Technique chat: Shingling

Technique chat: Shingling

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You may have seen my last post, making a fluffy llama. At the end of the last post I still needed to finish his eyes and add eyelashes. Today we were going to consider shingling; adding layers of small amounts of combed fibre or fibre locks in a pattern that mimics the coat on a creature, like that llama I was working on. The fur mimicked by shingling is usually on the longer side, but it can be used for shorter fur too.

When I first started to needle felt, there had been only one option suggested for making a long-ish coat: shingling, with the use of combed top.  I now know a number of variations on this technique and a few other options besides it. But let’s look at where I started and a couple of the variations.

As with all the projects I leap into, after the idea, it starts with a bit of fun research to find out what type of fur you want to mimic.   Remember to check if there is a summer or winter coat, or if there are regional variations to your animal. It will not look right if you mix the coat of a red wolf with a timber wolf, or have a winter coat on the shoulders and summer coat on the back and legs! Google image search will help, but you have to be careful; sometimes the image descriptions for photos on the internet are labelled wrong. Look for sites that are researching the animal, breed associations, or even hunting groups can have some helpful photos (although not the hunting or cooking parts).  It is also helpful to try to get shots from various angles. (I was extremely pleased when I found a picture of the underside of a polar bear foot!)

chart of lengths of coats examples of aimas and techneeks to consider5.0) chart of coats of animals examples and techniques

For those needle felters who don’t mind getting wet, Sara (of Sarafina fiberarts on YouTube) had been experimenting with making “Pelts”, which are wet felted skin pieces she adds over her shaped felt under structure. Her results have been effective and interesting but do involve getting wet (so I have stayed with the dry techniques for now. I promise I will get brave eventually!)

There are a few things to consider beyond just getting the colour you want and deciding on a working direction to add your shingles (bottom to top or top to bottom; I have seen other felters who work in both directions successfully).  Let’s look at some of my variables; you may have more considerations to add to this list.

Variables in shingling you may want to consider:

  • Which fibre will best suit your project (there is more than just colour to think about when picking fiber)
  • Fibre Staple Length
  • Blending your fibres and colours (Blended colour will look more natural than flat colours)
  • What scale to work in/ how big or small is your creature?
  • Working with locks
  • Amount of fibres used in each shingle
  • Stacking your shingles

Let’s expand each consideration.

Which fibre will best suit your project: (there is more than just colour to think about when picking fibre)

  • Stiff or softer fibre will give a different drape (use photo reference to decide which you need).
  • How likely is this fibre to felt to itself from handling or rubbing?
    • This is more important if the creature is repositioned regularly (handled).
    • Silk, viscose, alpaca, and llama don’t have scales as most wool does, so are less inclined to felt to itself. Wool that has less crimp and outer guard hairs like kemp and tog is also less inclined to cling to itself (felt easily) when handled.

amples of viscose fiber folded in 50/50, 25/75, 75/25 proportions as well as a sample using wool to help adhear at the fold location.5.1) samples in viscose

  • Trim or not to trim (embroidery curved blade, dog grooming scissors/ thinning sheers are options)
    • Trimming can occur to shorten the fibre length you are applying, or you can trim the fibres after you have applied the shingles.
    • A stiffer fibre vs a softer fibre will also react differently when trimmed by scissors. Stiff fibres can give a more bristle-like appearance when trimmed short.
  • Silk, Viscose and similar smooth fibres can be difficult to attach securely to the felted under structure:
    • Adding a bit of carded wool or soft spun wool yarn to the area you are securing will help adhere the slippery fibre, like a staple or glue. (You may not need to add assistance to adhere if you are finding it is embedding deeply and securely. Working the fibre in a bit deeper and varying the angle of needle insertion will help it stay without adding extra fibre as glue. If you can’t work a bit deeper, then try adding the staple or glue-like bit of fibre. Remember the extra embedding to secure the fibre will shorten the staple length showing as fur.

diagram devided 50/50 showing needle felting perpendicular to fiber lenght5.2 – fibre divided 50/50 felting across to create the shingle

5.3) Add a bit of carded wool or loose spun yarn to attach as glue or a staple to hold the shingle5.3) Add a bit of carded wool or loose spun yarn to attach as glue or a staple to hold the shingle

5.4)Alpaca fiber; folded, tacking folded fiber, and using extra fiber to help hold slippery fiber (staple or glue using loose spun wool yarn or carded fiber)5.4)Alpaca fibre; folded, tacking folded fibre, and using extra fibre to help hold slippery fibre (staple or glue using loose spun wool yarn or carded fibre)

5.5) Sample using Viscose5.5) sample using Viscose

Using a bit of carded wool as a stable, to help embed the viscose fibre. While a bit of the staple or glue fibre is visible in the sample, using a similar colour as the shingle will make the assisting fibre or yarn invisible. The next layer of shingle will also obscure the previous attachment site.

5.6) using a wider attachment area for slippery fiber5.6) For slippery fiber you can also create a wider attachment area

Fibre Staple Length

  • If folded, what percentage of the fibre is used.
    • Folded in half (50/50 split) was what was first suggested to me. This can create a lot of loft or thickness in the shingle. If folded so cut end is under tips, it will lift the tips and give a thick dense coat.
    • Folded (25/75) folded tips on top of longer cut end, gives tips dispersed amongst longer cut end.
    • Folded (75/25) folded longer tips on top of cut end, gives lift from the cut end with longer draping tips.
    • * You can also use almost all your fibre as coat, and only secure one end (90/10). This is not exactly a folded shingle, but in some cases it’s the proportions that work. You still position it overlapping, as you would in any of the other shingles.

samples of alpaca fiber, various proportions folded6.1) alpaca samples

  • Single needle line of attachment or wider area of needle attachment (for slippery fibre, the wider attachment site can again help the fibre stay attached to your creature)
  • Using scissors to shorten the fibre length if needed (we are felters and like scissors!). If you are using combed top, it is easier if you pull off staple lengths then trim, rather than cutting the combed top itself, which will give mixed lengths to deal with (harder to blend and attach)

Pros:

  • Twice as fast (except for (90/10))
  • Under layer can lift the top layer and make a fluffy-looking coat
  • Works well for large colour gradations

Cons:

  • Can become heavy-looking depending on the scale of the sculpture
  • Can create small colour changes but can be a bit tricky to get exact location
  • Fluffy look can be out of scale to smaller figures.

 

Blending your fibres and colours (Blended colour will look more natural than flat colours)

  • Using the same fibre length will blend easily and produce a uniform length of coat.
  • Nature is not flat colour. It helps to mix shades and tints of colour to make your creature look more realistic. (Dyeing over a natural grey fibre will also give more depth and subtle variations within the colour)
  • Matching colours can be easier if you use a “window”. Cut out a small square in a piece of white or black card stock, leaving at least a 2-inch border to separate the window from the rest of the picture. This lets your eye and brain separate the isolated colour from the background, which makes it easier to colour match.
  • Areas with spots of colour change can be easier if switching to smaller amounts of fibre in your shingles (many little shingles). Your other option is to carefully blend the colour changes within the larger staples. The difference is more about the amount of control, suggesting a colour change or spots vs trying to mimic a specific animal’s colour patterns.
  • For stripes, you could try to lay in following the colour pattern. I have seen a felter who drew the pattern on her animal then just filled in each adjacent colour section, slowly working up the side of the animal.

blending colours of muskox fur. used alpaca to creat the fur7.0) muskox layers of alpaca to make the muskox coat

What scale to work in/ how big or small is your creature?

  • Smaller will have less detail but will need to suggest more with what you have. You will also have to use shorter fibers or trim to get the fur in proportion to the size of your creature.
  • Larger can have more detail but will require more work and attention to photo reference. Enjoy the process of needle felting and don’t rush.
  • As an example of scale, my fox picture has a problem with the whiskers. They are the wrong scale to the image. I used horsetail fibre for the whiskers, and the size is too light in visual weight. I need to find something a bit visually heavier ether a coarser horse tail or possibly the outer coat of a musk ox. I have heard of felters using the bristles from paint brushes (the house painting kind) as whiskers too. (The awl and glue method was used with the paint brush bristles. I used a large eye sewing needle to secure the horse hair.)

7.1) the visual weight of the whiskers is too light for the scale of the image7.1) the visual weight of the whiskers is too light for the scale of the image

 

Working with locks

  • Which part(s) of the fibre are you using, Tips only, tips and tails?

8.11-8.12-8.13) Samples with locks

  • Locks with crimp are easier to attach than locks with less crimp, like the hair I used on my Mer-people. It’s not a huge difference, but remember to check the fibre is adhering securely and will suit the purpose you intend to use it for. If your creature’s purpose is to sit in one pose on a shelf, you will not need the same security of attachment that a creature that is regularly reposed would require.
  • Crimpy curly little locks make fabulous outer coats for little sheep figures and pins. If you find little short locks with lots of crimp, put them aside for a later project if you don’t need them now.

 

Amount of fibres used in each shingle

  • Are you making a puff ball or something sleek? Sample thin layers of shingles vs fewer thicker layers. You may also find the thin layers helpful if you are working with stripes or subtle colour changes.

shows soap on a rope hedgehog wet felted understructure then needle fleted brisles9.1) ”Crevis” is a soap on a rope hedgehog. I used stiffer fibre and packed it quite tightly to give good scrub-ability. I had fun mixing light colours around the face. I wanted more of an emotional expression of hedgehog rather than an anatomical Hedgehog, since his soapy centre is rectangular and rather flat.

 

Stacking your shingles (patterns)

  • You also can change either the spacing of the shingles or the way the shingles are staggered; (stacked / offset(running bond) / 1/3 offset/shingle pattern / random placement). Looking at the way tile is laid out can give a good reference for shingling patterns. Again, a bit of quick sampling will suggest your best option.

10.1) Wooden shingles, layers offset each row, not necessarily the same size adjacent shingle.10.1) Wooden shingles, layers offset each row, not necessarily the same size adjacent shingle.

tile patterns that we can use with shingleing10.2) patterns of subway tile to consider for felting layouts (Straight stack, offset or running bond, 1/3 offset)

10.3) alpaca shingle samples spacing10.3) alpaca shingle samples spacing

10.4) Alpaca shingle sample of spacing- side view10.4) Alpaca shingle sample of spacing- side view

  • Direction of work: Start from lowest furred area, working to highest, or the other way around. Both work; I just found the former easier than the latter, which requires you to lift the shingles above to position the next below. An example of starting at the lowest point and working up and forward would be my partly 3-D Muskox picture. I also check and see if there is a direction of hair growth and hair fall. This could indicate the direction to lay in the fur.
  • How much fibre will you use in each shingle section? If you have areas that have denser fur and areas that are sparser, you may be altering how much you use in different areas and /or the shingle pattern you chose to follow. An example of variations of fur on a single creature would be a Bison or Buffalo. You may also want to use different fibres to mimic the different sections (longer, softer and shorter, stiffer fibre). As long as the colours for the different fibres work cohesively together, your creature will look realistic.

 

There is also a way to add locks without shingling to create the illusion of fur. I used it to create part of the sheep pins, and Ann uses it on her little sheep figures. Those tiny crimpy curly locks are layered over the surface of the creature in swirls, then tacked down, catching bits of the crimp locks.

10.5) Ann’s Sheep using tight crimpy locks to creat the fur/fleece.10.5) Ann’s Sheep using tight crimpy locks to create the fur/fleece.

 

Let’s take a quick look at some of the tools I have collected that can be helpful when adding a needle felted fur to a creature.

Tools that may be helpful: (new toys you might like to try)

  • Sharp embroidery scissors: straight and curved bladed
    • Excellent for careful trimming and getting into difficult spots. The curvature can mimic the curve of your creature. There are various amounts of curvature and length of blade available, so it’s nice to have a couple choices.

11.1) there are a few brands of curved embroidery scissors, as well as fine sewing scissors and curved blade pet trimming scissor11.1) There are a few brands of curved embroidery scissors, as well as fine sewing scissors and curved blade pet trimming scissors

  • Pet trimming scissors for thinning coats/salon version for people (look like they have notches along one blade). They are used to thin bulk along the side of hair or at the ends, also for blend transitions, or give movement to hair. They are used teeth side on top and usually at an angle to the hair (perpendicular can give harsher lines if over trimmed).

11.2)Thinning scissors have different teeth spacing that removes different amounts of hair.11.2)Thinning scissors have different teeth spacing that removes different amounts of hair.

If you are really curious, this is a quick video on using them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqi7qfZyOY

  • Eyebrow brush and comb (weird original idea, but great for felting). This tiny brush and comb allows you to do small adjustments to your creature’s coat. I saw a tiny mettle comb version, but haven’t seen it again now that I have a use for it.

11.3) Eye brow tools11.3) Eyebrow tools

  • Eyebrow trimmer – strange razor trimmer (again, why is this a thing? Ok I admit my eyebrows never fully arrived so why trim them? What if trimming scares them away and I wind up with none?!) Again, an option for doing fine trimming and adjusting.
  • The puffer for blowing lint off your camera lenses; it can help to fluff up a coat or blow out trimmed hairs after using the scissors. It comes in a number of variations, including an electric version that may blow away your creature!

11.4) air blower, originally for cleaning camera equipment11.4) air blower, originally for cleaning camera equipment

  • You could even consider Hair spray or styling gel, but sample first; you don’t want fibre to yellow over time!! (I was a cheap art student (many years ago) and some of the very cheap hair spray we used as fixative did yellow the pastel paper.)

 

I hope this has sparked a few ideas to consider when adding fur on your creatures. I am sure I had more to add, but the AC seems to be struggling; ok, it’s give up, since it is almost 30C in the house.  You may have more options or tools to share; please add your suggestions too.

I hope you have found a cool, possibly air-conditioned spot to felt.  Ottawa has been hot with repeated waves of aggressive thunderstorms and flooding (the street west of us had flooded basements; Glenn said ours is still dry, but we did lose the cover to our side door).  If you are South of us celebrating your 250th birthday, have fun on the 4th, and hopefully you will get to enjoy your fireworks. Canada Day had spectacular thunderstorms, but fireworks would have been more fun.  Have fun, stay cool and keep felting.

 

Canada Day and Prepping for a Bag Class.

Canada Day and Prepping for a Bag Class.

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This last week, I have been preparing for a bag class I am teaching.  This is a beginner class, so they will be making rope handles. The ropes will then go through holes in the bag and be tied with a knot. This is a nice style and fairly easy, so they can concentrate on the bag part.

Please excuse the pictures; I adjusted them as best I could. The light bounce from the fluorescent lights on the white wool and the plastic was terrible.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the ropes. To that end, I have been making snakes to act as the inside of thier ropes. I use a pretty standard layout, a row of wool singled across and then a line of wool at 90 degrees at the near side to roll around.

I roll it up dry and work it dry for a while to shrink it before adding water. If I go slow and gentle, I can get a nice, smooth snake. In this case, I am not being that careful because they will all get a final layer of coloured wool to match thier bags.

Adding a final layer of colour around the finished but wet ropes worked really well. The final layer was easy to wrap tightly around the core. I didn’t have to worry about “cracks” or “fissures” forming if I rolled a little too fast or not quite round enough.  I think I will do that from now on, as it gave a nice, tight, smooth finish.

What I want to know is, does anyone know of a faster and or easier way to make ropes? They always take longer than you think they will, and if you’re doing more than a few, they are hard on your hands, or at least on my hands. I found ways to make small balls and large balls, but nothing on ropes. Any hints or ideas?

 

Group of campers with "flower" inspired felt pictures
Felting at Camp Judy Layne

Felting at Camp Judy Layne

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I recently told you about preparing for volunteering at Girl Scout camp. I have returned from Camp Judy Layne in Kentucky where I taught eco printing and four sessions of wet felting. It was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and introduced wet felting to camp.

Welcome Sign at the cabin on Lake Cumberland, KY USA

Before we went to camp, Debbie (right) invited us to her cabin on Lake Cumberland. When Susan (left), Dennis and I arrived there was a big sign on the cabin. This is an old joke having to do with plaques at camp where I signed my name really large (even on plaques I wasn’t supposed to be on).

Detail of welcome sign with "and Dennis, Susan & John"

Debbie who is not at all “arts and crafty” made this sign to make me laugh.

At Lake Cumberland in the boat with Debbie and Susan

We went on Curt’s (Debbie’s husband) boat and had a great time on a gorgeous day.

Dennis caught a fish on Lake Cumberland

Dennis (my husband) went fishing with Curt and John (Susan’s husband) and he was the only one who caught a fish. The stay at the cabin was very relaxing in preparation for the craziness of camp the following week.

Camp counselors and volunteers first session of Camp Judy Layne 2026

We all got camp shirts when we arrived and here is the staff and volunteers for the first session of camp on Sunday afternoon.

Montana, Snooz and Mac on Muu Muu Monday. No muu muus for us!

On Monday morning, staff and volunteers are encouraged to wear muu muus. Here we are on Moo Moo Monday!

Eco printed book covers laid out to dry.

After breakfast on Monday, I helped Poecat (the arts and crafts director) and we eco printed some book covers for small books that the campers were creating. I was concerned the eco printing wouldn’t be successful but I was happy with the prints. The campers learned how to make a folded 8 page book (from an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper) and then used waxed linen thread and the pamphlet stitch to attach their covers to the books.

Snooz, Mac and Montana at Crazy Hat dinner in the dining hall at Camp Judy Layne in Kentucky

Monday night is crazy hat dinner so here we are in the dining hall with our hats. Look closely to see my hat 😉 At camp we have camp names, mine was Montana, and then we had Mac and Snooz. Mac and Snooz were teaching a unit of girls to play guitar which was called Treble in the Trees.

The next day was crazy sock day. Mac got us matching  “friend” socks that hold hands. Ramblr is to the right of me. She stayed with us at the Air BNB cabin just outside of camp.

Then on to my four felting sessions, two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. The first three groups were smaller but then the last group was 18-20 campers (10-11 years old).

 

I started them out with batts that I had made at home (packed into a large suitcase and brought on the plane) and then had them add the design on top.

I wanted them all to create different designs. The first group listened to music and created a piece inspired by the music. The next was inspired by “fauvist” landscapes as I had a bunch of crazy colors. The third group made portraits and the last group their favorite flower.

We had two hours for each session and the girls did a great job. Everyone ended up with a piece of felt that was holding together. Yay!

Group of campers with finished "inspired by music" felt pictures

Here’s the Treble in the Trees group with their creations.

Group of campers displaying "fauvist landscapes" felted pictures.

These are the CIT’s (counselors in training) with their landscapes.

 

Group of campers with "portrait" wet felted picture

This group was the theatre group who gave a show at the end about llamas.

Group of campers with "flower" inspired felt pictures

And here is the final group that created their favorite flower. Didn’t they all do a great job?

For Wednesday night, it was crazy hair dinner. I made these wool dreads for us to wear and we sang a ukulele rendition of Three Little Birds. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a video of our performance 🙁

Curt and Dennis at the lake house wearing wool dreads

And don’t the men rock the dreads? Curt and Dennis at the Lake Cumberland cabin.

Snooz and Mac presenting guitar plaque for first ever Treble in the Trees session.

Snooz and Mac presenting the signed guitar to hang on the dining hall with the first session of Treble in the Trees. Here’s a link to their performance:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234964726359457

And a link to the drama performance:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1002727975461627

If you want to see more photos of what’s happening at camp, you can view them here. You’ll have to scroll down to the first week photos (June 7-12) to see our session.

https://www.facebook.com/CampJudyLayne

Kat, the wonderful camp cook, holding her Cinnamon Roll of Excellence award.

Here is an award that we made for Kat, the camp cook. She works so hard to provide meals for all the campers, volunteers and staff. Billie was the cook for many years during the time I was a camper and staff member.

Moth on concrete floor at Camp Judy Layne

And to show that I was still paying attention to the beauty of nature, here’s a moth I photographed while we were setting up the music performance.

SCAMP tshirts for the OG's at Camp Judy Layne

A good time was had by all but we were a bit worn out. Here’s our new shirts for this year. Hopefully, I will be able to go back next summer!

 

There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. It is an abstract landscape in blues and lilacs, with two plum boats with shiny white stitched sails at the center and right of the bottom part.
Preparing for an Art Trail: earrings, bookmarks and other fast projects

Preparing for an Art Trail: earrings, bookmarks and other fast projects

Comments 13 comments

Hello!

This post will be about a few different projects that I am into: as they are all small and easy projects, maybe you will get inspired to try out your own version of them as well.

I am participating to an Art Trail in my area, it is a big event in our neck of woods: it is my second time and I think that I have a better feel for what I need to prepare for it. That is, small usable felt things, that can be added to what I have left from last year, that I can easily bring to our venue by public transport (I do not have a car, I live in Greater London, UK and using public transport is a sensible choice to avoid traffic and steep charges) and that I can sell for a reasonable price. As it is not a Fine Art Only event, but more of a festival celebrating the creativity of all the people living in our Borough, any craft is encouraged and stalls can also sport a mixture of fine art and craft as mine will be.

Last year I sold a few of my wet felted earrings, so this year I spent a bit of time in making a few more but with needle felting: it was very quick, I enjoyed the needle felting practice, and I feel that I can keep to a low price for them.

Here are the pairs that I have made so far (the flowers on the top rows and the blue hearts) with the ones that I have left from last year:

Eight pairs of colorful felted earrings are displayed on a black board that is held up by a hand
They were really a breeze to make, while I was stewarding for my last group exhibition.

I also wanted to bring the blue loop scarf and the yellow lightweight scarf that were shown in previous posts, as loop scarves were admired last year (though I did not sell them very well, but who knows, maybe this year I will) and I will add to them this new lightweight scarf that I made with the recycled banana yarn used as yarn for decoration:

Part of a salmon light scarf with wavy colored yarn, wet felted by Kiki Peruzzi, is visible on a clothes rack.
I loved the salmon colour and itched to use it.

It was pretty awkward to pair a very small amount of wool with the chunky yarn, it was really an experiment. I thought that maybe the yarn could give the wool a little bit more structure, but I am wary that the yarn will actually be a weak point of stress for the wool, and pull the wool apart quicker. Anyway, it was more work than I expected, as the wool was so thin that the yarn was not well felt in in places, so I had to needle felt the yarn in after drying it, and then cut all the hairy wool sticking out from the places that I had needle felted. I will maybe not do it in the same way another time: I could either go for a thicker wool layout or maybe sandwich the yarn in between two lightweight layers of wool.

I also am trying out an idea that I have seen from a British artist and crafter on Instagram, Maxine Smith  @tillyteadance. She makes those lovely bookmarks in her very colourful style with a mix of wetfelting and machine stitching, with hand embroidered or needle felted details. You can have a glimpse at the process in her posts: she seems to make a full rectangle of wet felted and machine stitched background, then cuts all the bookmarks from that single rectangles with a rotary cutter, adds some details and finishes each bookmark by stitching all the edges.

I thought that I could try my hand at it, and see if it makes the bookmark making more time effective for commercial purposes. And, to be honest, it seemed like fun. My brother had this game when we were little: a lot of scenes on paper strips that you could combine to make an always different composition that told an always changing story. Here, I was picturing something like that, but made of felt.

Of course, I do not have a sewing machine, so my stitching was going to be very limited. I am also much less of a figurative artist than Maxine Smith is, and much less of a cheerful disposition. Here is what I made, with merino wool and a few scraps of a pale blue scarf (possibly silk, I do not know, it was a charity shop find):

Four small rectangles of wet felt that will be background for bookmarks are on a light blue surface. the pieces are in light and darker blues and lilac, with accents of plum here and there to suggest details on a landscape.
Here are my background rectangles cut from the original sheet.

Then I had to make each one meaningful with some stitching (as less as possible) and have them tell a different story each. I also was keen on keeping them as abstract as possible, because I love that opening up of possible meanings.

Here are the stitched bookmarks as of now:

There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. It is an abstract landscape in blues and lilacs, with two plum boats with shiny white stitched sails at the center and right of the bottom part.
This is the most peaceful, maybe: just two little boats with shiny sails floating on a limitless sea..
This is a wet felted bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi. On the left bottom corner there is a light blue and plum shape resembling a bird, and on the left upper side there is a plum stitched sun.
This is the most disquieting of the four, but it just came out this way, and who knows, maybe someone out there would like a bird (pigeon? bird of prey?no idea) for their bookmark. My husband says that the bird shape is an alien life form under an alien sun: well, who knows, it could be.
There is a wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi showing an abstract landscape in different blues and lilac with a lone bush or tree shape in plum at the center left and a small house shape on its right, on what look like gentle hills. A moon stitched in shiny white thread is on the upper right.
This was meant to be an abstract landscape at night, so I stitched a moon in shiny DMC Diamant thread.
A wet felted and stitched bookmark by Kiki Peruzzi featuring an abstract landscape in blue and lilac, with a sun in plum on the upper right side, and shape resembling a solitary person on a path on the right side at the bottom.
This is lonesome or purposeful and dreamy, depending on what you feel it represents.

I have to hand stitch all the edges now, but I need to go and buy some good thread in the right colour at my local shop. I would like it to be pale blue or something like that, and I do not have embroidery thread in that colour.

An issue that I have with them is that they are not stiff. The ones that Maxine Smith shows are properly stiff: I think that part of it is due to the extensive machine stitching, part to the fact that, on second watching, I noticed that she made thicker felt to begin with. I have no idea if she puts some stiff backing or if she uses a PVA glue bath to increase stiffness. Now, I am thinking about what I can do to increase my bookmark stiffness without spending too much time on them. My friends say that they are fine as thickness goes, and I believe a bulkier bookmark is not super easy to use inside a book, so I am not inclined to add felt to them on their back. I maybe will try with the PVA glue bath. Some of my friends also do not see why they should be stiffer, so there you go, I could leave them as they are, and simply display them on a paper backing with a couple of temporary stitches to keep them upright. What do you think?

I have made a couple more small abstract landscapes in unusual colours, similar to those that I have shown in my last post, and I have not added stitched details to them, yet:

A small wet felted abstract landscape with a light green sky with accents of turquoise and white and a white sun, and a reddish ground.
This one has more sky and less ground, and I placed a round piece of silk rods up there on the right to make the sun.
A small wet felted abstract landscape with a reddish ground and turquoise and light green sky.
This one is slightly more square and has more ground/sea/whatever than sky. Or I can always turn it upside down.

Which details would you think for them? I am very undecided.

Another thing that I am preparing is my contribution to the fundraiser for the charity Ealing Food Bank in this edition of the Art Trail. Last year, the artists from the Art Trail were encouraged to donate a small piece on the theme “Home” to be exhibited at a special venue and sold for a homeless charity: it went very well, so this year we are doing it again, for a different charity. The theme this year is “Food for Thought”, of course, but the requirements for entry are the same: it must be a square piece 20cm by 20 cm (about 7.8 inches), and they are going to give us the canvas, if needed.

They are going to provide us the canvas later on, but I have the advantage that I can complete my piece with no canvas at all, and then just stitch my work on the canvas when I will have it.

I started with the idea of a still life with fruits and vegetables on it: I do not know, I think about still lifes a lot these days (see my last post). I was not feeling like making it in wet felt, I do not know, it did not feel like the right thing, I wanted more of a sculptural piece and I went for needle felting.

Firstly, I prepared a wet felted background with some “wool for felting” that I had as a gift from a friend: I have no idea which kind of wool that is, so I seldom use it, but for this it seemed perfect, as it is very natural (I do not think that it is dyed) and in different gradation of natural whites and browns.

A wet felted small square background is on a pale blue surface. The square is in shades of natural white and brown, darker on the right side.
This is the background that I felted.

Then, I decided that I needed a real life reference, so I got out some peppers, an apple and a small bowl. I experimented with adding some green vegetables like cucumber or lettuce, but it was not working well, too big maybe. I wanted some green grapes to drape over the peppers and apple, but I had none in the fridge, so I just simulated it with a small vessel that has long curly locks hanging from it.

There is a small black and white bowl on a light blue sofa. In it there are a yellow and orange pepper, a red apple, and barely visible a green pepper, and there are fuchsia wool locks over all of the vegetables. In the background there are cushions in a chaos.
Yes, I know, it is nothing like green grapes. And sorry about the background chaos of cushions.

Well, then I started making the shapes in core wool, thinking that I was going to cover them with dyed Merino afterwards.

There is a shape in white core wool that is being needle felted on a felting pad while a hand is keeping it steady.
Let’s start from the pepper, as I like the pepper.

Going on with the shapes, I wanted to better visualise how they were going to fit with each other, so I placed them on the background and then loosely needle felted them one to the other.

A white pepper shape made with needle felt out of wool is on a wet felted background in tones of natural white and brown.
White pepper on background.
A white pepper shape and half an apple shape made by needle felting wool are on a wet felted background in natural whites and browns
Pepper and the apple.
Three white shapes of vegetables needle felted in white wool are on a wet felted background in natural whites and browns.
Pepper, apple and hint of second pepper in the background.
There is a light green felting pad in the center, with grapes being needle felted in white wool on it. A hand holding a small tub of needles is on the left side. A bowl with brightly colored peppers and apple is on the upper left side, and shapes os peppers and apple in white wool are on the right upper side over a wet felted background in browns and natural whites.
Making grapes while thinking “What a brilliant idea, so fast to make!” or something like, if you get my irony and already know the nice words.

The grapes were a bit more time consuming, but when I saw the whole together I started thinking that I liked the whole as it was, white and almost ghostly. I feel that it is clear what the shapes are, even without colour, when seen in person. The photos get a bit confusing, to be honest.

A felted piece by Kiki Peruzzi is held up by a hand. It features white organic needle felted shapes of fruits and vegetables on a natural white and brown wet felted background.
I admit that it is unusual, as still life, a bit ghostly maybe, but that was the point of still lifes, to play with the concept of life and death by hinting at them. It is better in person than in photos, though, as the sculptural quality of the piece does not show well on camera.

So, in the end, I needle felted it all to the background and I will call it something like “I miss you”, because it made me think about a friend who recently passed away: she was a keen grower of vegetables in her allotment, and also still lifes are supposed to hint about life and death, and she passed away way too young, way too early, a typical theme for still lifes.

Another friend gave me the idea of felting coasters: it is maybe weird, but I am not one of the tons of people using coasters, so I had never really thought about making some, but it is actually quite fast and fun to make them, and it probably makes a lot of commercial sense (we will see if they sell well..).

Here are two sets of four coasters that I made recently:

On a marble-like top table there are two sets of four coasters in felt, they both have a white background and brushes of bright colors: pink and teal, and yellow or lilac depending on the set.
I went for bright cheerful colours this time.

I will go on making a few more pieces for the Art Trail event, there is still time until September, and I hope to finish the ones that need a bit of working on, but this is it for now: I hope that you like what I have made so far.

Kiki

@kiki.textile.art

http://www.kikistextileart.com

Bountiful Botanicals Exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral

Bountiful Botanicals Exhibition at Lincoln Cathedral

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Last Monday the Lincolnshire Textile groups Bountiful Botanicals exhibition was opened to the public in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral. We always feature a central group piece and this year it consisted of a large vase framed by a floral arch which was adorned with individual flowers created by our members using a wide variety of materials, colours and techniques.

This can be a tricky venue for displaying textile art due to the fact that the Chapter House is not brightly lit and very little natural light filters through the stained glass plus there are limitations regards hanging the work. That said the team putting up the displays always do a wonderful job and once again we’ve had some fabulous feedback from visitors. These are just a few of the pieces that were on display…..

  • WDO CAMERA
 

There was a wedding taking place in the Cathedral yesterday and the members who were stewarding were paid a surprise visit by the Bride and Groom who had heard about the arch and were keen to pose for photos under it. I’m only sorry I cant give the happy couple a name check but if by any chance its you and you see this post we wish you all the best!

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to visit this years exhibition, the images I’m using have been to sent me from another member, so it was a lovely surprise to see several beautiful pieces on display that members had created as a result of attending my Tall Trees workshop in 2024

 

My submission was this wired 3d Tyvek fabric Iris.

Also this week I took part in two competitions that were held at the annual Lincolnshire Show. This is an event I used to love to attend when I was younger but at some point it must have lost its appeal as it dawned on me that it must be forty years since I was last there! Anyway, my friend Lucy told me a couple of months back about a craft competition she was taking part in with all entries featuring as part of a two day display in the huge Floral Marquee. Everyone entering a piece of work would automatically be sent two free Show tickets, it wasn’t dependent on winning, simply entering any of the numerous categories would ensure your free tickets so that sounded like a win-win idea to me! Each theme had its own criteria regards size and all entries were to be created using mainly plant based materials. Loving a challenge I chose to enter two categories, the first being “If The Shoe Fits”, which Lucy was also entering, plus a category to create a Necklace titled “Cartier, Tiffany, Chanel or….” We were given a huge list of what “plant based” materials would be accepted including cotton fabrics & threads, paper & cardboard, all cellulose fibres, wood, etc, and there were a few things on the list that wouldn’t have occurred to me including latex balloons, birds nests, cereals and pasta!

So knowing I wanted my two pieces to have a woodland theme I began with a walk in the local woods looking for inspiration and foraged various plant based bits including different types of tree bark, acorn hats, small twigs and tiny fir cones.

Having measured the length and width of one of my shoes I knew it would just fit in the space allocated so used that as a template to create a padded, stitched cotton fabric sole. One of the little twigs found on my walk was the perfect shape and size for the heel so that got added next. I spent a while cleaning up pieces of Birch bark and then applied acrylic medium to make it supple before glueing it on as the shoe insole, along with a little bit of moss. The leaves were all made using free motion stitch on water soluble fabric and by ensuring some of the glue remained on the stitching after rinsing I was able to form the shape I wanted the leaves to be by wrapping them around my “real” shoe. Once the shoe had been assembled the little flowers were created from frayed cotton fabric and wired in place.

 

There were some impressive entries in the Shoe category, and sadly my submission didn’t get placed, but it was great to see that Lucy’s amazing “paper” Walking Boot won first prize. In fact it looked so real that I overheard a lady telling her friend that someone had “obviously simply pasted paper on to a boot!” I was so pleased I could put her right and say I saw it being made and the whole thing was entirely made from paper! The look on her face was priceless!

As the deadline for submissions was looming I realized I didn’t have time to procrastinate over the design of my necklace. This would have to be a very quick and easy project so I made a base of soaked Kozo fibre and attached some of the bark and other left over bits that were on my table. The asymmetrical shape came together very quickly but it was lacking a bit of bling so I used a little gold and bronze metallic paint to bring it to life.

With it being a rushed job I didn’t think for one minute it would receive any votes so it was nice to discover it had taken third place!

I’ll leave you with the stunning exhibit that won first prize under the theme of Catwalk Queen and also won Best in Show…….

 

 

 

Anyone for Kinusaiga – a crash course?

Anyone for Kinusaiga – a crash course?

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Recently, a friend of mine mentioned that she was heading to a class to explore Joomchi. It is something that I would be interested in learning about but I have enough rabbit holes in my life at the moment. Curious (for future reference) I asked about the venue and headed online to check it out. I was scrolling through the lovely website and I came across a different course, one offering a three hour session on Kinusaiga. The photos of the finished work were really attractive but I got a bit of a shock when I saw the cost, which I considered prohibitive to most people. So out of principle, I decided to give it a miss. But my curiosity was roused at that stage so I googled the term and found many videos on YouTube. I can’t attribute my new knowledge to just one of these videos as presenters had their own view of what to look out for when making Kinusaiga. So this post is an amalgamation of my learning from my short visit into the rabbit hole.

Kinusaiga originated in Japan and is a form of fabric collage. It is a great way to use up fabric scraps and I found the whole process quite meditative and enjoyable. The process involves drawing a simple pattern which is transferred onto a foam block which has been covered in double sided sticky paper. Each section of the design is treated as a pattern piece which is used as a basis for a shape cut from fabric. You add on extra fabric to the shape to allow for tucking into the foam block so that none of the raw edges are showing. The sticky background holds everything in place. I think it’s probably easier to explain if I go through it step by step. I improvised with my materials as I wanted to produce my picture from stuff I already had. This might suit but you can buy kits online – I checked some out but I found them very expensive for what was on offer.

Materials:

  • Foam board – I used leftover scraps from the board I use when I am framing pieces but thicker is ideal if you have it to hand as there is less likelihood that you will pierce the back of the board.
  • 2 sided sticky paper. One side will stick to the board and one side to your fabric to keep it in place. I used some 2 sided sticky tape that I had left over from sticking down a floor rug.
  • Craft knife.
  • Metal nail file (one with a pointy end) or sharp small scissors (like an embroidery scissors).
  • Paper and pencil (for drawing your pattern)
  • Marker (for example a Sharpie pen) to outline your final drawing.
  • Fabric scraps (I used fabric I had left over from my mask making days of the early 2020’s)
  • 2 Scissors one for paper and one for fabric cutting.
  • 2 sided selotape

The how to:

Step 1

Sketch a very simple design being mindful that each outline is going to become a cutout. I used a two sided felted mobile that I made some years ago as my starting point:

My inspiration was based off a felted mobile I made some time ago

Here is my outline:

simple recreation of the chosen design

Step 2

Now number each section that you are going to cut out and take a photo of this for reference:

Here I numbered all the pieces and took a photo for reference

Step 3

Stick the two sided sticky paper or tape to the foam board, leaving the protective cover on the top layer of the paper/tape (I did not take a photo of this but you can see it in the next photo)

Step 4

Place the drawing on top of your covered foam board and secure. Cut through each of the shapes using your craft knife. Be careful with the knife and make sure it pierces through the sticky paper/tape and through the foam BUT that it does not pierce the back side of the foam board. Set aside each of the cut pieces of your design (now you can see why it is helpful to number them).

The drawing was secured on the foam and each section was cut out
with an imprint left on the foam block

Step 5

Choose fabrics from your stash that you feel will look pleasing together

my selection of fabrics

photo

Step 6

Start cutting out your shapes making sure that you allow extra fabric so that you can push this down the side of the corresponding cut in the foam board. Remove the cover off the sticky paper/tape (my tape was blue so it is easy to see this in the photo)

Inserting the first shape (the blue is the sticky tape)

Step 7

Align your shape so that you have enough fabric to push down the side of the foam board. Use your metal nail file or your small scissors to do this. Carefully trim off any excess if you find that the allowance is too big.

first piece inserted

Be sure to work methodically when securing the fabric. It makes it easier to complete and you can see your picture build up, which is nice. I was unhappy with one of my fabric choices when I laid them down initially so I was able to change them – the materials were very forgiving. One of the photos has an arrow on it to show where I changed my mind about a particular fabric.

  • first piece inserted
  • building the picture

Step 8

Finally secure the overhang at the side of your picture to the back with double sided sticky tape. Add a frame if you fancy. My fabrics were chosen at random from the stash so are a tad garish. It’s far from perfect but not too bad for a first try. Also, looking at the last photo I see I could have ironed some of the fabric before I used them, but sometimes it is good for me to leave precision behind and just go have fun.

finished picture

I hope this is a project you will try. It is fun, mindful and quick to complete. Let me know what you think and be sure to post your work so that we can include them in the gallery.

Helene x

A Sphere within a Sphere

A Sphere within a Sphere

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Ever since I saw the December 2024 issue of “Felt Matters”, the magazine produced by the International Feltmakers Association, my interest in making felted lights has been rekindled.  Since several recent posts have included confessions of failed projects, I thought I’d add mine to the list.

I started off making small globe lights by covering small spherical glass bowls in felt and placing them upside down on a felted base on which I had a magnetic puck light.  (I’d sewn lids from baked bean cans – painted to match the felt globe cover, to the base for the lights to “stick” to.)  These actually worked well.

I only had three bowls so had to look for a different design for the next light

. For some time I have been fascinated by the idea of making a sphere within a sphere in felt and have been racking my brain trying to work out how to do it. I finally decided that I could use a resist consisting of a large circle and a smaller circle joined together by a “neck”. Once felted it should be possible to push the smaller sphere through the neck into the larger sphere and the whole thing would sit on the base of the neck.

shows an empty Royal Canin cat food bag with the “dumbell” shape of the resist drawn on it.
The cat food bag resist. I use these bags for resists as they are flexible but a bit stronger than the foam underlay which seems to be quite popular these days. I haven’t torn one extracting it from felt – yet 🤫

If I made the neck wide enough then I should be able to push a light source inside the inner sphere.  This of course would mean that the outer sphere would need to be pierced in some way so that the inner sphere could be seen and, hopefully, the light shine through when turned on.  The resist could be removed from the whole thing through the piercing, and the outer sphere could be fulled using tools through the piercings.  The inner sphere could be fulled before being inserted into the outer by having a balloon inserted through one of the piercings and then the neck and inflated.  Alternatively, once the outer sphere was completely fulled, the inner sphere could be inverted and inserted into it and a balloon inserted through the neck. That would probably be better as otherwise the inner sphere might end up bigger than the outer – something to be avoided.

Next I cogitated on the steps necessary for the idea to work.  The inner sphere would need to be of fine felt for the light to shine through, but of course it would not be strong enough to keep its shape without some assistance.  I then wondered if some help here might be given by incorporating nuno felting fabric.  If most of the fabric had little or no fibres attached the light might shine through there, and of course I could always resort to PVA glue to help with the strength.  After several sessions of trying to visualise the process 🤔😓 I worked out that the inner sphere would be turned inside out when it was pushed through the neck into the outer.  So I would need to place the fabric face down to the resist with some fibres underneath as well as on the back, especially at the fabric edges, to make sure that it all combined when felted.

As for the outer sphere, I thought that this should be much thicker felt so that it would keep it’s shape on its own, and perhaps have a different fabric included. I debated whether to have the fabric on the outside or the inside or perhaps both.  In the end I decided I’d have it on the outside only and I could cut some shapes in the outer sphere for the inner sphere and the light to be seen through.

Next I set about choosing the fibres and fabrics I would use.

I knew that the fabric with the coloured stripes (from a charity/thrift shop blouse) would felt very easily even though I thought it was polyester, or possibly viscose, as I had used it before.  I had not used the flowered fabric before (from another charity/thrift shop blouse) but I was sure that it would felt because I had used a very similar fabric with great success.  I had mixed some merino fibres to match the colours in the striped fabric and would use that for the smaller sphere.  For the larger sphere, I had some darker coloured fibres which were coarser than the merino, and I thought that they would make a stronger felt, and they were exactly the right colour to go with the nuno fabric.  I would use those fibres for the neck of the resist as well.

Here are the progress pictures:

I set about the felting with a will.  I had no trouble with the smaller sphere, it felted very (too?) easily, but I was having trouble with the other end.  I just supposed that the courser fibres needed a little more elbow grease.  I tried the usual trick of just leaving it to settle and going back to it next day.

Ha! Here’s what I found:

showing the larger circle on the other end of the resist with fibres and fabric beginning to pull away.
Felting failure of the larger sphere.

The fibres hadn’t even skinned over, let alone penetrated the fabric.  So I took a small amount of the remaining fibres and did what I should have done before I used them – tried to felt a ball.  No, I couldn’t.  So I took off all the fibres from that end and the neck of the resist.

showing fibres and fabric removed from the larger circle of the resist
The fibres and fabric which practically fell off the resist without any help from me.

I really don’t know what the fibres were.  I suppose they could have been mohair or superwash. I was really annoyed with myself.  As I didn’t know what the fibres were or where I’d got them from (possibly a Guild sales table) I should have done the felt test before I used them.  I was even more annoyed because I did not have any other fibres the same colour and it did match the fabric I wanted to use. 🤬

On closer inspection I found that the fibres were in fact a blend of several colours, so I collected together some known merino fibres that should make a similar blend and set to on my drum carder.

I was still thinking about cutting shapes out of the outer sphere once it was felted and I decided to have a go at putting supplementary resists between the fabric and the fibres so that I would be able to cut paisley shapes.

Having cut these shapes out of masking tape and stuck them onto the fabric I then realised that I was probably going to have difficulty in making the cuts while the main resist was still inside the felted shape.  I was just about ready to give up at this stage.  But, gritting my teeth, I decided that I would not do nuno felt on the outer sphere, I’d get some thin lengths of merino in the colours of the nuno fabric on the inner sphere, use those for surface decoration and decide later on the type of cuts I would do.  That also meant that I would need to darken the blend of merino fibres I’d created for the outer sphere otherwise the decoration wouldn’t be very visible.

showing a batt of fibres with smaller sections of different coloured tops resting on top of the resist
The slightly darkened batt plus the sections of tops from which I pulled thin lengths for the 3rd attempt at covering the larger sphere.

Fibres laid out and felted ready for final fulling, I decided that I would make a cut in the neck of the shape to take the resist out.

That way I did not need to decide on the cuts I would make to the outer sphere yet. Once I’d completed the fulling I’d stitch up the cut.  Also I would need to turn the inner sphere inside out to see if my nuno idea had worked and if it needed anything doing to before it was pushed inside the outer sphere, and I could do that through the neck cut.

showing the felted shape, resist removed and a balloon inflating the smaller sphere
The felted shape with the larger sphere cut to represent sepals and the smaller end with balloon inflated.

It was as well that I did as, even though I did not use much merino, the fabric was almost obscured by the felt.  Out came the razor and the balloon.  I inserted and inflated the balloon and set to to give the sphere a shave.  Perhaps I should have asked my husband to do the shaving, though he’s had a beard for the last 50 odd years so he might have made as big a hash of it as I did.  Good job fabric doesn’t bleed!

I gave up at that stage.  I cut the outer sphere into sepal shapes – cutting them too far down so that they flop around tiredly, and poked the inner sphere through the neck so that the right side was showing and then threw the whole lot into the “I never want to see it again” box.

Here are the final pictures which I hope will show you how the sphere within a sphere should have worked.

Back to the drawing board. 😮‍💨

Denim jacket completed?

Denim jacket completed?

Comments 14 comments

Time to finish the denim jacket – and about time you may say!

I have added some stitching to both fronts, along with the front yokes. The stitching on the yokes is quite muted; I had drawn a design – a sort of clamshell, and used a perle thread to stitch, but it does not show up as well as I hoped. I thought that the very pale blue denim of my jacket would work, but the thread colour is too close in tone. I could not bear to take it out and stitch again, so, it stays.

The right and left fronts have narrow panels, breast pockets, and 2 side welt pockets, so I needed to decide how I was to proceed with these.

Again, I just drew some shapes onto one panel of each front, and some lines on the centre front panels, and then stitched them. I used a thread that contrasts better with the pale blue – an orange/bronze variegated floss. The pen marks disappeared easily with the hot iron.

 

The side panels needed a bit of thought. Some years ago I bought a piece of Japanese fabric (well, printed in Japan) that has a variety of fans as part of the design. I cut two of these out, and finagled with the placement, and then stitched these down using a zigzag stitch with the sewing machine. I have added a fabric fan shape to the back, and I think this links the front and back together quite well.

I have continued the stitching pattern into both chest pockets, it was not as difficult as I initially thought it would be – forgot this photo though.

Some more stitching beside the welt pockets. I did wonder if a fan shape would suit, but I decided not – too fiddly around the thick denim seams, and I could foresee some tricky machine movements. This little drawn motif suits well I think.

I am undecided what to do with the sleeves; I will ponder some more. But I have added some flower shapes cut from some scrap scarf fabric, to the sleeve cuffs. They suit nicely I think.

Eleanor Shadow stands in front of her stall mid-festival prep
When good marketing backfires

When good marketing backfires

Comments 21 comments

Since I sort of stumbled upon the career of Indie Dyer of Yarns and Fibres pretty much by accident, I never imagined how much time I’d be spending on wool festivals unable to peruse or purchase a single item. Frankly, it’s both refreshing (no money spent, yay!) and a bit weird (all that temptation just out of reach).

As a vendor, I obviously have my setup prepped in a way that will hopefully entice buyers. I also need people to remember who I am among the sea of other sellers, so I got myself a decently-sized banner at eye level. I’m a smart cookie, I think to myself. Well done, me.

Then I take it a step further to really make sure people can see me from a distance. I decide to start wearing yellow – it’s easy to spot, and I bet there aren’t manny people looking like a hyper lemon at festivals (or anywhere else for that manner). I go all out, even my glasses are yellow!
Marketing-wise, that’s sort of when I proverbially shot myself on the foot. My garbs got so popular that I started being known not as Eleanor Shadow but as The Yellow Lady! Drat…

Eleanor Shadow stands in front of her stall at Scottish Wool Producers Showcase 2026, in Perth

Eleanor Shadow stands in front of her stall mid-festival prep

I actually had to change some of my website’s text to include “also known as The Yellow Lady” so the search engines could pick it up!

Since I brought this upon myself, I have now embraced it to the point of just having finished a new pinafore to wear when I’m vending. Do we like?

I'm stood in front of a mirror, taking a selfie to show off my new yellow pinafore that I just finished sewing.

Lots of pockets, easy to spot from afar, job done! I’m pretty chuffed to be debuting this in Inverness in a couple of weeks.

The yellowness has stuck so much that on the rare occasion I visit a festival as a buyer, people ask me why I’m wearing black. For those not in the know, I’m a goth. Ah, the irony.

What’s the most outrageous garment you have in your closet (that you’re happy to share)? 😉 Let me know in the comments section.

Felting at CanGames 2026

Felting at CanGames 2026

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Someday I hope we will have a local felting convention, full of classes for Wet, Dry or even Damp felting! In the meantime, I have done the best I can and found a cosy corner or even a full table at the board gaming conventions in the city (there are two which have an unexpected felting component, they are very patient with me).

corner of brink building, sign says Rideau Curling Club, blue door is open, there is a ramp with a black raling leading up to the door.1.1) CanGames 2026, Ottawa, Canada

Each year on the long weekend in May CanGames happens in a curling arena in downtown Ottawa (Canada). It starts on Friday afternoon and runs through to Sunday night. There are board games, card games, RPG games, game testing, and I think LARPs in the basement, but I didn’t make it down the stairs.  There were also vendors for shopping, and the Kanata Games club had an open gaming area at one end of the arena, across from the secondhand game sale on Saturday morning. Beside the open gaming and just before the last vendor is the felting area (it’s small, but an increasing number of gamers check in to see what is being worked on this year).

While Glenn gathered and priced the games he was going to sell, I assembled fibre, reference photos (I could have used more), my felt pad in a zip-lock bag, a selection of needles, 2 project bags and a couple of bottles of Mountain Dew to keep me going.  I already have in my car my small folding aluminium table, and my walker which is just a chair with cool wheels (Glenn says I need to upgrade to Ben-Hur wheel spikes).

We arrived early on Friday before noon and waited for the convention to open. I then settled into my regular spot by the open gaming and the last vendor spot. I have been in the same spot for the previous years. I had 2 project options in my felt box from which to select my weekend project. I decided on the partly wrapped armature of the llama, which was from the Llama Needle Felting Tutorial that I had started to watch on Sara’s YouTube tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvqR_OPVmbI&t=1739s).  I had the armature and the initial layer of core wool wrapping done. Since I don’t have mobile access to the internet, I decided to detour from her instructions at this point…. I have pulled a few photos of llamas and comparison shots with alpacas to help, but I did not have time to do as deep a research dive as I usually would enjoy. I should have really watched it all the way through to the end of the tutorial, and not just the first part with the armature and the under wrapping of core wool. Let’s see how this goes!

berly wraped in core wool, armature of alpaca on small black folding table, there is a project bag, refereance images half a pool noodle with neeldes in labled spots, core wool and some candy also on the table. another vew of the previous picture showing berly wraped in core wool, armature of alpaca on small black folding table, there is a project bag, refereance images half a pool noodle with neeldes in labled spots, core wool and some candy also on the table.1.2-1.3) Lamma with initial core wool wrapped needs a lot of work at this point. On my little aluminium table is the llama, project bag with photo reference, a selection of needles in half a pool noodle, core wool, Smarties, Mountain Dew, Maple sugar candies, and the remains of an arrow bar.

I have already derailed from Sara’s instructions by adding a lower jaw so I can open his mouth. I may add a tongue or maybe not? I will have to look at more photos later. For now, I want to focus on the face and bulking up the body. I added bits of core wool. I think I was switching between the T38-333 blocking in fibre and the SP40-222 for more of the firming and surface sculpture.  Since I will be adding a fur top layer for his coat, I want a reasonably firm understructure but not as firm as my fish-people.  While I start sculpting his face, why don’t you take a peek at the open gaming from the Kanata Games Club? You may spot something fibre-related. I have already been asked if I have one of a few alpaca/lama board games (I have one of each so far, as well as quite a few sheep-inclusive games. We can chat about them if you would like some other time).

3 photos top shows shelving holding games and 2 stand up banners saying that this is the kanata games club and how to contact them. the lower 2 photos are the lid to the game Eternal Decks and the same game being played.1.4) The Kanata Games Club runs the open gaming area. They are very friendly and are quite inclusive about my felting.  There are a few very pretty games that seem popular this year. I am tempted to try one, maybe later in the weekend.

Across the arena from me is where the secondhand board game sale will be. There will be more games dropped off up until before the sale starts, which will be Saturday morning at 10 am. 3 years ago I was 3rd in line, 2 years ago I was second in line, I wonder if I will be first in line this year?

2 photos; top shows 4 tables alreay piled with boxes of games, more are ariving in ruf totes and large bags, lower fotto show 2 more tables pied with boxes of gameing stuff. this is just friday early afternoon more will arive through the day and early saterday morning.1.5) the used game sale

Just peeking, there are a lot of interesting boxes of games, some very old ones included too. I will do my best not to buy Glenn any games he is selling this year. (oops) I had better get back to work, or we will not have much felting to talk about today!

Friday afternoon into the evening, working on the understructure. Slowly sculpting the face and then starting to bulk up the hips. I regret not getting the chance to watch all of Sara’s instructions.

same black mettle folding table as before, with Llama understructure having more llama like shape, still unrapped towes, the is a name tag with 2 bull frogs, one jumping off a lilly pad the bigger one sitting on a lilly pad. there are also an open sleave of chocklet cookies and a pacage of sesimie snaps (2 out of 3 have been eaten)1.6)  Adding bulk and sculpting the face. I was showing the frog name tag as an example of 2D needle felting. I don’t think they would like felting as much if I were wet felting; their games might get damp! I have added chocolate cookies and Sesame snaps. I was sharing the cookies.

I was very focused on felting and chatting about felting. It was later in the evening than I thought when last year’s Chariot Race winner dropped by to see what I was working on. While chatting with her and showing her what I was working on, I eventually remembered to check how the Friday night chariot race was going. There seemed to be a lot of carnage this year! She said she had been attacked by many other chariots and was now out. I went over, and only 4 chariots look like they are still moving.

this is a game played on a track, the tables are spaced so the one running the game is standing in the center. the track starts out wide then narrows at the first of 4 courner turns, there are many charriots tipped on there sides indicateing a crash or death. there seem to be 4 chariots left racing from all that had started. 1.7) Chariot race Friday night

Glenn returned after playing one of the games upstairs and was ready to head home. We made a quick stop to try and sign me up for a murder mystery RPG game on Sunday (there are 4 players signed up, but if one doesn’t make it, I will get to take their spot)

 

Saturday morning: We headed in early. I have a new strategy this year for shopping. Instead of working at my table, then joining the line when it starts, I am going to be the line! The Lama and I got comfortable in the walker and watched more games arrive. I forgot to pull out the camera! I got focused on felting and then on shopping (Glenn had a list of things he had seen that I should watch for, and 2 other games he would like, if I see them.) As always, there seemed to be both amusement and enthusiasm in my odd focus of gaming topics. I seem to have all the sheep games, so have decided to branch out, and am now looking for other fibre-bearing creatures (or spin-able or felt-able fibres, can I find games about cotton or flax?)

I found 2 of his 6 games and no fibre-oriented games, but got distracted by a few other games that might be fun at the cottage.  You can see a few of them hiding under my jacket behind the llama, now back to felting.

same table as previous lacking candy, Llama is standing on photo reference with core wool beside, behind is a partly hidden pile of second hand games from the sale. the games are partly hidden by my gray jacket.2.1) Understructure of llama standing on reference photos in front of a stack of board games covered by a light jacket.

The face is improving; I don’t have the lower lip/chin quite right, and the eyes will look better when I add colour and eyelashes. Oh, and the ears (what you see is actually the wrapped ear wires since I want to be able to adjust the ears and pose them.) I can’t remember if Sara had added the ear wires or if I am off on a tangent again.

close up showing feet of llama photo reference and spiral felting needle. 2.2) Spiral needle on reference photos, the knees and ankles still need work!  What weird feet! I have got to work on those ankles. I spotted a couple with very lumpy knees, too.

close up of face the ear wires are covered in core wool and it make him look a bit alpaca like. 2.3) He seems to have stuck his face in the bag of alpaca fibre. I guess he approves of that colour?

back of woman, waring green/gold/black plad triangle woven shawl. her hat band scarf matches in colour, her hat is straw.2.4) Green, black and gold triangular woven shawl, this is the weaver who was demoing the triangular loom in Peterborough, Ont. She is wearing a scarf as a hat band that has similar colours to the shawl.

What a surprise! Do you remember the lady doing the triangular loom demo in Peterborough a few weeks ago?  She just dropped by to see what I was doing. It was nice to see what she had been weaving on her triangular loom.

I kept puttering at my understructure as he slowly started to look a bit more llama-like.

the face has a bit more fine sculpting and the upper lip is looking more llama-like, the lower jaw is open in this foto2.5) I think I am happier with the upper lip now.

A quick break to see what is happening around the curling rink.

top photo of one end of the curling rink full of tables set up with people palying bordgames. lower photo, game involing boats in water, closest on is large and has sails. 2.6) the curling rink and a ship battle game

bord game set up on plastic table, there are cards, counters, meples and posibly cubes indicating buildings, i am not sure since i havent played this. the board itself is quite colourful and may indicate a forest with rivers? 2.7) This is one of the games Glenn had me looking for; it was called “Root”. I am not sure what it’s about or how to play it. (but it looks pretty)

Back to felting, I am still getting too many “Is that an alpaca?” comments. I need to add the ears! Llamas have much taller ears than alpacas. They also have the reputation of being grumpy and spitting, but I am not sure I could express the latter in felt.

2 photos showing first one then both ears sitting on my felt working pad. the lower end of the ears are left with the fiber loos so they can be attached to the head and ear wires3.1) Starting the ear shapes, they need to be firm but not too thick so I can fold them and attach them to the ear wires (which are already covered in white core wool)

Ear shapes, leaving a wispy end unfelted to help attach to the head.

Looking at the few reference photos that I have with me, I keep thinking of their shape, reminding me either of Rabbits or Bananas? (Maybe I am getting hungry.) That’s not quite right, though; now he looks a bit like a weird, long-legged bare koala bear?

back vew of head neck and sholders showing ears which are looking too round. i will felt a fold in them and trim with sizors if i need to. 3.2) ears added using loose unfelted fluff and attaching to the head firmly. Also, attached the covered ear wires to the back of the ear.

I need to create more of a folded ear and make it thinner. I have scissors and felting needles; I can do this!

Now that I have the body to a medium firmness, the ears are close to what I want, and I am impatient to start adding the top coat. I am going to use the shingling method to create the top coat. As I have mentioned before, there are lots of ways to achieve the same effect. I could use a reverse needle to create a fuzzy nap, similar to what you see on the back of a felt picture. Or there are a number of options to lay on the layers of top-coat to create a more realistic coat.

You can create different effects by how you choose to add the fibre. Let’s take a peek at what I did this time to make a fluffy llama ready to be sheared, then we can consider other options I might have tried (probably in the next post, this one looks a bit long already).

I usually start at the lowest part of the body that needs fur and work up. I have seen other felters start from the head or centre back and work down. Both work, but the latter requires you to lift the fibre you have applied to place the next section under it. Both options will work, but the latter feels like more work to me. But if it works for you and you get the effect you want, then stay with the method that works.

2 shots showing adding fiber to hip and low back of alpaca.3.3) Alpaca in progress, adding fluffiness starting

llama lieing on his side on table with coopertive or solo adventure game. box lid in back ground, middle of table has spiral bound book of maps, there are cards and a carictor sheet also on the table to the left is a dice bowl and dice. 3.4)The Llama and I joined a cooperative game.

Llama was having a hard time playing since I had not finished his eyes yet.

2 photos top show positioning of fiber with tips up and cut end down on side of alpaca. lower shot shows deeply embeding fiber into llama body about half way beteen tips and cut end.3.5) Positioning the shingle of alpaca locks, then felting perpendicular to the staple length.

body of llama is now covered in alpaca fiber mimicking a reasoably scruffy llama in need of a hair cut. the neack is still bare he is standing up on one of the gameing tables.3.6) quite fluffy and scruffy alpaca, almost to the point of adding the neck fibre. It will need to be shorter than the body fibre length.

I am working cut end down and tip end up. I am also attaching the fibre quite deeply since this is actually a fine alpaca fibre I am pretending is llama. Deeply felting, it will help it stay secure.

2 of the 3 types of alpaca fiber that was in the bag i was working from. the two clumps one larger one smaller are sitting on the photo refernce.3.7) The bag I am selecting fibre from has a few odd, coarser sections. I have put them aside for now.

this is the third section it has darker base at the cut end and light chocklet coloured tips. it is a bit softer and has strong lock structure.3.8) alpaca fibre dark brown with chocolate tips

This is the section I am working from

  2 shots of the head neck of the llama as i am about to add fiber up the neck. the expresion is somewhat quesioning.3.9) About to start neck, llama is looking either inquisitive or confused

I am not sure if he is questioning my judgment or wants to be a different colour.

Another quick break to see what’s going on at the other part (gaming) of this convention

I had signed up as a replacement if one of the 4 players in a mystery RPG didn’t show up. One was late, but they eventually all arrived. Drat. If it is offered again next year, I will sign up earlier.  You got to play one of 4 little old ladies who were in a book club together. Someone dies (there was mention of Lovecraftian circumstances!!) and you have to find out what is going on.

Glenn helped to carry the walker up the stairs, then back down when all the games arrived. It is an old building and has accessibility issues. It is very hard to find a venue that suits and will not bump them for a wedding or other more lucrative booking. All that climbing was not fun, so let’s take a moment and look around before heading back to the Felting Convention Corner.

2 photos top has game booth for nightmare schematic smileing woman in hat has tray of cookies at front of table. lower photo shows play testig same game4.1-4.2) games at the convention, one that is being play-tested is offering cookies!

Glenn’s coughing was increasing, so we decided not to stay around to watch the Kill Doctor Luck (life-size) game, lest we pass on his plague, and head home a bit early. I packed up the box of felting supplies, one almost furred llama, and folded up the little table. Glenn packed it all up in the car with a few more games that had been labelled free and left on a table for redistribution (I picked up a few for the cottage!)

2 of the 4 tables set out with games that were now free to any convention goer. there are some quite old games as well as some newer ones. 4.3) On Sunday morning, games left for free distribution after the sale were put out on tables (4 tables this year).

from the hatch back vew of the inside of my car, showing pile of games under blanket, walker and large felt box of felting suplys and llama almost done.4.4) the car, loaded up with walker, games under black blanket, and a box of felting fibre, tools and a mostly done llama.

This was again a fun (felting and) gaming convention. You never know, next year we might double the size of the felting component and have 2 needle felters working in the corner! There was definitely more interest in needle felting this year.

 

I would like to chat more about the technique referred to as shingling to give the illusion of a coat. There are a number of options, such as the direction you lay down the fibre (top to bottom or bottom to top?), the staple length, do you fold it over, if so, how much half and half, 1/3 to 2/3’s or not at all?  Which fibre do you select to mimic an appropriate scale replica of what you are making? Long, soft and drapeyer as I was working on, or do you need shorter and stiffer?

I found an eyebrow brush. I did not realise that was a thing to do. I can see it being much more useful to me to gently arrange the fibre I just put on. We can also adjust the top coat with scissors if it’s not just right yet. I love that felters can cut staple lengths if they don’t suit the purpose wanted.

Let’s chat about that more later. Have fun and keep felting!

Jan in green sweter and floral apron working on adding fiber to Llama's neck. taken on the monday long weekend social at the local guild.4.5) photo taken by Ann