Needle-felt Birds

Needle-felt birds.  Learn the craft of needle felting and make a gorgeous bird picture.

Level:

Any.  No previous experience is required.

Course Description

Needlefelt birds is a relaxed craft class to teach you the art of needlefelting.  This is also known as dry felting or painting with wool. The best wool for needlefelting is merino wool tops which is soft and lustrous, and comes in beautiful glowing colours.  Special barbed needles are used to push the fibres through into the backing cloth, like painting by numbers but with wool. Additional details can be added to your felted bird picture with hand embroidery, or free-motion embroidery by machine.

Who is this aimed at?

This textile workshop is suitable for everybody.  It’s extremely relaxing.  So if you’ve tried wet-felting and found it tiring and physical, then  needlefelting, or dry-felting,  is a more gentle alternative.

What will I learn?

• how to transfer your chosen design or drawing to the backing fabric
• the correct technique of holding the barbed needles
• how to use the wool fibres to build up areas of colour
• how to prick the fibres through the backing
• blending the colours and building up layers of colour
• adding further texture and interest using yarns and hand or machine embroidery

Course arrangements

All equipment and materials are provided.  I also have a selection of images you can use, or you can bring your own picture to work from.  You’ll need a clear image to fit in an A5 sized area.  If you prefer, you can bring a photo of a favourite pet, or flower to recreate in needlefelt.

There will be a break for lunch during the day.