Saturday, January 26, 2013

Needle Felting!

Here's my first venture into the realm of needle felting! I wanted to begin with something tiny and quick, so I purchased a hedgehog kit from Dimensions.

The kit comes with a foam work surface and two felting needles (as well as an embroidery needle.)

In addition, I bought a Clover Needle Felting tool.

This has five needles in it, all working at once. I figured it would speed up my process. It did, indeed. I also bought a cheap household scrub brush at the dollar store as a work base for the Clover tool.

Starting with loose wool roving (very light and fluffy) needling it down to a good, tight density, I'd say I have about an 8% compression when I squeeze the finished project. (The hedgehog said he does not mind being squeezed!) Not bad for a first try.

I really am after a very tight finished product in my felting adventures. I don't much like the excess fibers sticking out here and there, generally.

Makes me wonder if a needle-felted finished item can then be further manipulated by wet-felting to get those fibers down.

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