First Time Felting: The Absolute Beginner's Guide - Learn By Doing * Step-by-Step Basics + Projects (Volume 11) (First Time, 11)

First Time Felting

Getting Started

Felting needles can be used in many ways, including sculpting wool into three-dimensional shapes or figures and making two-dimensional wool paintings and can be used in combination with wet felting. A wet-felted piece can be shaped using needle felting; fine details can be added or embellishments can be secured in place before wet felting. Repairing wet-felting trouble spots is another function that felting needles perform well. Needle felting strengthens seams and joins; more wool can be needled to cover thin spots or holes; and wool socks can even be repaired with a felting needle.

Needle-Felting Techniques

Master the basic techniques of needle felting and then begin exploring the endless possibilities of how wool can be shaped with a barbed needle. The opportunities to create with wool are limited only by your imagination.

The techniques shown here can be combined in different sequences to achieve different effects. Experiment with the basics and find out what works best for you. Needle felting is a forgiving craft because wool can be added or even taken away if it hasn’t been needled in too tightly. Play with the wool and see where it takes you.

Wet and Nuno Felting

Wet felting is a fairly simple and straightforward process. The versatility of wet felting allows you to make anything, from a simple square of felt up to a complex, seamless felt garment. The possibilities are endless.

Nuno felting, sometimes called laminate felting, is a relatively new type of felting invented by Polly Stirling and Sachiko Kotaka in 1994. In their experimentations with felting, Polly and Sachiko sought a way to make a lighter-weight felt for the subtropical climate of Australia. By combining a loosely woven fabric and felting in a layer of wool, nuno felting was born. Nuno, which is the Japanese word for “cloth,” is made by the wool fibers migrating through the weave of the fabric to form an entirely new material.