Needlefelting experiment
11:48 AM Posted In needlefelting Edit This 1 Comment »
Last Friday I got a call from my friend, Brenda, of Hollow Brook Handmade and Etsy's Dye4fun. She needed help with editing her instructions for a needle felted eggs kit. Knowing that MB and I are not afraid of fiber arts and that we haven't tried needle felting yet, she brought us a sample kit so that we could give her instructions a trial run. The result was an afternoon of fun for all of us. My daughter and I felted the eggs, the little guy stole bits of wool and waded them up and got them dirty, the dog enjoyed sniffing the baggie containing the wool. (Ziggy is a German Shepherd/Boxer mix and has an excellent nose, he is really into smelling new stuff that comes into the house. He especially likes to smell boxes that the UPS man brings and anything that is associated with animals. Don't get me wrong - Brenda's wool is very clean and I can't smell sheep in it anymore, but Ziggy can!)
Brenda's instructions were well written, the colors were fun and the needles were strong and did not break, thanks to a warning not to twist or bend the needles while felting. There is quite a bit of roving left over after finishing the two eggs included with the kit. I think that MB could probably get a few small styrofoam balls covered with what is left. She has some laying about to make sequined Christmas ornaments with and I can see that this method would make lovely little christmas ornaments in the right color schemes.
I was really impressed with how easy and un-messy needle felting is compared to the traditional method. I did poke myself a couple of times but the intrepid 13 year old managed to make her purple polka-dotted egg nice and tidy within a couple of hours without any bloodletting. I discovered that you can create a very fine line with needle felting by using thin wisps of roving, twisting them tightly and felting them in at an angle from both sides and then securing from the top of the strand. It is a very peaceful task that allows some left over brain space for discussing homeschool assignments or having an important phone conversation while you are felting. I'd like to do it again. Hmm. . . I just remembered that I have 2 bags of wool left over from a shearing of my in-laws sheep a few years ago and I just got some pretty acid dyes from Pro-chem. . . .
1 comments:
I love your eggs! They turned out great! Needle felting really is relaxing, isn't it!
Brenda
Post a Comment