My Felty Roots

You may have noticed that the last few posts have had little to nothing to do with felt, despite the title of this blog and the associated unincorporated business entity: Felt Up Goods. I’m loving all the sewing I’ve been doing. Making clothes is a revelation, and following my first pattern was a great challenge. 

Last night during a friendly craft night, I decided to get back to my roots with some needlefelting. Needlefelting involves using a special needle tool to turn raw wool into either designs that are fused onto regular felt, or it can be needled into a 3D creation all on its own. I mostly use needlefelting to add details to a softie, like eyes on a little owl. I don’t often make completely needlefelted creations, so I thought I’d give it a shot, because I haven’t tried in a really long time.

For this type of needlefelting, you need raw wool, a needlefelting tool and this brush thing to on which to do the actual work of needlefelting. When you’re needlefelting, what you’re doing is stabbing. Stab, stab, stab! You stab at the wool until its fibers break apart and fuse together to make a strong formation that you further shape with the needle. It can be very relaxing to do all that tiny stabbing (until you stab your finger, because the needles on a needlefelting tool have tiny barbs on them). You have to constantly turn and move the creation off the brush, lest you end up felting it into the bristles.    

First I tried to make a little piece of bacon (above, bottom). It’s really hard to tame all the little loose hairs coming out of the wool. The little felted animals I see on Etsy seem so refined and smooth, and I don’t understand how they do that. More stabbing? Generally better craftsmanship? Razoring off the excess hairs? I have no clue. 

I ripped off some pieces of a tannish ball of roving wool, and stabbed and stabbed, felting it into a starfish shape. 

I stabbed endlessly, trying to smooth out its little arms, and I kept adding more layers of felt to build up his little body and strengthen his arms.

Then I felted on a little face.

But that big smile made him look like a drunk creepster starfish. It wouldn’t do. I felted right over that smile and gave him a smaller mouth, still happy, less creepy.

But before fixing his little face, I gave him a purpose in life: love.

Stabby stab stab!

 See how I stab? 

I love the look of these colorful, cozy knots of wool. They’re a super soft coral reef where he spends his days, scuttling along the spongy peeks and precipices, offering his heart to a deserving fellow felt fetishist.    

When crafting buddy Sam saw this, she said, "He's wearing a glove!" 

Starfish Heart Bacon! 

 This starfish is a hopeless romantic. Just don’t call him a Valentine. 

Destroying my gangsta street cred one soft sculpture at a time.