Felting Friends Blog
This cute little Samoyed dog family was needle felted by Marianne Oberbillig in Wisconsin! This isn’t her first Samoyed, she loves to felt them! She shared that she loves to use New Zealand Corriedale White, especially for all her little doggies!
Thank you for sharing your always sweet creations!
Hannah Stiles lives in Maine and has been needle felting for approximately 5 years; for the last two she has been doing well selling her wonderful creations and custom orders on Etsy. Hannah first learned to needle felt due to her part time job for a fiber company, her very first project was a little gray donkey ornament that she made as a Christmas party gift.
“I instantly loved felting and felt like I had always been doing it.”
Hannah now has 3 sheep of her own which she shears each spring.
She washes and dyes the wool and uses it to create her gorgeous needle felted animals.
“My favorite part about felting is the huge array of possibilities it offers. You truly can make anything you dream up. I’ve always enjoyed sculpture and wood carving but was frustrated by the unforgiving nature of the materials. With needle felting I can create a sculpture but have perfect freedom to mess up, add wool, or pull it off. I have never had to abandon a project because it was unredeemable. Every felt is a good felt!”
As you can see from her creations, Hannah’s inspiration comes primarily from nature and living beings. She credits her immediate surroundings including her pets of yesterday and today, the animals on her small farm, and animals she encounters in her local forest and fields.
“As a little girl my bedroom was overflowing with stuffed animals. I loved biology and anatomy in school and always looked forward to the next field trip to the farm, zoo or science museum. I get so much enjoyment from felting animals because it brings back the feeling I had as a child, when the world was simple and animals could talk.”
Hannah says her most challenging projects are the portraits she is commissioned to do of people’s pets. “I usually feel some suspense before I get to see the pictures they send me. Obviously the pressure to make a little wooly dog look like the real one can be tough, but the extra challenge makes it all the more satisfying when it’s completed!”
Hannah loves to create and work with her hands. She has been drawing “since she can remember” enjoys taking out her sketchbook for the occasional doodle. She has tried her hand and oil painting and watercolors, and shared with us that she even worked as a carpenter for a few years – which seems surprising given she is still in her mid-twenties!
“…I still get a lot of enjoyment from the odd home improvement project.
Whatever the medium, I’m never happier than when I am creating something with my hands!”
For anyone looking for tips or insights on getting started with felting, Hannah suggests:
“… simply jump in and try it! You don’t need a lot of stuff to begin – just a felting needle and some wool. Sign up for a local class or search the web for tutorials and inspiring work by other felters. Wool is so pleasant and satisfying to work with – put on some of your favorite music, get comfy and get carried away with the joy of needle felting!”
Good advice, indeed.
See more of Hannah’s inspired works:
www.facebook.com/Ainigmati
Michelle Houston sent us these photos of her incredible eagle.
“This is a Bald Eagle I made for a good friend’s birthday. I used a wire armature and made individual feathers for the wings and chest. The head was also made with tiny feathers I created to get the look I wanted. I used white and dark brown merino cross batt and bits of yellow and a lighter brown with a little black for eyes.”
This is Denise Casey’s second attempt at needle felting!
She tells us, “This Orca looks more whimsical in the photos but he is realistic with small details that are often missed or left out. Many hours were spent to make sure he was smooth all over.”
He has a grey German glass eye and is made with Living Felt core wool and black, white and grey wool batt.
Denise lives in Chino, California.
Danielle Dubois has a gift for crafting simple, yet comically adorable little beings. Her collection of animals is perfect for our barnyard/farm/Americana focus this week, and we are especially enamored with them because they lovingly call us back to our youth of playing with Weebles.
Two years ago Danielle was working as a illustrator/graphic designer (for children’s clothing) and was looking for inspiration on the web. A coworker sent her a picture of a cute little needle felted mouse, and it was love at first site.
“I didn’t know what it was made of and when I found out that it was needle felted, I did some research on the subject. I found a little video on Youtube on how to do the basic shapes and some videos on the living felt web site. That is how I have learned to needle felt. I bought some materials from Living Felt and began experimenting. I have pretty much invented my own techniques because there is almost nothing on the subject here in Quebec (Canada).”
What she likes the most about needle felting is the way that the wool reacts.
“It kind of has a mind of its own. You can decide to make a certain character, but sometimes the wool reacts a certain way, and it never comes out the way you have planned. I love that. I also love to needle felt my pieces until they are very smooth to the touch. I just love to feel the wool on my fingers.”
Danielle loves to give life to all the characters she has in her head.
“I am a illustrator, and before I learned to needle felt, I use to draw little characters on paper, but now, I can make them out of wool. That is so cool.”
Danielle is an Illustrator/Graphic designer, and she loves to create illustrations and designs in Adobe Illustrator.
“But to be honest, I kind of replaced illustration with needle felting. It is now my number one passion. I also love to knit.”
A percentage of her sales are used to buy wool to knit neck warmers for the homeless youth of Montreal. Why?
“Because this world needs a little bit more kindness. I am always looking for volunteer knitters to help me, so don’t be shy to spread the word.”
Danielle offers this bit of encouragement. “Practice, practice and practice and when you think you have practiced enough, practice again, but mostly, don’t try to be perfect, be indulgent with yourself. The first pieces are going to be funny looking, but after a while, you are going to see a huge difference in your work.”
Visit Danielle Dubois at www.doudoulab.com
Liza Hamilton is a professional felting artist living in Manchester, New Hampshire, and she creates gorgeous 2D and 3D works of art that are as inspiring as they are varied. Liza was introduced to felt making in 2007, by Beth and Larry Beede, while she was a sophomore in the Illustration Department at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Beth had a show there, and Liza was amazed by her huge, seamless, colorful, and whimsical works.
The Beedes offered a two-day workshop on wet felting, so Liza attended and fell in love with wool. Beth’s message was, “anything you can imagine, you can create with wool.“
Liza began to needle felt, and her teachers at NHIA allowed her to create “felted illustrations.” She created a felted mural in a mural class and a relief human sculpture for a figure drawing class. For her senior show, she created a number of large, interactive felted sculptures and murals that could be arranged, interacted with, or designed into a personal composition. Photos of the sculptures were on display, too, in order to fit with the Illustration Department.
Since graduation, Liza has turned felting into a full-time career. She participates in local craft fairs, and she teaches wet felting and needle felting workshops at the Currier Museum in Manchester. She also stays busy filling custom orders at her online Etsy store.
Liza says, “As wool is a natural animal fiber, it makes perfect sense to create naturally influenced, furry animals and scenes.“
Her custom pet portraits, big cats, giraffes, and carousel animals have been the favorites. She’s currently working on a collection of large size dinosaurs.
Recently, Liza has been creating wet felted and needle felted murals, or “fiber paintings.” The felting needle allows her to “draw” with thin strips of wool, and then fill in color very similarly to how one would lay down paint on a canvas to fill broad areas.
Her next felting project is to create relief murals with sculpted plants and animals that come out of the 2D plane.She also hopes to create outdoor sculptures and illustrations. The idea is to encourage the natural decay of the piece, allow birds to take bits of fiber to line their nests, or to possibly encase the piece in clear resin to make it more weatherproof.
Liza concludes by saying, “From the beginning, Beth’s message has always rung true for me- anything you can imagine, you can create with wool. Combining wet & needle felting techniques has allowed me so much more room for exploration, and makes working with wool one of the most unique, exciting, and wonderful mediums for artistic creation. Limitless creative possibilities!”
For more wooly creations, visit Liza in her Etsy Shop
Laurie Magnabosco of Everett, WA shared her cute baby sloth photo!
This little guy is needle felted using the Earth Tones Pack from Living Felt.
The Earth Tones Pack has a great selection of earthy colors for your amazing creations.
Check out our many shades of earthy colors in MC-1 and MC-2 Merino Cross Batts!
Here are several projects from fantastic felter Jeanne Norris of Constable, NY! Thanks for sharing them with us Jeanne – we love your sense of humor as much as your art!
Needle Felted Hat
“The top merino wool is so soft it’s just right for a hat for someone who has no hair. Lilac Haze is just the perfect color to go with Carol’s (that hat’s recipient’s) coat…and greatest news, she may be able to go home next week!”
Needle Felted Groundhog
Needle Felted Cupid
Needle Felted Dog and Bird
Needle Felted Dog
Needle Felted Bird
Needle Felted Dog and Bird
This amazing scene was created by Sheryl Smith of Van Nuys, CA. What great details and textures! You have a gift for capturing movement Sheryl! And so resourceful, using the red from the Teak! :)
“Here is my newest needle felted project, a field springer spaniel flushing a pheasant. The dog is made from your white Merino Cross Batt, with black New Zealand Corriedale for the markings and white feathering on the dog. The pheasant is made mostly from tones from your Flesh Tones pack. I didn’t have any red wool for the eyes but I was able to pick out some red slubs of fiber from the color “Teak” in the flesh tones pack!”
Sheryl Smith ~ Van Nuys, CA
Needle Felted Bunnies
needle felted animals
Needle Felted Pandas
Needle Felted Animals
Carol Travis of Durban, South Africa, needle felted all these cute little critters! I love that elephant especially, Carol! Thank you for sharing these darlings with us!
