Monkey Business!

 I bought two shadow boxes so used the second one to make this sweet monkey. It was easier than the giraffe because the needle felt doesn’t really extend beyond the box. 

My First Shadowbox Animal

Finished! This is the largest needle felt I’ve ever attempted and the first shadowbox. It was also a lot of fun to try. 

Trying something new

I have seen some needle felters are using shadow boxes to display their animals so I thought I’d give it a try. This shadow box has an 8x11”opening- maybe I should have started with something a bit smaller? Oh well..nothing ventured nothing gained. 

It’s going to be a giraffe. I don’t know if it will be a success or a gigantic failure. I’ll keep you posted.

March of the Penquins

A Pair of Dolphins

Originally I was thinking about making whales with this little stand but in the end switched to dolphins. The stand is made from a small wooden plaque that my son drilled 2 holes in so I could put in the dowels. Once painted black the finishing touch was adhering an actual shell from our beautiful New Hampshire beach. Perfect fit!

How to Needle Felt a Figure

Over the years in this blog I have shown how I make a fabric figure and how I make a bottle doll but not how I needle felt so I thought it was time to remedy that. Yesterday I made the harbor seal shown above; I plan on making his partner today and then offering them as a pair. This picture shows all the material I used when creating him.  Should you like to try your hand at it you will need the following:

1.Piece of foam (mine is green) to prevent stabbing your fingers with needle..or maybe I should say to limit number of times you stab yourself with the needle. 

2. Felting needles..there are different sizes..some for core felting and some for finishing work

3. Wool roving- for this seal I used white, grey, brown and black. Usually I make my figures with white core wool roving then layer on the color at the end.

4. Pair of eyes, nose- sometimes I make the eyes/noses out of wool but since for this figure I am inserting plastic eyes/nose I have included them. You will also need white glue which I forgot to include in photo.

5. Pipe cleaners- I use Dill brand. They work perfectly for my fabric figure fingers as well as for needle felting. This seal’s body supports itself so pipe cleaners for neck and fin support is all that is needed. If I was making a figure that actually stood on legs I would use wrapped wire instead for strength.

6. And finally I use both dark and light horse hair for the whiskers in any figure that requires them. It easily threads using a beading needle and holds in place with a tiny bit of glue.

And that’s it for supplies. The next step is to research the actual animal you wish to create. I will bring up a multitude of pictures on my tablet, choose the pose I want to replicate and keep that image close as  reference when needle felting.  Now all you need is time and patience!

Time to add the nose.

And here they are..two adorable harbor seals

Marine Animals

Walrus

Humpback Whale

Hermit Crab 

Sea Turtle

Blue Octopus

Stingray 

I let this blog go a few years ago but decided to restart it today. I found I like looking back at a record of my figures. Currently I have been needle felting sea animals. I live at the coast so I guess it is natural for me to be attracted them them.