My sister-in-law gave me a needle-felting kit for Christmas, containing all the necessary ingredients to make a needle-felted hare - some wool roving, a felting needle, a foam pad and some fairly rudimentary instructions. The kit sat in a 'projects to try' pile on my desk for a couple of months, until I happened upon some pictures of "felted pebbles" on Pinterest and then searched for some instructional videos on YouTube.
Turns out that if you wrap a small pebble in some wool roving (perhaps stolen from a needle-felted hare kit you happen to have lying around) and add warm soapy water and some gentle friction, you end up with a completely impractical but wonderfully tactile "pebble in a shrunken woolly jumper" object that feels lovely sitting in the palm of your hand.
Once it is dry you can embellish it with embroidery, beading, whatever takes your fancy - it's basically a 3D felty blank canvas for needle-doodling on. Very easy, and So. Much. Fun.
You just have to be prepared for your long-suffering nearest and dearest to look at you with an expression of utter confusion when you show them what you've been doing all afternoon. When they say "It's very nice - but why?", simply smile inscrutably and quote the immortal words of George Herbert Leigh Mallory - "Because it's there".
Then disappear back into your work space, and emerge (like a magician) 24 hours later holding a needle-felted hare! Needle-felting is just as much fun as wet-felting - surprisingly quick and easy* to do.
*As long as you're prepared for the inevitable "ouchy" moments when your inexperience and over-enthusiatic felting technique leads you to stab yourself repeatedly in the finger with a very, very sharp needle...
Just popped over to thank you for the lovely comment over at mine, when I started recycling the tube box I hadn't realised how much interest it would create. Now I have to say I love your hare. I believe this is probably the same kit that I have and I agree those needles are very sharp but it is very relaxing to work on and they look so cute when complete. I think my one ended up with rather large ears but gives him a bit of character I guess. Loving your pebble too. Have a lovely creative week, Angela xXx
ReplyDeleteThank you for your visit, Amelia - sorry you're not in WOYWW this week, but my goodness I'm glad I've visited because your needle-felting and felted pebble activities are great - right up my street! I've done both sorts of felting - very different crafts in their approach, and both with fabulous results. I can identify fully with the OUCH moments - those barbed needles are lethal! It's so easy to get carried away with the stabbing, particularly with small pieces, and end up felting yourself. Not good. You can add some instant red colour to your piece that way, though. If you carry on with the needle felting, it might be worth investing in a brush-like base to do it on. I started with the foam block and it began to disintegrate after a while. I've also got a tool for raking out the brush which is very useful. Do you remember the fun striped scarf I made, with all the felt and crochet embellishments on it? I did a combination of wet and needle felting, and made a lot of felt balls which were fun to embroider. Felt is fabulous - so malleable and versatile - you can make anything out of it!! I look forward to see what else you do.
ReplyDeleteI can also identify with the mystified look on the DH's face... I've had so many from mine! Especially when I prefer photographing weird stuff like rusty metal and crates of old decayed rope at the seaside rather than pretty views and family snaps! When we were in Romania I took loads of photos of pylons, and window catches and interesting floors, and he thought I was crazy! He does like my paintings, though.
I'm glad you enjoyed reading about my experiments and progress with the knot designs. I am so happy that I didn't ditch the one I disliked, because you are the third person who really liked that one! Reading your comment about it, I went back and looked at it again and yes, I can see what you mean, and it's actually started to grow on me a bit! You are right - the last one did really come about because of the one I didn't like; I had some splatters of orange Distress Oxide that I made by flipping the tube from the spray bottle, and adding highlights and shadows certainly makes them look like 3-D droplets. By leaving just these to obscure the knot made a lot more sense of the design, I thought. I love how these things are a learning curve and each seeming failure is actually a step to success. That's why I think it is important to include the failures. Sharing these journeys with our WOYWW friends is so beneficial! Thank you for your input.
Happy belated WOYWW,
Shoshi #12
I have a bit of a thing for hares, and I just LOVE this one.
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