FREE FELTING PATTERNS

 

Humming Bird
DIY Needle Felting Workshop Fun & Easy Needle Felting Instructions for a Little Humming Bird
www.livingfelt.com

 

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• 1/4 oz Wool for body core -white

• Wool – colors for head

• Green and brown for body and wings

• 32 gauge floral wire – white cloth

• One round toothpick

• Black wool or black beads for eyes

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Felting Needles: 36,38,40 gauge
• Foam work surface

• Bamboo Skewer

• Doll or Darning Needle

• Scissors

• Black marker or black paint

• Fabric glue

TIME TO COMPLETE: 3-5 hours

*Our finished bird weighs under ½ oz.

From head to tail is 4” ¼ with shaping

Wingspan is 5” with shaping

BEST PRACTICES FOR SAFETY

1. Remember to always use your foam work surface when poking with your felting needle. Keep the piece you are working with on the foam. This will help stabilize your piece and keep you from poking your fingers. Felting needles are very sharp, and deserve care when using.

2. When not in use, store your felting needles in the upper corner of your foam do not lay them flat on the foam or table.

3. This project and needle felting in general is not meant for young children. Use your best judgment, do not allow children to play with needles while unattended, and keep felting needles and fiber out of reach of small children and pets. Pets tend to like wool and may choke on the loose fibers.

4. Never use your felting needle to TUG wool that has been felted into place – these needles are very rigid and will snap. If you want to move or remove wool, use your darning needle – it is nice and strong.

5. You will primarily be using your 38gauge & 40 gauge felting needles. Experiment so you learn the power of each.

NEEDLE FELTING

To emulate what people created with wet felting, industry created the felting needle. Thousands of these needles are used together to "needle punch" wool into a fabric and allow the creation of felt without soap or water. The needles have small, downward barbs that entangle the wool fibers together. It is from this process that industrial felt is made - the kind you find in the craft store, in your car's air filter, etc.

"Needle felting" is a term for using one or more needles by hand to create flat felt or felt sculpture. In this situation, artisans in the mid-1980’s took a tool from industry to on use small scale - the opposite of what usually happens. Needlefelting is currently less practiced than wet felting, but it is gaining popularity amongst crafters, doll makers and artisans.

We will use the felting needle to sculpt wool by entangling the fibers. In most cases, we will want to make FIRM pieces. To do this, our rolls and balls should be created with a firm hand, and then we will use our needles to further condense the wool. If individual pieces are too soft, they will not hold the shape we created when we put parts together. Some people like to felt VERY firmly, others are less insistent on this.

These instructions will share some of the techniques I know and use. Every teacher, and every felter will vary in their methods. I believe there are no rules in art…I am sure that you will make many discoveries on your own. So let these instructions serve as guide where you add your own special touch! May my methods simply help you get going with confidence.

OUR BASIC APPROACH

We will make the basic body shape…	Add color, tail feathers and a beak. Notice the angle of the beak and refer back to this page when we apply it.	Then we’ll add eyes and wings.
You may wish to color your toothpick now with marker or black paint so it has time to dry. See Step B-7.

A. Making the Body
1. Start with a thin layer of wool approx. 3” x 3 ½” (up to 4” with loose fibers ok)	2. Roll a firm tube that is tighter at one end. This will be the tail end.	3. Needle felt the loose fibers down by poking with your needle.	4. Continue needle felting the flange to the roll.
5. Poke your felting needle right into the larger (head) end and firm it up	6. Needle at a 45-degree angle – always focusing on feeling the roll get firmer.	7. Needle straight down on one side of the tail so it is slightly flattened. Sometimes I like to hold 2 felting needles for more rapid progress.	8. Make a bend about 1/3 of the way from the head end and needle felt into the bend.
9. Flip the roll over and give the tail a slight curve going opposite the head. Needle.	Our finished size is 3” with the curves.

B. Add Color to the Head
1. Pull off a small, thin layer of berry.	2.Lay your skewer on the length of the wool. Fold a small area over just to cover your skewer.	3. Remove the skewer and needle flat. We have now made a nice even edge.	4. Wrap the layer around the head, by placing the edge you created at the place where the head “meets” the body.
5. Needle only the folded edge so it is attached around the body.	6. Using black marker or paint color about 1 ¼” of your toothpick. Cut off just above the color.	7. Pull off a tiny strip of the berry, and dip the cut end of your toothpick in fabric glue.	8. Wrap it around the cut end of the toothpick making one end tight and one end loose as shown.
9. Place the loose end on the head end – against the white wool.	10. Needle all around to attach the toothpick covered beak.	11. Begin needling the wrapped wool from the BOTTOM of the head, allowing the excess wool to push towards the top.	12. Needle in from the sides towards the beak and firmly needle all excess wool around the beak to give it firm support.
13. Pull off a small bit of another berry or red color.	14. Fold it in half over your skewer.	15. With your bird upside down, place the fold where you want the head color to end.	16. Needle along the fold first and then straight up towards the beak. Leave the sides loose.
17. Turn the body right side up. Needle the side EDGES where you want them to meet the top color.	18. Then needle down the middle of the sides firmly compacting all excess so the two colors are the same thickness.

C. Add Color to the Body.
1. Pull off a thin layer of green slightly longer than the body.	2. Fold in half over your skewer	3. Needle the fold to make a clean edge and begin to needle the two layers together.	4. Pull off a small swatch of your brown. Lay it on the edge of the tail with the end fibers being loose. Needle the brown to the green.
5. Shape a bit to make the tail feathers obvious.	6. Lay the green on the body with the fold meeting the end of the head. Needle in place.	7. Wrap the green around the body and needle.	8. Pull off a small, thin layer of green and brown and needle them just to the end of the body so they flare out with the tail feathers on the top of the body.
9. Here is our covered body. Notice how the tail feathers fluff out without rigid lines.	10. Here is our covered body again.	11. You can add some yellow and green on the bottom a bit randomly to remove the hard lines while keeping the white underside.

D. Making the Wings
1. Cut your floral wire to 6” and place on top of a thin patch of wool approx. 6” ½ x 3”	2. Make a small fold over the wire and needle down.		3. Make a small tear in the middle to thin out what will be on the back of the bird.		4. Fold up the sides so they are wider on the ends and slightly rounded.
5. Place a layer of green wool right in the middle…enough to cover the white beneath but not too thick.	6. Needle down. Here I am using a multi-needle tool from www.hookedonfelt.com - I love it!		7. Place brown on each end and needle down. You aren’t going for “hard” lines. Let the fibers blend and feather off.		8. Place brown on the underneath edges as well. I wanted this bird to have a white underside – you can make yours solid or as you like!
E. Making the Eyes
1. Use your darning needle to make sure eye placement lines up on both sides of the head.	2. Make a slight indentation in the eye socket with your felting needle.	3. Run your button thread through both eye sockets.		3. Put a 4mm bead on one end and run the thread back through the head, exiting in the eye socket.
4. Pull tightly so the eye lies down and the bead hole does not show. Tie a firm knot in the eye socket opposite the bead.	6. Put a bead on this end and run both threads back through the head coming out of the eye socket just below the bead.	7. Tie a firm knot that wraps behind the bead and cut as closely as you can.		8. Bury any threads with your needle, clean up the wool around the eye socket and add a bit of white for accent.

F. Attach the Wings
1. Center the wings on the body about ¼” off the head and needle down.	2. Make a slight dip and flatten out the wing to the body.	3. Continue to needle down the center and add green going DOWN the back if you need to make the wings look seamless with the body.
		Bend the wings to give your bird life, and make a final pass to clean up any loose fibers. The wings and tail can feather out and will look better that way than with hard edges.

 

Give your humming bird your own special touch!!
Thank you for viewing these instructions – may they bring you as much joy as I had creating them!

 

Blessings & Happy Felting!

Marie Spaulding

Please send us your pictures!!! Send photos to: marie@livingfelt.com

More instructions and kits on our website: www.livingfelt.com

 

Online Workshop, Needle Felting a Humming Bird Copyright Marie Spaulding, 2004