Needle felting is an amazing and unique craft that has become quite popular among many individuals. You can make cute fuzzy animals and other adorable felted designs with this craft. The designs come out pretty creative and look very pleasing.
But it can get a little tricky if you’re just trying it out for the first time. To make your troubles go away, we’ve come up with a simple yet effective tutorial on how to do needle felting. With only some basic tools, you can easily master the art of needle felting in no time.
What Is Needle Felting?
The craft of creating three-dimensional designs from wool using a needle is called needle felting. It is a very popular and fun craft method admired by everyone.
Since wool is a pretty thick material, you can create many solid designs through needle felting. The needle felting process causes the wool fibers to bond tightly. Through a barbed needle, you can create very unique solid objects.
Though many people think of needle felting as something like sewing, it’s actually a process similar to sculpting. Here, you do the sculpting with wool and build shapes. It is a very relaxing activity that can increase your focus and concentration.
Needle felting involves very easy steps. You can work with fun wool colors to create something very adorable. With this process, you can make wool toys, miniature animals, accessories, and little decorative objects.
How to Do Needle Felting
What You Need
To begin this cool process, you need to gather all the necessary tools. Since it is a simple process, you only need a few things to get started.
Wool
Of course, you can’t begin needle felting without wool. Wool comes in different forms. You can use some of them for needle felting. But the most important variation of wool that works for needle felting is roving.
Short and coarse wool fiber can make the felting look much more well-defined compared to longer and rougher ones. You can also use the batting form of wool to do needle felting, it will give you quite similar results. It all depends on your preference.
Felting Needle
Since this is not similar to sewing, a sewing or tapestry needle will not give you the results you’re looking for. To bond the wool fibers well, a sharp needle with barbed blades will give the perfect definition to felting.
These barbs hold the wool fibers when the needle is inserted. They do a pretty good job of forming a close bond with the remaining fibers.
Felting needles are made of carbon steel material. They differ in terms of texture, such as coarse and fine. To initiate the process, you can use coarse needles to create the bonds. Later, you can use the finer needles to wrap things up, like smoothening the ends out.
Felting Pads
Felting pads are very important when you’re needle felting to prevent any kind of poking of needles to your fingers or hand. These pads are usually very thick. They provide a great surface area to carry out the felting safely.
Now that you have what you need, it’s time to get started on the basics of needle felting. Of course, there will be variations on how to felt an object depending on its design.
But to start things slowly, you can learn how to felt a small ball first. Make sure the ball’s size is around three inches so that it looks decent.
Prepare Your Wool
To start felting a ball, take the kind of wool you’ve chosen (roving/batting/other) and tear a small portion.
Since it’s very soft, it will come off on its own. Tear at least half an inch thicker than the shape you’ve decided to accommodate additional space for adjustments.
Roll the Wool into a Ball
Start by rolling the wool piece into a ball. Tuck the ends in to get a better outline.
Poke the Ball
Place the wool ball on the felting pad to stay secure. With the felting needle, begin poking the ball in an upward and downward motion to accommodate easy entry and exit of the needle.
Do this step cautiously, as going very fast may prick your fingers.
Continue Accordingly
Keep poking the ball with the needle until a tightly knitted bond is formed with the fibers, and the ball has reduced a little. The felt ball is ready.
You can also try different shapes once you’ve mastered felting a ball. For that, you can outline your desired shape with the needle in the torn piece of wool. Then, poke up and down along the shape till the fibers are compressed into a bond.
When the desired shape has come into sight, fold the remaining wool into the center and poke with the needle till a rounded edge has formed. It will give your shape a defined look. The end result will be very attractive.
Of course, you won’t be able to master the art of felting different shapes overnight. Practice is the key here. With time, you’ll discover that the process is very creative. You’ll end up coming up with your own unique ideas!
Conclusion
To wrap up the discussion, needle felting is a relaxing and fun activity to do, especially if you’re up for learning new crafts. It’s super easy and takes little time to learn. The end results are pretty great.
So, if you’re looking for easy steps on how to do needle felting, our simple discussion might be helpful to you.