. Click here for the shop.)

Living Felt Felting Supplies (Also has an online shop for supplies and kits).

Felted Sky Studio (Has an Etsy shop with kits available.)

If you use or have used any of these books or sites I'd love to hear your feedback on them in the comments section below.  

Happy Felting! 

Finger Lakes Fiber Festival

On September 17th, I took a trip to the Hemlock Fairgrounds for the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival.  I'd never been to a fiber festival so I wasn't entirely sure what I'd find there...but I was hoping to come home with some gorgeous wool roving for my needle-felting projects.

Scenes From The Festival

I was pleasantly surprised to find two barns and a tent full of vendors, some cute animals, demos and lots of gorgeous scenery.

There was a beautiful display in one of the barns of the entrants to the 2016 Skein & Fiber Arts Competition.

Skein & Fiber Arts Competition

And there was a lot of yarn, wool roving, tools, clothing, handcrafted toiletries and more for sale...

Beautiful Things For Sale

Roving, Locks and Wheels

In the Fiber Tent, I got to meet Ann of Nyala Farm.  Ann makes wonderful needle-felted pieces.  I LOVED the Medusa sculpture! 

Nyala Farm

Fleece competition and where fleece comes from...

Fleece Competition 

And here's what I came home with.  Some pretty bits for needle-felting, multi-needle holders, a cute felted hummigbird (it's a gift), and a fiber fest pin (I collect pins).

I have no idea what I'll make with any of it, but discovery is half the fun!

Happy Felting!

Exploring Needle-Felting

I've been a bit stressed out and needed something to do other than beading.  I figured giving needle-felting another go was a great idea because of all the stabbing I'd get to do, lol! I decided to finally open the Zombie Fuzz Butt kit I purchased from Purple Moose Felting!

The Kit

This kit is fantastic as it comes with everything you need to make your own mini horde (3) of needle-felted zombies!

Inside the Kit

Lots of wool roving, tips and there's also full color instructions.  Please note, the needle holders were an extra purchase.  You'll receive one needle with your kit.  I do recommend buying the holders too as they make the process more comfortable for your hand.

Forming the Zombie Body

The first hour of this project was spent just making the base of the body.  Lots and lots of stabbing (I was starting to relax) and turning the project over and more stabbing.  I watched Criminal Minds during this stage...seemed appropriate.

It's really quite neat watching this wad of fluff turn into a firm shape just by stabbing at it with a special needle. 

Once the body is complete you attach the head.  The real fun starts once his head is firmly in place.  The instructions show you step-by-step how to give him bulging eyes!  They also provide you with step-by-steps for facial features and lots of suggestions for little tweaks to make him uniquely yours.

The Details

I found his mouth to be the most difficult part since I chose to go with teeth.  I need a lot more practice before I'm any good at small details like that.  

Ready To Eat Your Brains

I do love him though...even if he keeps trying to eat my brains.

After I finished my new zombie friend, I wanted to give 2D felting a try.

Buzz Buzz

I purchased a couple of tile kits from FiberThyme's Etsy shop.  These are reasonably priced kits that include general instructions (no step-by-step photos), wool roving and the felt with the sketch already drawn on it. 

Building My Hive

I really enjoyed this process...more than the 3D felting!  Since the sketch was already on the felt, it was kind of like color-by-number felting.  Again though, I had some trouble with the fine details but I guess that just improves with practice.

Got Honey?

I didn't add the second bee since I was happy with the tile with just one..and truth be told, I didn't want to end up adding another massive bee to the piece.

I'm officially hooked on needle-felting!  I still have more kits to play with and I spent Saturday at a fiber festival in the Finger Lakes (check back Thursday for a post)!  I'm also going to join the local weaver's guild in Rochester and have signed up to take a scarf felting class this winter.  

If you haven't tried needle-felting, you should give it a whirl!  

Happy Beading...errrr felting!

Take a Walk on the Wet Side...

Take a walk on the wet side - wet felting that is... 

A month or so ago now... I know - its been that kind of summer - I decided to take a Sunday "off". My husband was at the beach and I stayed home, house to myself, heaven. What do I do with my time off? Make art of course! 

Joke's on me actually. I am a full time artist and part time art teacher, so while it WAS time off from production, custom work, replenishing inventory... it was still art/job/doing what I love. 

I took over the kitchen and made a mess:

Dive in, such rich colors... 

Sorry for the yellow kitchen lighting... first piece ready to begin! 

I had a plan to wet felt some ocean themed landscapes. The image above is the first one laid out. I "thought" it would shrink by a third... But I was using some lovely ivory batting from Sarafina Fiber Arts as my base 'canvas' for the first time and wanted to test it out. The landscape is built up with loose wispy layers of brightly dyed wool roving, and a few "curly locks". Here are the results of the first piece:

Can you see it? Beach, waves, ocean!

So it felted together wonderfully! The process involves soap, water, bubble wrap and much repetitive rolling of the piece on the counter. Roll it like 100 times, turn 1/4 turn, roll it 100 times... I used Sarafina's You Tube videos as my basic instruction manual. 

 

I love the way the colors blend as the fibers lock together. I am visually drawn to the curly locks simulating breakers in the waves; they need a little needle felting to secure them fully, but I like the accent of texture. And the shrinkage? Ummm. nope. The batting felted my top coat colors and did not shrink much at all. Hmm. This piece is rather large at  app. 12". Lets do another... 

Trying to go smaller: 2 before and after comparisons. 

My supply of wool  plays to my preferred palette, so I had a variety of teal and turquoise and not much for a light sky. I lone the purple stormy sky and the teal water together though. The second pictured here is a bit more abstracted, and I am pleased with that too. I WAS playing after all - experimenting with the materials, and not having any hard set expectations. The process is actually good for me - its nice to have some control at the start and then leave it up to the process and be pleasantly surprised at the end. 

Working most all of the day, I made 10 tapestries. The largest 12 x 12" and the smallest 4" square. My plan is to embellish them in some way, using beads and found treasures from the beach. I can't walk on the beach and slip at least a shell or 3 in my pocket... 

I imagine the long shell beaded on with 2 'ropes' of small seed beads... 

That saturated color thrills my eyes. 

Over the course of the afternoon I was able to size the pieces much better! I have some shadowbox frames I will use for the smallest pieces and fashion hangers/dowel rods of some sort for the larger pieces. I am not in a hurry - I did many and have time to play and experiment!

These 2 are the smallest at 4" - but they will fit into frames I have once they are completed. 

At the end of the day I threw a few more colors into the mix, breaking away from the landscape format... This was not planned, but after the felt dried, I saw the kelp... the polymer mermaid was made for my monthly goddess seed bead project, but was a little too large. I think she will settle comfortably here, don't you?

a few deep sea palettes? 

I'm sorry that they aren't finished yet for today's post - I have been teaching clay camp since mid June - and very much look forward to getting back to my work in the studio next week! Great kids, great times, great energy... but I have Bead Fest to prepare for.. 

Until then - I hope you get your toes in the sand!