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Improve your needle felting techniques and add a needle felted chicken to your creative menu. Calorie and guilt free but hours of fun! You will also learn how to needle felt a perfectly smooth finish; the Holy Grail of needle felting
The key to this project is getting a good shape and perfectly smooth finish and I am going to show you exactly how to achieve it, with easy step by step instructions and more photographs than you can shake a tail feather at. Suitable for confident beginners and more experienced needle felters.
I am often asked how to use wire for needle felting, and is it even needed? The short answer is no. In fact I rarely use a full wire armature because I like a firm felt. However, using wire in specific areas can really help you create the shape you need, and create more detail and dimension.
WHEN SHOULD I USE WIRE FOR NEEDLE FELTING?
Use it in the neck of a sheep so you can pose the head, or the horns and tail of an animal to create great shapes. If you want super thin legs or arms then wire is a great solution. Alternatively, make limbs around a BBQ skewer (the ‘farmers friend’ of needle felting), to create smooth legs and perfect symmetry in super fast time. Using the BBQ skewer as a tool negates the need for using wire altogether for many projects.
USING A BBQ SKEWER WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU NEEDLE FELT!
Parsley, the needle felted hare seen below has no wire anywhere. This gorgeous needle felting project was made, almost entirely, using a wooden BBQ skewer. I started using this method back in 2017 and it has made teaching needle felting, and creating projects, so much easier!
Watch the video tutorial, at the bottom of the post, from our Friday night felt along on the FACEBOOK GROUP, or follow the mini tutorial below, and you will be amazed at how professional the finished result is, even if you have never needle felted before!
Happy Felting!
HOW TO NEEDLE FELT FIRM LEGS WITHOUT WIRE – QUICK AND EASY TUTORIAL
Scroll to bottom of the post for the video tutorial.
Make Time: Super fast! Approximately 20 minutes for both legs plus faffing time…
The needle felting kit and pattern are available via the links below and you can join the new FACEBOOK GROUP HERE
LOOK, NO WIRE? Making Perfect Legs Around A Wooden BBQ Skewer
As I mentioned, if string is a ‘farmers friend’ then a wooden BBQ skewer is most definitely a ‘felters friend’. Never be without one as it will change the way you needle felt, drastically reducing the chore of hours spent smoothing and shaping.
This is super easy, but technique is important and you may have a couple of false starts as the legs need to be kept tight and narrow, but that’s ok. Just unravel and start again. When finished they will be firm and smooth and the last couple of centimetres will be built up for the feet/paws. TOP TIP: Remember to keep the top of the legs very loose as they will be attached to the body and should look like they are part of the finished project, not just stuck on.
Let’s get going!
1 Select a length of carded wool or wool top/roving and split down the middle. This means that both legs will use equal amounts of wool and sizes will be more or less the same.
2 Start to wrap the wool tightly around the skewer, starting close to the top of the stick. TOP TIP: Keep the wool flat between your thumb and finger so the wool doesn’t twist and become lumpy and uneven.
3 Keeping the wool tight, continue for a little way then stop and felt around the entire area to secure. TOP TIP: Work at a diagonal angle around the sides of the stick keeping hold of the wool so it doesn’t become loose. If it does, unwrap and start again.This will also avoid bending or breaking the needle.
4 Continue with the process until the leg is approximately two thirds of its final length (you will see why when you remove it from the skewer) and add more wool to the foot to widen it. Continue to felt and shape the foot until it is firm. TOP TIP: A foot/paw that is significantly bigger than the rest of the leg will have more impactwhen your project is finished.
5 Remove from the stick and felt a little more but avoid the top of the leg as this needs to be kept loose for attaching to the body. TO TIP: Don’t worry if the shape is not perfect as you are going to fix that in a moment.
6 You are now going to roll the leg firmly in your hands to firm and smooth it, which will also lengthen it. When you do this keep the top of the leg sticking out, so the wool remains loose. In just a few seconds of firm rolling you will see how the leg has really firmed up and become even smoother without the need for any wires. TOP TIP: Don’t over roll it as it will become longer than needed.
Here’s what some of the fabulous Facebook group made during the live workshop! It’s a great technique that can be adapted to almost any project. Join the group HERE and come along to the free live events.
I was blown away by the quality, personality and individual styles of the projects from the FACEBOOK GROUP members and the amazing feedback has been so good!
VIDEO TUTORIAL – Felt along with me!
Watch the full tutorial and felt alongside me, workshop style.
So excited to tell you that Heather The Highland Cow Needle Felting Pattern is now available on the website. Over 3,500 words, 90 full colour photographs, lots of different techniques and a whole load of Highland, what’s not to love. You will learn how to create long fur, wrap wire around pipe cleaners for perfect shaped legs and stability, build up the head and body to create that typical highland chunkiness and create those beautiful finishing touches. Every part is needle felted and no need for any glue. It’s just you, your needle and lush British wool. BTW, the wool topcoat is a Lincolnshire Fenn Crafts specially dyed Shetland, only available from yours truly; not to orange and not too brown.
VIDEO TUTORIAL – Links below.
Not only that, but the full video tutorial is now live on my YouTube channel and it is epic and no needle felted stone has been left unturned. Just grab your wool and felting need and join me on YouTube for a workshop style tutorial. It’s in 6 parts so you can work methodically with me through each step. I have put them in a playlist so each step starts after the previous, working towards the finale of the fabulous top coat!
I always approach a new pattern and video tutorial as if the person using it has never heard of needle felting and is new to crafts making it accessible to as many people as possible. And, let’s face it, crafts now more than ever are a great coping mechanism when life gets a little too much. So add some creativity to your list of self care tools. All my video tutorials are free so if you have a handful of wool and a felting needle just find a project and make something, if only to lighten the mental load for a while.
Before and after. Ta-Da!!!
COMING SOON!
Two more needle felting kits and video tutorials; whimsical hare and forest folk. I can’t wait!
As I sat down to make a sheep at the weekend I decided to take some of my own advice and step out of my comfort zone. I have been wanting to make a pig for months but time, as always, ran away with me and other aspects of the business demanded my attention. So, I changed tack and pulled up various images of pigs on Google; even if your creations are not true to life a photo is always great for reference, proportions etc.
Now, you would think pigs, with their simple shapes and obvious snout wouldn’t be too hard… Not so. Their perceived simplicity means that there is nowhere to hide when it comes to making mistakes and that body and head shape took way longer than I expected. However, now I know what I would change for the next one. Overall I am pretty pleased with the end result but I would definitely do a few things differently next time; bigger snout; change how I assembled it; more work on the face.
As far as technique is concerned I tend not to use full body armatures*, preferring to work with a much more solid shape and my favourite British wool tops. Instead, I used 1mm paper covered wire for the legs only to aid stability and create a leaner leg. I prefer paper covered wire as the wool holds much better when wrapping and negates the need for any messy waxes or glue. I wrapped each leg in a base layer of white Jacob top then added another layer of carded Corriedale flesh leaving the trotters exposed for contrast.
*Some pieces require a full armature, especially if you want to pose your piece when it’s finished. Carded wool usually works best for this and creates a much softer sculpture requiring much less use of the felting needle.
The body core is grey Jacob top which is a lovely coarse wool top that felts really easily and is still one of my favourites after six years of working with it. Felting the core really firmly allowed me to shape the wool once it was finished creating a nice curve along the back. See video tutorial: HOW TO CREATE A FIRM BODY
I actually made the body, head and snout as one piece but would definitely make the snout separately next time because it lost a lot of its definition and I had to build it up again. I then covered the whole piece in a lovely carded Corriedale flesh, felting just until it held using my 38 needle at a diagonal angle to reduce needle marks.
You may be wondering why the core colour is a complete contrast to the top layer; this enabled me to create that lovely dark wiry detail that you will see on many pig breeds which sits in dark contrast to the really light top coat. This contrast is achieved by using a 32 reverse needle to pull through the dark grey Jacob wool top, enabling it to sit on top of the flesh colour. Wool tops work really well for this as they have a much longer fibre length than carded wool which allows them to be pulled through the body without breaking off.
Ears were the easy part and using a photograph for reference makes it much easier to get the correct shape and proportions. My needle felted ears tutorial shows you my favourite, super easy technique for creating animal ears: TAKE ME TO THE TUTORIAL
Finally, I covered a short piece of 0.5mm paper wrapped wire in carded flesh to create the curly tail; roll vigorously in the palm of your hands once the wool is attached. This will create a lovely firm finish which stops the wool from ‘sagging’ when it is curled.
Add a couple of glass beads for eyes and hello Twiggy The Piggy*
*I claim no responsibility for the name. Blame lies solely with my good friend, Nancy (author of the amazing Maine Coon cat tutorial) who named her ‘Twiggy The Piggy’. I told her it was only marginally better than Babe but she insisted…
Needle felting kits for all abilities are available on the website and Etsy:
Quick guide to needle felting eyes onto your needle felting projects. This is just one version I like to use and it’s simple, pinky promise! I would recommend a 40 gauge finer needle for this but a 38 is also fine; just make sure the head is firmly felted.
1 – Choose a light brown/orange (you can blend colours to get the right shade) for the first layer and felt on a circle (remember eyes are circles not ovals), to each side of the head. I like to use a photograph of the animal as a rough reference.
Use the same technique for larger projects. This one is a life size Snow Shoe hare.
Life size Snow Shoe hare
2 – Roll two really small pieces of black wool between your fingers or use your fore finger and roll in the palm of your hand. Add to the centre of the eye and create a rough circle.
4 – Add some light into the eye by rolling the tiniest amount of white (no, smaller than that) between your fingers. Place it off centre and felt gently onto the black circle. If it disappears then pop a little more on the same spot. If it looks cross eyed when both eyes are done then remove (with a pin, not your needle) and re-position one of the pieces.
5 – Add some detail around the eye; take a very thin wisp of black/dark brown and felt very lightly around both eyes. Always use a length longer than you need as it will shorten as you poke around the eye. If there is a lose end then trim with scissors.
6 – More detail. This is entirely up to you but I have added some white/light grey to give it a loose finish and character.
7 – If you want to add some dimension you can create a brow by rolling a seed of wool between your fingers. Gently and loosely felt on, just above the eye.
8 – Keep the top layers nice and loose and very gently felted. You should hardly be penetrating the surface of the head for a more characterful finish. That way, if you are not happy with it, you can just tease the wool off (with a pin and not your needle) and start again. Practice makes perfect but there really are no right and wrong results. If you are happy with it then step away so as not to over felt it.
No stress advice: Don’t expect the next one to look the same. It never will!
Please visit the website or Etsy for needle felting patterns, wool supplies, accessories and handmade ready to purchase.
