Archive for August, 2011
We are sure that such things like a case for the cell-phone and a cover for the documents are really necessary. But if you want to be different, not similar to the ordinary people with their staff from the shops we propose you to needle-felt these two accessories. For the cell-phone carrying case we will need some blue felt, white silk and red wool, needles for felting, a sponge and scissors.
Take a rectangle piece of blue felt (or any other color), then fold it in half – it is the pattern of our future cell-phone case. Now we should lay out the print on the basic felt: the silk is the first – put it in a circle as the central part of the flower. Use the wool strands to make the petals of the flower. When everything is ready you can begin felting – piercing the fabric with the needle.
While felting you may choose the place and the shape of the details, add some more wool.
Continue piercing until you see that all fibers are securely fixed. To finalize the case, sew the edges with the colorful threads and sheathe the contour of the flower with metallic braid. The case is done, now you may put there your cell-phone and boast to your friends. Read the rest of this entry »
You know that accessories tell a lot about your personality. If you want to be a stylish reader you should certainly needle-felt a bookmark! If you like needle-felting and reading this master-class is for you! To start working you will need: 10 g of merino wool (we will use the wool of deep blue color, you may choose any color you like), several strands of the wool of other colors (we will take blue and purple fibers), a wool felt square, a needle for felting, a sponge and scissors.
At first we should make a pattern (a basis) for our bookmark: cut a piece (25 x 6cm) from the felt square. Then take a strand of merino wool (about 8 cm length) and make it fizzy with your fingers by separating the fibers. Put the wool on the wool felt.
After that place all these staff on the prepared sponge, hold the wool fibers between your fingers.
Now you can start felting – pierce the wool with a needle moving it up and down through the wool fibers and wool felt under them. Please, be very careful – do not change the direction of the needle motion (only vertical)! Otherwise you may pierce the fingers or break the tip of the needle.
You will be able to see how the wool felts – the fibers will lock into the wool felt. Continue piercing until all fibers are felted well. Now add some more wool if there are any holes and felt it; if the surface is equal and smooth, you may correct the edges with a needle. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you like flowers on the summer field? They are so nice and pretty that sometimes we can’t help picking them and bringing home. But what if we could enjoy that kind of flowers every day? Let’s needle-felt a blue knapweed and it will remind us about the summer fields and flower valleys. We will need some wool of different shades of blue color for the flower itself and some wool of green color (several shades) for the leaf, a sponge and a needle (better if there will be several needles – at least two: thin and thick) for felting, of course.
Take the wool of the basic blue color and lay thin strands out on the sponge; four layers will be enough. While putting out the wool, try to give the shape of the petal to the strands – it should look like a crown.
Then take the needle and pierce the central part of each tooth of the “crown”, and then – the edges making the punctures at 45 degrees angle. This will help to fix the wool of the petal. Work with the needle for 2-3 minutes and after one side is ready, turn the semi-product over on another one. (When you remove the wool from the sponge don’t be afraid that the lower part is too fuzzy – it is just not felted yet.) Read the rest of this entry »
The accessories change the whole look and help us to create our own style. Therefore we propose you to needle-felt a beautiful brooch which will look like a sophisticated orchid flower. We will need some wool of white, pink, yellow and purple colors, the base for the brooch, the needles for felting and a sponge.
Before you start felting we advise you to find a picture or to draw a flower and to study it well.
Take several strands of white wool, divide them and roll into a small ball. This ball will become one of the petals. Put the ball on the sponge and using the needle start giving the shape of the petal to it. Don’t forget to leave a small tail to felt the petal to the flower. On this stage of work give the necessary shape to it with your fingers. Add some more wool onto the “weak” points and felt it with the needles. Turn the semi-product over and felt the fibers on another side too. If necessary, turn the ball and needle-felt the wool again and again until the semi-product becomes dense enough. Read the rest of this entry »
If you fulfill all our instructions and follow our master-classes you must already know about needle-felted pictures and have some experience in making them. If you are just a beginner it will be a great opportunity to go onto the next level. Wool for felting is captivatingly warm and textured material which allow creating real art masterpieces. We will explain you the most important and basic methods how to draw a picture with wool. Read the rest of this entry »
Can you imagine that needle-felted fruits and vegetables look very realistic and natural? We will persuade you that it is true in our master-class: we will use the combination of wool felting and needle felting techniques. The first thing we will felt is an apple. You should prepare the wool of different colors (green, yellow, red, orange, scarlet), some soapy water, an apple, shears and a needle. Read the rest of this entry »
This article will be useful for both experienced masters (who have already felted many things but want to know more about this process) and for the novices (who are just making their first steps in needle felting). We are going to tell you about the needle felting as a process of wool handling – how much time the wool should be felted to make it dense enough. The wool is a very malleable material and it means that it can take any shape. One of the most important features of the wool is: if the wool is felted well it is durable to use, it doesn’t deform, it easily takes its initial after crushing and it doesn’t crawl.
We propose you to make a “crash-test” to understand the correct way of needle felting the wool. Read the rest of this entry »
The advantage of the wool is the possibility to felt a volume toy: we will needle felt a cartoon character – a beaver. Find a picture of the beaver, some wool and wire (for the skeleton to make our beaver able to move its paws).
Take some sliver and start felting the body; leave the wire free, wrap it with wool and pierce a little. Now let’s reel the wool on the wire, which is prepared for the tail and felt it on a sponge. To felt the tail tightly and to make it wide and thick, you should pierce the wool from both sides for several times. After the tail is ready we can start felting the back paws: take some wool strands, divide them in two equal parts (so that our paws will be equal), tick them off, reel on the wire and felt with a needle a little. Read the rest of this entry »