Needle felting can be an easy and relaxing way to make tiny treasures to share as gifts with folks of all ages. Needle felting involves working with dyed wool and special needles to create malleable, soft sculptures that can be used as adornments, garments, home decorations, toys or pieces of art. There are so many ways to work with felt from wet felting to roving, but needle felting is a great beginner’s intro to the medium.
I love making tiny foods, small toys and dolls through the process of needle felting. With a small investment of about $15-$20 for a tool and material set you can get started with this hobby to create thoughtful, handmade gifts for yourself or others! Needle felting is also a great way to recycle existing materials. You can use old pillow or plush batting to create your forms. You can also experiment with non-dyed wool to explore creating your own unique colors for your project.
For beginners, cookie cutters are great tools to create base shapes for your work. Check us out on @clpvideo on YouTube where we will show you how to create needle felted objects using cookie cutters, wool and a needle.
Needle felting is one of my favorite ways to create because you can easily combine other fiber art elements like embroidery, beading, applique and hand sewing cute clothes and accessories for your creations. The art form is beyond creating beautiful trinkets and is an expressive medium. You can add felted elements to mixed media designs or work with felt in new ways to applique items like quilts. You can even add your own handmade felt pom poms. Working with felt mimics a lot of natural forms so it is a great way to sculpt all sorts of flora and fauna in realistic results.
With your CLP library card you can access Creativebug tutorials to level up your needle felting skills. Try these out:
Intro To Needle Felting
Felted Bracelets
Sew a Hand Warmer
Also check out the books below for help getting started on your fiber arts journey. From tiny dolls to massive multimedia works, these felting resources can take you in so many directions! Once you get the basics down you can decide where your creativity will take you.
