Needle Felting – Page 2 – Felting and Fiber Studio

Finally Mer-Felting! in Toronto Ontario Canada part 2

November 16, 2025 Jan Comments 9 comments

October 22^nd 2025

As we prepare to head out of Oakville, we were sad to leave. We have so many happy memories, of visiting Glenn’s parents, the years we were walking our giant black barking “cat” through the neighborhood, even a couple times past the hotel we were just in. That was a long time ago. We stopped at his parents Church and visited the memorial garden. It still had flowers even this late in the fall.

7.1) Oakville Memorial garden

Now its time to get on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), the highway that turns into the Gardner Express way….. don’t let the name fool you it was not expressing speed….

As we trudged along in heavy traffic… it’s now well after 10am, the young Mer seems happy smiling out the window and looking at whatever is attracting his attention. Eventually the road turns north and becomes the Don Valley Parkway, still not moving fast but the scenery is now trees with tall building looking down into the valley. We even spotted a subway car crossing under a bridge. It all must be very exciting to a young mer on his first big trip. I had made cryptic notes, and checked with google maps before heading out, so we found the building without difficulty. It looks like an old industrial building that had many loading bays and production area for about 2/3rds of the building and the last part was a 2 story office area. It made me think of an old newspaper or print shop.

Finding The Olive Sparrow

Monika is upstairs, there is a small elevator so we can yet again avoid those evil stairs. Why don’t you join us and see what I found.

Holding the door open you can look past and see some of her felting supplys 8.1 Monika welcomes us to the Olive Sparrow

If you have seen Monika’s booth at various fiber festivals you will remember walls of bags of colour in various fibers, tools, fine theads, needles and other distractions. I was looking for something to help a friends project and I was curious to see what else she may have that she hadn’t shown us at the various sales.

8.2-8.9)the Olive Sparrow, an overwhelming amount of fibers and colours!! I noticed more things in the photos than I saw while there!!

9.1) Glenn found a comfy enough chair to read and nap as we chatted.

I explained what I was looking for today and we found a few options, including some viscose in excellent colours. I had not found more maori short fiber batts locally, so was extremely pleased to see she had all the brown tones I had used to make moose for the moose bags. I found it compacted to a dense even felt.

Monika showed me a piece she was working on. there are lots of ways to transfer and image to felt or fabric ground, but once you start working you can obscure the guide lines. we are both of an age that remember overhead projectors used at school. She had found some of the transparency sheets and had transferred her line drawing to it. so she could use it to check her layout. This is brilliant, it is easier then trying to redraw an outline as you are working or using proportional dividers.

10.1-10.2) line drawing, picture felting on antique linen and reference photo, and using a transparency overlay on the image to check proportions and progress.

I wonder if I could add registration marks, or use pins, magnets, or bulldog clips to keep the transparency from shifting? I have not seen the acetate sheets for overhead projectors, since I was a teen ager, that was a while ago. (I will be doing a search on line!)

Monika also shared a method of blending and storage of the blended fiber she was using. Instead of just hand blending (stacking and separating until the desired colour is achieved. Which works well for small amounts but can be harder to reproduce the same colour each blending, for larger quantities.)

11.1) hand blending

Instead she lay out the colours in thin wisps similar to how you would lay out fiber for wet felting. Then lay wisps of the other colours on top. Alternating thin layers of wisps.

11.2-11.5) blending larger quonties similar to wet felt layout but stacked in thin layers

She then took the line and from one end rolled it up keeping the fibers in the same direction.

11.6) rolling up the fiber keeping the locks parrelell

She then worked from the stack she had just made and repeated the laying out of thin layers as she had just done.

11.7-11.8-11.9) she continued to layer the wisps then rolling until the amount of blending she wanted had been reached

Once she had the colour she had wanted she took a sheet of paper placing the fiber on it, then folded the paper over the fiber. this kept the fiber parallel. she then rolled the paper with fiber inside and labeled it for latter use. If I have been storing blended fiber for later use I tend to lay it into a zip lock bag which I usually label. Storing it in a folded then rolled paper will keep the parallel alignment which is more helpful when making topcoat for a peice.

12.1-12.3) keeping the blended fibers organized and ready to use

I was very impressed with the collection of needles Monika had available. She had be able to get one of the ones I was very curious about, the “teardrop” shaped felting needle. this odd needle has all its barbs on one side. What would a one-barbed-sideded-needle be used for in Industry? It is used then a woven ground fabric, has fiber added to it. the theory is that the teardrop shape will pass through the woven ground fabric without braking the warp or weft threads and embed the fiber to be attached.

I spotted this in the industrial info a few years ago and immediately was curious, would this work for hand needle felting too? But did not think I would get my hands on a sample. Monika had one and liked it, I am looking forward to investigating this odd needle further.

13.1) some of the needles in sets, she also has a broad selection of individual needles available too.

14.1)The young Mer seems happy with my shopping and is being helpful holding my map notes on our way back to the car. (the Mer-Boyfriend is enjoying his improved hands!)

I found viscose in various colours, a mill end and more Maori short staple batts . She also sent me home with small samples of two core wools she was selling. I think the Young Mer enjoyed the shopping trip and visit with Monika! Now its time to head back to the car and start the return to Ottawa. Once we are back there is more to do to get ready for the Guild sale and exhibition.

I hope you have enjoyed the trip to Toronto and got as distracted by the reflected light and shadows on architecture as i did. i hope i can have another shopping trip to Monika’s store (i know she will mail things but its so nice to be able to feel the fiber and have a visit with her!) I promise I will tell you more about the tear drop needles when life gives me a moment to have fun and investigate.

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Finally Mer-Felting! in Toronto Ontario Canada part 1

November 14, 2025 Jan Comments 7 comments

Finally Mer-Felting!

Monday, Oct 20^th 2025.

Monday Morning arrived much too early. Instead of my original plan of donning my apron, a cherished reminder of my wonderful mother in law, and heading to the guild to work on the library, Glenn was loading a couple of suitcases and a project box into the car. It’s going to be over the usual 5.5 hour drive, with a brief stop to feed the car and ourselves. We are adding a couple quick shopping detours once we get into the Toronto area (primarily, Board Game Bliss). So maybe it will be quicker if you meet me in Oakville? The hotel has a pool you could wait in, but its hours are limited, and it was really chilly the last time I was in it. (No wet felting in the pool while you wait!!!)

1.11) A map of the edge of Ontario, between Ottawa and Oakville, to give you perspective of where we are going today

It was a long drive down, is it possible that either Ottawa or Toronto have moved farther apart? By the time we got into Oakville, and found a spot to eat dinner, the Pool was closed. So, how about we meet on the Go Train platform just down the street from the hotel, and you can come into Toronto with me, it’s the 8:30 express train. Don’t forget your umbrella, the forecast is rain all day.

Tuesday, October 21st 2025

One of Glenn’s Brothers ( brother #4 of 5 brothers) is joining us today, having flown in from the States. I am sure you will like him, he is a math teacher and thespian. We hiked down from the hotel to the Go station. Oh my! The Go train has a raised platform for wheelchairs and walkers to more easily get on and off the train. The Train worked beautifully and was very comfortable. Unfortunately, when we got to the subway station, the lifts for the subway were not all working, so it took a bit of extra time to find the lifts that were and get back from the detour the helpful transit people had sent us on. Good thing the building we are looking for is not too far from a subway stop. We arrived just in time, instead of early, as Glenn’s brother thought we would be. (Avoiding stairs always takes much longer when using public transit.)

We were going to a posh law office in a very high tower, in a canyon of high towers, reflective glass and old stone buildings.

1.12) Some of the landmarks I could see

There were comfortable couches and snacks by the reception desk, and an open stairway in front of a tall window. This window alcove had 2 chairs and a few plants, and a fantastic view looking, I think, sort of south or southeast. (It was hard to tell on the 16^th floor, all my normal landmarks are at ground level, and I never had a direct view of the sun. Later consultation with the map suggests I was looking west-ish.) The Brothers wandered off to a room on another floor to do legal stuff. (I am not a beneficiary, I am not one of the 5 brothers, so I didn’t go with them. I am just here as Glenn’s Driver, moral support, and to do some felting.) I gave up the too-low comfortable couch for the area under the stairs in front of the window with my box of felting supplies. I checked with the office manager that I would be out of the way there, and the huge window could prove interesting if the rain holds off longer.

1.2) This is a nice office, I don’t want to be underfoot, and the lighting is better over by the window.

1.3) Settling into a corner under the stairs.

1.4) There were some iconic buildings in my view. The Hudsons Bay building, a church(out of shot to the left) and what I finally figured out was old Toronto city hall and New City Hall.

I spotted an odd building that may not have been a building. I have seen a program on a subway system, I think it was Boston, but it could have been New York (both were discussed in the program), they had buildings that kept their facades, but had been gutted to add ventilation systems for the subway tunnels beneath them. I think this may be one of those fake buildings. It looked very interesting. I would love to have had a tour of it!

old brick building with turbines in center of it. 1.5) a shell of a building? 4 massive turbines stick out of the middle of what remains of the stone building.

As I was getting organised to start felting, I noticed I had more than just architecture to watch this morning. I have seen roofers working before, but it’s always from below (not a very enlightening perspective). This was a flat roof, too, so not something I have seen done in person before. This will also give you an idea of the actual zoom on my camera, as I got curious about that, too.

no Zoom

pulling back a bit to see more of the work happeing

Some Zoom

zoomed in to watch the workers aply the rubbery membrain

More Zoom

1.6-1.8) Oh no, now I have made all the guild members very nervous!!!

While they are getting to work, adding plastic sheeting and rubber membranes to the sides, I should get to work too. As much as the Mer-boyfriend wants to do his own abs, I should really give him a hand (ok, literally). I am going to focus on hand and arm musculature today.

I started with forearms and strengthening the wrists. The density of the felt was too soft, and the wire strength was overpowering the wool felt through the full forearm. I want the arias just above and below the wrist to be much firmer so the wire will be persuaded that bending at the wrist is correct, while bending in the forearm is not. If you are making a figure that will only be in one position, this is not as big a consideration. Since I don’t know how they will eventually decide to pose, I want them to have options.

2.1) Diagram of wool density around a joint

Note: if you would like the surface over the joint to have the same superficial density as the surrounding felt, you can use a crown needle or use shallow felting to firm the surface, but leave the under layers less densely felted.

2.2) working on the muscles of the forearms (the extensor group)

2.3) working on the posterior aspect of the upper arm just above the elbow joint

It’s handy to have good myology (Muscles) and osteology (Bones) diagrams for this. If you don’t have an extensive selection of anatomy and myology books, Google can be very helpful with its search “Images” tab. Good research is part of the fun of felting!

Once I had firmed up the arms, I focused on his hands. I have the fingers wrapped and have added the beginnings of the thenar and hypothenar eminence at the base of the palm. The fingers can be tricky or fussy to work on. If you only work from one angle, it will flatten the look of the fingers, so working all the way around the fingers works best. Make sure that your needle has the first barb close to the tip so you don’t have to stab deeply to move the fibre. This is again a good spot to switch to a crown needle; it’s not as fast with only a total of 3 barbs, but it doesn’t need to go as deep to engage the fibres.

2.4-2.5) working around the thumb

the Young Mer takes a brake on top of his project box 2.6) Mer resting and having a break in his project box (needle in lat border of the palm).

I checked in on how the roof repair was going. I was trying to figure out if the gravel part was done or if it was yet to be done.

3.1-3.2) watching roofers lay out plastic on top of the black layer, and wondering if the area with rock is finished or yet to be worked on. Using the zoom, I figured out that the gravel is the top layer.

The reflections are interesting with the stormy sky and landscape reflecting in the glass tower in front of me. The clouds have varying looks of impending downpour pour but so far, no rain has fallen. In the glass tower in front of me, I can see a landscape reflecting what is past the building I am in. As the light shifts and changes, the reflections shift too. It is distracting from my felting, and now I wish I were working on a landscape (don’t tell the young Mer, I will get back to working on him again!)

3.3) Storm clouds and reflections in the glass tower before me.

If you look to the lower right side of the reflected building, you will see the landscape that captivated my attention. I am not sure if it was just the shifting lighting or if it was the segmentation of the image by the window frames. I spotted a brief sliver of light on the fall trees as it passed and disappeared.

3.4) The landscape reflected in the glass with a sunbeam piercing the clouds, highlighting a stretch of trees and houses.

The clouds cleared for a moment, a bit later, but were quickly followed by a thick grey miasma of impending wetness….

3.5-3.6) It was particularly striking with the blue sky reflecting in the glass and the storm rushing in behind the building.

3.7) The storm rushed past, determined to dump water somewhere else since the sky cleared and the reflections of clouds were fabulous

I next turned my attention to the old City hall (the new one is a half-circle tower, not nearly as interesting a building). The old tower and main building are dwarfed by the much taller buildings around it. Unlike the many new reflective towers, this building has ornamentation and detail to look at. I hope you are fascinated by architecture as I am and will be inspired. If not by the architecture, then maybe it will give you thoughts of who would live in a building with such interesting windows and what they should wear? What would the gargoyles look like if they got up and flew off? Or, maybe the patterning around the clock face tower will inspire a vessel or scarf?

4.1- old city hall disappearing into the new building surrounding it

4.2- just peeking over the building, the fabulous fenestration and detailing are just visible,

4.3- Gargoyles!! Oh, the dentils in the roof and repeated under the gargoyle’s ledge! What is that pattern just under the clock? If only I could get closer…

4.5- Oh yes, I can get closer!

4.6)- more patterning on this gable end, the sun with swords, circles with a bar and plain weave?

4.7-In the late afternoon, the sun came out, giving this raking light, creating depth and accentuating the details

4.81- As the sun swung further around and pierced between buildings, it finally struck the glass neighbour of old city hall. Bathing the old building in reflected light and shadow patterns from its towering neighbour.

4.82) Sunset is approaching, and the reflections off the glass tower onto the stone and copper roof are intriguing but almost lost amongst the urban landscape.

5.1)The young Mer showing the progress on his hands

5.2) Hands can be a suggestion, or you can spend a long time adding knuckles and surface detail (ask Google to show you surface anatomy, and you should find diagrams of the superficial features)

By late afternoon, I had been switching back and forth, from felting to photography, as the light shifted and played off the reflective surfaces. That landscape I had been watching in the reflection of the building across from me occasionally had highlights of sunshine between clouds, causing parts of the landscape to be illuminated while other parts were darkened. It was very dramatic.

6.1) Another sunbeam strikes the landscape reflection in the building across from me

The sun was getting lower, and I was hoping for a fabulous sunset.

6.2) The reflections and cast light were getting interesting!

Glenn was sent down by their lawyer (for brothers #2 through 5), to say I could go upstairs and join brothers 4 & 5, since a possible agreement had been found… but when I got there, ah, not quite yet. Glenn had carried my Camera, which accidentally stayed in the room with him, and I went to the hall by the elevators. There was a small table beside the door labelled mail-room and a perfectly placed pot light. So I unloaded my project box and got back to work. Unfortunately, I missed the sunset, since there were no windows in the hall. I did have a lovely chat with a lawyer (not involved with mediation) who was working late as well. I give her a quick demo-brake, explaining needle felting and the Missing Mer-teen dilemma and making a Mer-boyfriend to tempt her out of hiding.

The process ran into the evening, but I had an audiobook and was happily felting. Eventually, they were done. No one ever saw brother #1, but he must have been there somewhere. Brothers #4 & 5 and I all headed back towards the subway, the Go-train, and eventually back to Oakville. (Drat, it’s too late and the pool is closed again). (The floating would have been nice, but I am really not fond of the wetness of the water. Water would be much better if it was warmer and drier.)

Wednesday, October 22nd 2025

Very early in the morning, we said goodbye to Brother#4, as he headed off to the airport to fly back to the States. It was very good to see him. Hopefully, we will be able to visit the 3 brothers living in the States in the future, but not until the law applies equally, women regain their rights, and sanity returns.

We also packed up and contacted Monika, of the Olive Sparrow, to check if it would be ok to drop in on the way home. She is not too far off the Don Valley Parkway, south of the 401 highway. She would meet us in about 2.5 hours, lots of time to get to the other side of Toronto!!! ………..

We loaded the car with suitcases, the project box, and the Mer-Boyfriend looking out the back seat window and waving at passing cars (I did take the needle out of his fingers so it was easier for him to wave, if he wants to) (to be continued shortly)

Remember, the sneaky comment button is still hiding at the top of the page as I am writing this, if you would like to comment or just say hi!

A Mer-person at Kanatacon gaming and felting convention; Saturday

October 27, 2025 Jan Comments 5 comments

Surprise, it’s the continuing adventures of a Mer-person’s (and Jan’s) busy weekend. Last post, we made it through Friday at the Kanatacon. Let’s see what happens next. (I am sure you can already guess!)

Saturday Morning:

Glenn, the Mer and I hopped in the car early so we could line up for the sale. Unfortunately, by the time we reached Kanata, it was raining, so they kindly let us line up inside. We were number 26 and 27 (the mer waited upstairs with the felting stuff since he wasn’t shopping). The instructions were that you could select up to 5 games, then go buy them. If you wanted to buy more, you went to the back of the line and went through again.

5.1) The first time through, a lot of games are already gone! I hope I can find the alpaca and lama games!! How many gamers in front of me are Fibre People?

Success!!! I have scored the Fibrr barring animals!!! I also found 2 card games with birds for one of my sisters in law ( they were sent to her, but I have not heard if she likes them yet).

5.2) First round of shopping, I got both the lama and the Alpaca games!!! Plus 2 that had tempting descriptions, and the boxes looked interesting.

5.3) A quick look around, and there are still shoppers downstairs.

I took the elevator back upstairs, dropped off the games with Glenn and took a quick look around the convention before getting back to work. One of the tables near me was playing a board game about Rome. It is a visually stunning game with detailed buildings, cards with drawings, a colourful board and many tokens. It all fits in a very, very, big box.

5.4)A game about Rome, lots of buildings and monuments

This is where we are with this young Mer-person. We are now at the part I have most trepidations about, creating the bumps running down the fish’s back and sides. (Scutes -back and Denticles -sides)

6.1 )Saturday Morning, after the first round of game shopping.

After reviewing my reference photos, I decided on the lighter (“White”) sturgeon. With further inspection, I could see that the first few(4ish)points along the back were spaced a bit closer together, and the rest were farther apart. The number varied from 11-14 Dorsal scutes; I went with 12. To get the spacing, I used sewing pins.

6.2)pins used for spacing

I kept adjusting until the spacing seemed correct. Next was to add small amounts of wool to create the point of the Scute and to felt down the space on either side of the point. For the second one, I realised it worked better if I lowered the space between the points first and then made the point. It is more of a half cone on each side of the ridge. The body colour also accentuates the cone-like shape.

6.3)working on the first cone link-shaped bump

A second shopping with dropped prices was announced, so back downstairs I went (ok, I did not do the stairs). I mostly wanted to see how much had gone and what was left. I was not very quick getting to the basement, the elevator needs a key, and it took a bit longer than the stairs. This meant I was at the end of the line in the hallway, which left me standing by the cashing out table at the back of the sales room! So I got shots of the remains of the game piles and the fervour of reduced price shopping! It was actually calmer than some of the fibre festival shopping I have seen (Black Lambs’ bag of cashmere and silk mill ends comes to mind)

6.4) At 11 am, the second go through with reduced prices on most of the games started.

6.5) I found a few more games that looked interesting, but most had no fibre theme.

The table beside where I was working had a game going; these were a pair of steampunk airships battling each other. (The map and miniatures were very cool; the math to figure out if their various cannons and guns hit each other eluded me, but they seemed to be having lots of fun even with the math.) They spent over an hour chasing each other around the board, trying to blow each other’s airships up.

6.6) Steampunk airships battle over a landscape of hexes.

Switched to a new book; Kristen Painter’s “Embrace the Suck: First Fangs Club, Book 5” (this one has some mobster-like vampires, and other supernatural naturals). Now time to get back to work. I continued blocking in the general shape of each scute.

6.7)the smaller closer closer-spaced scutes

6.8) Scutes are blocked in

With the scutes blocked in, it was time to turn and work on his upper human body. I need to firm up his arms. I brought the reference diagrams I was using for a minotaur project I was working on.

7.1) Turning to the human parts, let’s firm up and define muscles

Firming forearms is not as exciting as it sounds, so I took a break and I tried a bit of the skin tone on his head and some of the fish colour on the fins. I think the skin tone is close the fin colour will need more work.

7.2) building up the definition of muscles and firming up the wool in the forearm

I got a bit distracted listening to the new audio book and concentrating on the arm myology, so there are not a lot of progress shots.

I had a few of the gamers come over to see what I was working on this time. I did a few explanations of needle felting as I worked.

This is always a fun spot to felt and watch the gamers have fun. I should go with Glenn on their regular gaming night occasionally, too. (I might even try a game?)

I know that sometimes I am not a particularly fast felter, I am not in a rush, and I enjoy the process, and I felt quite firmly. So it may not look like I have accomplished much for two days of felting. Good thing the young Mer-person seems quite pleased!

7.3) Glenn and the Mer in progress, both looked quite pleased with the weekend so far! (and it’s only Saturday!)

Dare I tell you what happened Sunday? How about we save that for later?

Do you have any sheep-related games in your collection? Have you tried the Alpaca or Lama games? Have fun and keep felting

A Mer-person at Kanatacon gaming and felting convention; Friday

October 25, 2025 Jan Comments 6 comments

What a busy seven days! No wonder I feel like falling over and having a nap on the floor (which is lying and saying it’s very comfy and I should fall for it!) Chunks of the last seven days were even fiber related!!! I will not overload you with all 7 days at once, or even all 7 of them! But let’s start on Friday, Oct. 17, which was the day my last post went up, about squishy-fish-centres.

The Fish-person in question from the last blog (AKA The Mer-Boyfriend), and I, along with a green folding tote of fibre and needle felting tools, and a cloth bag of snacks and more fibre. We all got in the car and headed off to Kanata (Glenn will be joining us after work), to go to the Kanata Games Club’s annual 2-day fall convention. This is a popular convention and is at the church they have their regular gaming evening the rest of the year. This also explains why the convention starts on Friday, since someone else already has the church booked for Sunday activities.

By the time we got there, Gaming had already begun. From previous years, I knew that the few empty tables would soon be full of gamers. Good thing I brought my own chair (walker), and I had my little folding table still in the car from demoing earlier this summer. I had the same spot at the back of the hall by the coat racks as last year. I can watch the fun, but am out from underfoot and not too far from the bathroom!

1.1) little table and felting supplies for the next 2 days

1.2) The temporarily empty 2 tables directly in front of me will be filled with Playtesting and new game demos’

I got myself sorted out, got my audio book playing (Wen Spencer’s “Black Tie and Tails: Black Wolves of Boston, Book 2” (mostly werewolves) I was almost finished that so soon continued with Dianne Freeman’s “A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder: A Countess of Harleigh Mystery, Book 8” (nothing supernatural in this one).

2.1) I consulted with the young Mer about his fishy-part’s colours. It’s a bit early to start adding the top layer, but I am putting off deciding how to approach the Scutes and Denticles.

I have had fun with variegated braids for landscapes, since you can pull out a bit of whichever tone you want. If you don’t like blending to get the colour you are looking for, this may be an option (but blending is not difficult and fun to do too).

2.2) Part of the braid undone so you can see the colour variations.

Since I can’t work on the final colours if I don’t have the under layers to the correct shape, I need to put away the fish colour and work on adding the fins.

2.3) Adding the Dorsal fin, it has a “V” notch on the back part of the fin and is thicker at the leading edge.

2.4) starting the Heterocercal and Caudal tail fin

2.5) There is a thicker area along the top edge of the heteroceral tail fin

As I was working, the convention continued around us. There was lots of cheering as well as quieter playing. I am not sure which game this was; it caught my attention due to all the various game pieces.

2.6) I am not sure which game this was, but all the odd playing pieces caught my attention.

2.7-2.8) the tail, Pelvic, and Anal fins have been blocked in, but the shape is not correct yet.

If you were curious as to how I am making fins.

To give each fin structure and poseability, I used floral wire. To give it extra support, I added a couple of supports for the dorsal fin and a lower wire for the caudal section of the tail fin.

There are two choices: the wire can be part of the armature, or added as a supplemental element (not attached). I used both methods this time. The Pectoral fins were added to the armature when I reached the hips as I wrapped the first layer of core wool. I twisted the wire around the central aluminium wire armature, then out to the sides. I then kept wrapping wool below the wire along the fish body. The two parts of the tail are also directly attached to the main armature.

3.1) fins that are part of the main armature, Pectoral and Heterocercal tail and caudal fin

The second option is to insert the appendage without attaching it to an armature. This is often done with individual bird legs if you are not making a full armature. For the birds, you can insert the straight wire and use a drop of glue to help secure it until you build up the fibre to support the wire. You can also insert a wire with a curve or loop to make it harder to pull out after more fibre is added around it. I used a single wire for the anal fin that went through the core wool, then the wire was twisted back upon itself.

A single wire can be used to create a single fin, as I did with the Dorsal fin, which went through the fibre in 2 spots, leaving a loop in the centre and one longer and one shorter wire on either side of the centre loop. I again estimated the length for the three sections of wire and twisted them. When you are (prototyping), ok, guessing the lengths you will need after the rest of the core wool has been added. You can come up a bit short. I suspect the anathetic was hanging out in the measuring and estimating section of my brain. You may notice the change in plan as we get further into the project.

3.2) single wire insertion to create a secure Dorsal fin. (More fibre will be added to the core wool after the wire has been added.)

I this case, for the pelvic fins (there are two fins, one on either side of the abdomen), I ran the wire through the core wool at the level I wanted the fins to start, estimated the length, making a bend in the wire, then twisted it (this will both strengthen and shorten the wire). Then built up the core wool fibre of the fish body to further secure the wire.

3.3- 3.4) Pelvic fins are a pair of fins on the underside of the fish before the single anal fin.

It is easier to hide the wire and attach the fibre for the fin if I first cover the supplementary support wires with wool. So, like wrapping tiny toes and other fine appendages, start with a thin, narrow piece of fibre (or roving), you can always add more, but it’s a pain when you have added too much.

I secured the fibre that I will be wrapping around the supplement wire to the body at the base of the wire. Once secure, I will wrap the length of the wire. When the fin wire is wrapped, I added a thin layer of fibre over the wrapped wire, and tacked it into the fibre that wrapped the wire. I folded the fibres over the leading edge with the wire and then used the punch tool with fine (40-42g) needles to secure it to itself and compact the fin. I expanded the fin area with more thin layers of fibre and secured them with the punch tool. I am keeping the fins thin, since fins are thin and I will be adding more fibre when I add the surface colour. If you wanted to do even thinner fins, you may choose to build this underlayer with your finished colours. I used the final outer fibre with Mrs. Mer’s fins, which are white and relatively thin (butterfly Koi).

3.5 ) using the fake clover punch tool to flatten the fins at his hips.

Tip: support your fin on your work surface edge and use the punch tool to flatten the felt as much as you can. Pieces of pool noodle can be helpful to support parts of your work as you needle felt an appendage. Sara has a mini version of her stabit rice and burlap pad that can be used in the same way.

Tip: We are felters, we are not spinners who shun scissors as the work of the devil, and would never cut their spinning fibre. If you get the fin to the thinness you want and the general shape, you can use scissors to correct the shape. Remember to check that the cut edge is solidly felted.

In the evening, there was an announcement that we could go downstairs to view the games that would be on sale tomorrow morning. Luckily, there is a small elevator, close to where I was working, so I could check out the sale too. After looking through the extensive piles for games with sheep themes, we did not have luck with sheep, but I did find one game focusing on alpacas and one about llamas. If I get them tomorrow, I will take them to the next long weekend social and see if we can play them.

4.1) previewing the room full of games for sale.

It was getting close to 10 pm, Glenn had fun with the games he had played, and I had a good day of felting and audiobooks. It was time to head home. We will have to get up early if we hope to get such exciting games with fibre bearing animals! (I promise not to leave you in suspense for long!)

PS the comment button is at the top of the page, if you would like to use it.

Fish should not have squishy centers!

October 17, 2025 Jan Comments 13 comments

A few weeks ago, I turned my attention back to working on the latest Mer-person (the boyfriend for Miss Mer) and realised I had a small problem. It is very fixable, but I thought you might like to chat about what and how it happened.

A quick review of the newest Mer-persons progress so far;

1.1-1.2) 05-2025 Cangames (you can see what happens if you get distracted winding fingers…I fixed that too.)

1.3) 06-04-2025 Mer-boyfriend trying to get me to rush his felting

1.4) 06-15-2025 Blacksmithing weekend and felting the mer-boyfriend

1.5) 07-14-2025 Social

1.6) 08-08-2025 Friday Twist shop and demo

As you can see in the review, I had a few problems with counting fingers and rushing to build up the shape. I do have an excuse, as I started this project, I was still heavily distracted by lingering anaesthetic. I think there may be a few tendrils of the stuff still clinging to bits of brain, but most of it has now left the building. (Yah!)

When I was wrapping, especially in the Fish parts, I had not kept the second layers of wrapping as tight as I would have liked. This was exacerbated by starting to block in the superficial features before getting the understructure as firm as I would like. This meant that the Fish parts were now close to the correct shape at the surface, but squishy if you applied pressure to the felt. Squishy does not suggest strong young fish!!! (Fish also usually do not have the ability to fold mid fish.)

Working on superficial features (shallow poking of the wool with 38T333 and 42T222 needles) gave me a nicely felted surface with a much more loosely felted under layer. (I got excited, I jumped ahead and started into the fun sculpting, before a firm under layer was achieved!) Well, that is not what I was wanting. How am I going to fix that?

2.1) Diagram of superficial felting with a less felted core.

Since I am still working on the understructure, I can fix this now without too much difficulty. I will need to move fibre at a deeper layer, and since I am making the under structure, not the finished surface layer, I don’t have to worry about surface pitting if I move to a courser needle (a 36T-333). Pitting is telling you to keep felting, until the raised area (the parts not yet felted) is even with the lower spot (which is felted more).

Why would I move to a courser needle? I want to move fibre, but I will not be adding more fibre superficially at this point. Also, if I work deeply with a finer needle, it is more sensitive to minor directional changes (which can lead to OOPS!!) I would prefer not to have to go searching out broken needle bits from his fishy parts.

Synopsis: A Courser needle is more aggressive when moving fibre, and is less fragile than a finer needle, especially when working deep into the under layers.

2.2) Diagram inserting the needle deeper to affect the under layer

Synopsis: The barbs affect the fibre by grabbing one to a few fibres as they are passing through. If you only work to a shallow depth, you will only be affecting those fibres. If you are working to a greater depth, you will affect the fibres that are located there and some of the fibres above them.

There is another way squishy interior felt can occur;

As with Wet felting, some breeds of sheep have fleece that is less inclined to create a dense felt than other breeds. I have had trouble with a couple of the Rideau Arcott fleeces (created with a mix of breeds) I have used. No matter how much needle felting of that wool I did, it remained spongy, but it was holding together, so it was felted. A Less than appropriate wool choice is not the problem this time, since I am using Corradale carded roving, which I have used before without problems.

Before I started to firm up the understructure of my fish person, he was able to fold his tail tightly in half and fit in the smaller project bag. Now, after hours of poking, he will have to go into the big project bag.

3.1) 10-05-2025 Slipper workshop (I think the wetness was too much for him?)

He now bends and stays in position, but no longer stays when the bend is extreme. (The increase in felt stiffness has strengthened the wool. He is poseable, but the wool felt is getting closer to overpowering the wire. I can stop increasing the firmness now, and work on adding more of the understructure superficial detail and the missing fins. (I will return to shallow poking rather than deep stabbing!)

I should mention the importance of gauge choice and wire type for your armature. It is important to figure out the gauge of wire you need for the size of your sculpture, and the pose or position you would like your figure to be in. You can make a blind guess, an educated guess from previous experience, or you can make samples. (I know some fiber artists, I am looking at a couple of my weaver friends, who are vary avers to sampling but it can be both educational and inspirational even if you don’t get the result you expected.)

I organised a study group during COVID to make samples of various gauges of mainly aluminium and Steel (floral) wire. It gives me a reference sample I can use to select a good wire gauge to try for a new project. (Before the samples, I could adjust the armature to make it stronger by adding steel floral wire to a limb to give it more strength. This can be done over part of the wool under structure, as long as more wool would be added on top.) I have also had to add lateral supports when the lumbar spine of Mr. Mer broke (I wound up doing surgery with a sharp awl, inserting Harrington rods running up each erector spinae muscle and down into the upper Hamstrings.)

awl inserting harrington rods (10g aluminum coated wire) lower section is imbeded from lower lumbar to below his glutes Mr Mer showing where the two rods is hidden on one side of his back 4.1-4.3) 01-19-2022 Mr. Mer’s Fishy parts, augmenting armature after felting is well underway. (Insertion of Harrington rods in progress) fixing this far into felting becomes harder to hide the surgery, but not impossible.

With armature wire gauges and felting, you have 3 options for outcome.

1) Wire overpowers wool (felt):

The wire holds the wool/felt staying in position when posed.
A lighter gauge of wire could have been used and still held the wool in position (working with heavier wire than you need can stress your hands and may develop metal fatigue if you are moving the figure often)

2) Wire = wool (felt):

The wire holds the wool staying in position when posed

This is the balance you would like to achieve, since you will not have worked with over-stiff wire.

3) Wool overpowers wire (felt):

When posed, the wire is moved out of position by the density or strength of the wool.
Augmenting the armature might be possible if you catch the imbalance before you finish the understructure. It is increasingly difficult to strengthen the wire the closer you are to finishing the sculpture. (but you can see with Mr. Mer it is not impossible to strengthen the armature quite far into the felting.)

If you have the opportunity, you may also want to make samples of various gauges of wire or combinations of gauges if you don’t have access to a full range of aluminum and floral wire (there are sources online if you can’t find a range of wire locally).

Investigate locally easily available types of wire first. One of the English felters uses rubber-coated garden wire for armatures. A few felters on YouTube, like pipe cleaners, but craft pipe cleaners are weak compared to the strength of other options. If you are doing very lightly felted structures (a lot of the faceless fairies are only lightly felted), pipe cleaners might work to su0pport the wool. What pipe cleaners are very helpful for is wrapping around your armature, to help secure the wool as you wrap it. Cheap quality pipe cleaners, in areas of high humidity, have another problem: they can rust.

As you find more gauges and types of wire, make samples of them too. Keep notes, was it easy to shape or twist, or did your hands tire quickly? (Note: Uncoated aluminium will leave marks on your hands.) Also, try a gauge and augment it with a second finer wire too; it will give you more options if you don’t have access to a full range of aluminium and floral wires. I made a series of legs, with feet, and to test floral wire as fingers, I made arms with hands. I can now refer to the samples when I start a new project.

I have been puttering along, firming up his fishy bits and then moved on to work on his upper musculature. I will have to print off another set of photo-reference if I cannot find the book with the last set. (found it!)

5.1-5.2) The fish parts are now quite firm. I think I am almost ready to start adding the little spikes.

I will try to remember to take some more in-progress shots while I figure out the fish details. I apologise! I am afraid that for this part of “stiffening-of-the-Fishy-under-structure” felting, I climbed into bed with a big pile of pillows and felted while listening to the end of the new Lynsay Sands vampire book. Then started the latest Wen Spencer (this one has a vampire and werewolves) audiobook, and forgot to bring the camera! (Needle felting in bed is not the suggested location for optimal felting and avoiding self-stabbing as you fall asleep while felting…. a table is really a better choice)

5.3)Some of the sturgeon reference photos I have collected, focusing on the spines/spikes.

What’s next;

You may remember last year, about this time, was the Kanata games (and felting) convention (last year I found a sheep game). It is coming up, and I wanted to have most of the basic shape blocked in and firmed up so I could start working on the fiddly bits of the ridges and rows of spikes. If all is going really well, I hope I can start to add some of the colour layers during the convention.

PS: I can think of a reason you may like to have that firm outside and softer felted inside. I am sure one of my cats would have appreciated something to pounce on that squished in a satisfying way.

One way to achieve this would be; wrap your fist layer securely (around the armature, if you are using one, which will keep the felt from rotating around the armature), then wrap the next layer a bit looser. Then, focus the majority of your felting on the shallow depths, and you could recreate the squishy inside effect. If you wrap around a bundle of fresh catnip leaves, it will be even more appealing. Just make sure the outside is well felted, so no one can tear off and eat the wool, to get to the catnip!

Even from what is technically an anaesthetic-incused mistake, you can notice something and save that thought for later use. Who knows when it may be a useful idea?

I will update you on his progress at the convention! Maybe there will be more felters this year! Stop by between games if you are there. I hope you too are enjoying this late summer/not-really-fall and getting the last of your summer fibre purchases washed, before the weather remembers to look at the calendar and realise we used to have snow in about 2 weeks from now. (Really, there is no rush! I am enjoying this not-fall and am perfectly happy not to be having snow any time soon!)

PSS, if you would like to comment on any of the posts you read in the blog but cant find the comments button, it has vanished from the end of the post! (it is either very shy, or trying to avoid work) since it is now hiding all the way back at the top of the post (where no one would ever think to look for it! silly button you have been found and will hopefully be put to work!)

This and That.

September 13, 2025 Shepherdessann Comments 15 comments

It is almost Fall. You can feel it in the air, and a few trees are starting to change. Usually, we like to hang on to summer as long as possible, but I am happy the dry, searing heat of this summer is finally gone. Yes, I am touching some wood as I say that. It’s been a busy 2 weeks with school starting and the market picking up. Suddenly, we were out of meat pies, and I had to get baking. That doesn’t leave much time to felt. I did manage to get to the Almont Fibre Festival to help with the demonstration.

I put all my sheep key chains together

I am wondering about putting some wax or something on their ears to make them a little flatter and protect them. My thread wax is too hard. I wondered about some of the solid lip balms. It’s mostly wax. I think that might be too soft. I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to use glue because it will make them too hard, or the PVA (school) glue can take up water and get tacky. Any suggestions?

I am packaging them so they stay neat. I had to get bigger bags for them. The ones that came with the card were not big enough. I have a shrink wrap machine that has a hot wire cutter, so I will cut the bags down so they fit properly.

While searching for some lost samples, the book resist thing I did about 10 years ago surfaced. The idea I had was to weave the ropes into a basket. But not thinking it through, I made 6 lobes and strings. You need an uneven number for the weaving to work. I took it to a social, thinking I had a good idea of a way to weave it. It didn’t work. Partly, it was not cooperative and partly (mostly?) I was impatient. Anyway, everybody had fun looking at it and playing with it. The general consensus was that it wants to be a jellyfish. So, I need to create some long, wavy, ribbony pieces, and possibly some long curls for the middle to hang down inside the long tentacles. I wonder if it will take me another 10 years. LOL

We would love to hear from you. If you would like to leave a comment, the comment button is at the top of this post, just below the title.

Playing with prefelt

September 7, 2025 Lindsay Wilkinson Artwork Comments 16 comments

In May this year, I wrote about about a vessel I’d made for an exhibition called ‘Edge’. Although this hadn’t been the intention, the vessel gave me a sort of Japanese minimalism vibe, which was something I wanted to revisit.

The vessel fit the Edge brief in that I’d used a circular resist to create the shape but rather than cut the hole in the centre of the circle, I’d stood it on one edge, with the hole on the opposite edge. I like this shape and want to explore it further.

The fibre I’d used was something I also want to come back to. A beautiful fine carded merino and silk mix from World of Wool, it was time-consuming to lay out because of the short staple-length, but produced a lovely, light and velvety soft felt.

Before leaping into making something with so many variables of shape, surface design and fibre, I knew I needed to make some samples and decided to think first about the surface design.

I have no real knowledge of Japanese minimalist art and am not trying to replicate it, just play around with some of the simplicity of design and colours as inspiration. I love problem-solving (or perhaps that’s problem-investigating) so was setting myself a bit of a challenge.

I’ve seen various images of beautiful Japanese brush work using black ink brush strokes and red circles on a white background and I wondered if I could create something like that in felt. The biggest challenge seemed to be how to wet felt black, red and white together while keeping the colours separate. Prefelt seemed to be one way to go so I made three different black prefelts to see which might look like black ink brush strokes.

Using commercial black merino prefelt, I cut a strip and felted it a little. I didn’t think this would work well as it’s the cut ends that move most into the surrounding fibres and this strip is basically all cut edges. Next, I tried lightly prefelting two other types of black merino wool: carded and tops, as if I was starting to make felt rope.

The tops and carded wool produced very similar-looking results and I confess, when I got to the making bit, I lost track of which was which. The advantage of these was that the fibres are mainly running along the length of the line rather than sticking out of the sides so there should be less migration into the white. I decided I’d use these rather than the commercial prefelt strip.

I then turned my attention to red circles. I suspect carded wool might be best but I only have tops in red so that was what I used. First, I just tried making a circle freehand. I got about 2/3 of a circle and a raggedy bit. On the plus side, there weren’t cut edges, so that should help minimise side-to-side fibre migration. On the minus side, the shape left a lot to be desired! Needs further work.

Next, I made some red prefelt and cut a couple of circles out of it. I thought this would work less well but I was interested to see how they compared with the freehand idea.

I was aiming for a very simple design, so played around arranging black strands and red circles in different combinations.

Now to actually make a sample.

I used a rectangle of white silk and merino commercial prefelt for speed, and felted it together with three black strips and a red circle to see what happened.

As you can see, the black didn’t migrate much on the long sides, though it did where I’d cut the shorter pieces (on the ends on the left side). The lines did, however, crimp and move a bit – maybe I need to prefelt these a bit less on the length and definitely more on any cut ends. Also, I must keep a better check on any movement as I felt.

The red, on the other hand, probably needed prefelting more as there was quite a lot of migration there. Basically, far too many loose cut ends, so either felt the edges harder or go back to a different layout.

At this point, I wonder why the heck I’m doing this: the layout looks so much better than the felted piece. Nevertheless, I decide to make a quick second sample before I finish for the day.

This time I used the freehand red circle with the raggedy edge. Somewhere in the dusty corners of my brain, I’d started to think about using resists to reveal the colours rather than just laying them on the surface. I hadn’t actually developed this thought but just plonked a resist on top of the red felt and laid a second layer of the white over the whole of the piece. I had some vague thoughts about the red incomplete circle looking a bit like a setting sun so placed it near the bottom and thought I could perhaps print some flying bird silhouettes on the upper part afterwards.

OK, I’m sort of freewheeling by this stage.

The useful learning from my experiments thus far was that the freehand circle (which has fibres running around the circumference of the circle, therefore avoiding lots of ends sticking out) works much better. You can see this very clearly from the under side. The cut ends clearly also migrate much more up and down as well as side to side. The freehand shape was probably also felted a bit harder than the red prefelt sheet.

Sample 1 underside: lots of migration round the edges

For my final two test pieces, I lightly needle-felted some red circles then wet-felted the edges to make them as neat as possible. I went back to using the original white carded 70:30 merino:silk mix and decided to concentrate on getting the red circle right. I laid out two layers of fibre at right-angles to each other and put a needle felted circle top right.

The needle-felted circle felted in well and when it was dry I printed a tree onto it. It’s a bit big but I’m going to make this into a birthday card for my Mum.

For my final test piece I continued with the carded merino & silk batt. I laid four layers of fibre round a circular resist and added one needle-felted red circle on each side.

As with my earlier Edge vessel, I cut it on one of the edges (rather than in the centre of the circle) and designed it to sit on the opposite edge.

Part-way through fulling, I worried that one of the red circles hadn’t felted in very well so did a little judicious needle felting around its edges before finishing the vessel.

This is a lot smaller than my original ‘edge’ vessel and much sturdier.

Conclusions?

The needle-felted and freehand wet-felted circles work better than cutting the circles from prefelt. I like the effect though could maybe make the need-felted circles a bit thinner: they do look as if they’re partially sitting on top of the surface. I’m happy that I’ve more or less cracked that bit of my challenge. As for the black lines, I’m leaving them for now but may come back to them at a later stage. The carded merino / silk batt was lovely to work with and I will definitely be making more things using this fibre. I might make a series of vessels using different colours and / or numbers of circles. I may also develop combining a circle and a printed tree. As usual, each experiment opens up lots of new possibilities. So much felt to make and too little time…..

FELT SWAPPING

August 16, 2025 frabjousfabrica Comments 9 comments

The International Feltmakers Association has been running an annual Felt Swap – setting a theme and linking members who’ve elected to join the challenge with a “swap partner” from somewhere in the world – since 2020. I spotted the invitation to join in the 2025 swap on one of the regular emailed Newsletters and decided to have a go. I started to write this post about the entry and remembered that I’d entered the first Swap and had posted about it. However, when I trawled back through my posts to find the link for you, I found that I hadn’t actually written the post, let alone published it. So we’d better start there.

The subject of that challenge was “Light”. I thought a lot about this as it seemed such a wide subject and I didn’t know where to go with it.

To begin with I listed as many things as I could think of that could have anything at all to do with light and came up with: Light bulbs; Bright light – dazzling – blurred; Rainbow; Prisms and light splitting; Dark area with light coming in from one side; Sun beams from behind clouds; Fire light; Moon light; Lighthouse; Northern Lights.

Clouds and especially stormy skies fascinate me and I thought that I could do something with this idea. Initially I went for a sun low on the horizon just showing through some dark clouds but with rays going upwards behind the clouds. For some reason this was not a success so was abandoned.

Then we had a thunderstorm and I had a lightbulb moment! So I looked through some of Mr Google’s images just to remind myself what forked lightning looked like and then went for a storm over the sea, and used this image for reference.

dark sea, dark stormy clouds with forked lightning running from clouds to sea — Lightning at Sea

I have a collection of fibres, yarns and fabrics in my “stormy” project sack – too big to call a bag – and my first thought was to use some of those in the picture I had in mind. I had already made a mixed media image of a storm at sea using various textiles and fibres and thought of doing something similar.

Mixed media picture of stormy clouds, rough sea, rocks, spray and wind tossed seagulls — Storm at the Coast

So I looked out some of the fabrics and yarns and other bits and pieces to see what I might use.

Pieces of various types of fabric and yarns all of dark "stormy" colours - blues, greys, purples etc. — Part of my stash of “stormy” textiles

dark stormy coloured fibres and sequins — Some stormy fibres and some sequins to give light?

But in the end I decided that I wouldn’t use these for a couple of reasons: 1. this was supposed to be a “felt” swap; and 2. using the mixed media would possibly need a larger picture than I was making – we were limited to A5 size – 5.8 x 8.3 inches (sorry I don’t work in “the foreign” if I can help it). I did use my stormy fibres though.

I was reasonably happy with the picture after it had dried, but decided to do a bit of tidying up and embellishing with some needle felting.

This is the final result

completed felt picture of storm at sea with dark clouds and forked lightning running down into the sea — The swap picture of LIGHTning

My swap partner, from Denmark, sent me a felt bag, which was really good. I didn’t want it to get dirty or damaged before I was able to use it and show it off so I wrapped it up and put it in a safe place. So safe that …..!

Anyway, back to this year’s swap. The theme for this one is “Inspired by an Artist”.

Again this was a very wide subject, first choose your favourite artist then find a piece of their work that sparks an idea. I don’t actually have a “favourite” artist, I love the work of many: Constable; Canaletto; Turner; Rowland Hilder; William Morris and most of the Arts and Crafts artists and architects; Rennie Mackintosh…. I could fill up the page with names. I trawled through works by most of these, bearing in mind the maximum size of the piece I was to make (8″ x 8″) the while. In the end I decided that I would go with Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

I searched google and found several stained glass windows, one wall carving and a draft fabric design that I liked.

part of a stained glass window designed by Rennie Mackintosh — Stained Glass at The Willow Restaurant

stained glass window by Rennie Mackintosh showing his design of roses — Rennie Mackintosh Roses

a section of terracotta tiles forming a design by Rennie Mackintosh — The terracotta tiles on the wall of Queens Cross Church

Many overlapping triangles some filled with colours and some empty — Rennie Mackintosh’s Purple Triangles fabric design

A complete window with stained glass design as by Rennie Mackintosh — Stained glass window thought to be by Rennie Mackintosh – the whole window

In the end though, I decided to go with a section of the last one, which I squared up and manipulated to make it the right shape and size. The window is typical of the Art Nouveau period and “attributed to Mackintosh”. I could not find out if it is actually his design but it is certainly very like his work.

The centre section of the previous stained glass window — Picking the reference section

The stained glass window section extended — Squaring the image (sort of)

I picked the centre of the window to work on and the enlarged and reshaped (slightly) design was printed off in greyscale and laminated. I would be able to use the laminated design as a base on which to lay out the fibres.

a monochrome image of the window section covered in polythene sheet and the original image in colour — All ready to lay out the fibres

While I was looking through my stash for suitable fibres and pre-felts for the project I happened to glance at the design which was inverted. I immediately saw a face with an extremely runny nose!

the monochrome image rotated 15 80 degrees — This was when I spotted the runny nose!

Nevertheless I thought it would be fun to use the design of the face, since we were to produce something “inspired by” a favourite artist, rather than copy what s/he had produced. This would allow me to get rid of the runny nose and I also wanted to change the colour scheme.

I had decided to use a piece of pre-felt which I had bought from Wingham Woolwork some years ago, especially as it was slightly moth eaten and I could use what I might otherwise have to throw away. This was a lovely strong purple colour so I decided that my colour palette should be purple, turquoise and orange.

various fibres, yarns in purple, orange and turquoise, and an orange chiffon scarf — Picking colours and materials

The basic design was laid out in reverse, that is with turquoise knitting/felting yarn “face down” on the design, with some fillings-in of orange fibres on top and two squares of turquoise where the “eyes” would be. The purple pre-felt backing was placed on top of that and the whole wet felted. Unfortunately this resulted in the straight lines becoming distinctly wavy – a good job this wasn’t a straight copy of the original!

After the piece was rinsed, dried and ironed, the remainder of the design was added by needle felting (which, together with the shrinkage during wet felting, had effectively removed the moth holes) and finally some simple embroidery stitches.

Monochrome image with some fibres and yarns laid out as part of the design — Beginning the reversed layout of fibres

purple felt sheet with turquoise yarns following design and some parts filled with orange fibres — Just finished wet felting

purple felt sheet with turquoise yarns following design and some parts filled with orange fibres with more yarns added — Needle felting more features

the orange and turquoise face on purple felt sheet with stitching added — With more features added with a sewing needle

The piece has been mounted on foam board for stability.

finished face - orange eyebrows, nose and eyes with turquoise moustache, and facial features on a purple background — Finally – the Swap piece

This is the piece I received from my Canadian (Calgary) swap mate. It is inspired by “Violet Poppies” by Emile Nolde https://arthur.io/art/emil-nolde/violet-poppy

Isn’t it gorgeous?

3 felted poppies with dark leaves on a yellow felted background, displayed in a circular embroidery frame — Swap piece received from Canada

Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

August 4, 2025 Jan Comments 22 comments

Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

Summer is the season of planned and spontaneous demos. Whether it’s planned, demonstrating felting at fairs, craft shows, fibre or yarn stores, or less planned, felting sitting in front of your home, or waiting at a doctor’s office, it’s an opportunity to introduce others to the fun of felting. I wanted to chat about this today, since I have recently overhead others say they haven’t signed up to do guild demos because they don’t know what they will get asked at the demo. Also, they have never demoed before and feel that they need to be really good to demo.

Demos are an opportunity for us to show others what cool things we are doing. We don’t have to be masters at what we are showing, but we have to be enthusiastic (without scaring the public) and look like we are having fun. Seeing someone who is enjoying what they are demoing is likely to inspire someone to try whatever they are doing. It is also good to see someone who is just starting to let others know they can do this, too.

1) 2019 Wool Growers Co-Op Demo

If you have never demoed before, try a group demo where you are not alone and have others who can answer questions and take the lead. You can also just bring your felting with you when you will be waiting somewhere for a while, like the doctor’s office or emergency department, most people will just smile and watch. (They are usually happy to have something to distract them from why they are there. It’s a good way to get used to being watched while you’re working.) Spinning is particularly popular with people in the emergency waiting room.

I have found that at most big demos, I have to start talking to people before they will approach. When I first started to demo, it was weaving I was showing. If someone seemed curious, but not brave enough to ask what I was doing, I would ask what type of loom they had at home (even when I was reasonably sure they had never seen a loom before). They usually laughed and started talking to me, often about their grandmother’s spinning wheel! (We will not discuss today anyone loudly saying “look she is making wool!!” while I am spinning, or “Look she is spinning!!” when I am weaving. It’s a bit trickier, so getting Sleeping Beauty’s spindle wheel confused with Rumpelstiltskin’s flax wheel is slightly understandable.) Nevertheless, it was an opening, and I could tell them about the magic of watching cloth appear as you change the order of harnesses, which changes the pattern.

Now let’s consider what seems to be the most scary for new demo-ers, what am I going to get asked?

First, you are not required to know everything to demo! If you get a question you don’t know the answer to, admit that, and suggest they contact the local or online group. You don’t have to be an expert! Enthusiasm and looking like you are having fun will inspire others to try. That said, whether I am demoing needle felting in 2D or 3D, I most commonly get a few questions repeated as I am working. Let’s take a look at some of the most common questions.

The first is “How does that work?”

If you don’t know how the needle’s barbs grab the fibre and push it into the felt or ground fabric, it does look like magic. I try to show them the barbs along the working part of the needle. If you have a course needle, it’s easier for people to see or feel the barbs (32g or courser). If they are having trouble seeing, I let them hold the needle, warning them the end is very sharp, and have them run their fingernail over the area where the barbs are located.

*I did have one person tell me they had tried using a needle to felt and it hadn’t worked at all. After I showed her the barbs on my needle, she admitted she had tried a sewing needle. I can see why she was having trouble getting the wool to felt.

2.1) Doer felting needle 32G

2.2) Doer needle chart for triangle needles

2.3) 2019 small muskox landscape, Demoing at a social, under drawing and adding wool, finished image

Common 3-D Question:

When I am working on a 3D piece, I get asked variations on “how do you move the wool where you want it to go?”.

First, the wool moves in the direction that the needle is travelling. Poke in the direction you want the wool to move. While also being aware of the position of your barbs, and thus your working depth, so you are getting the barbs to entangle or move the fibre to the location you want it to be. It’s easy to say, and sounds simple, but I have seen beginner felters poking vertically (up and down), while trying to move the wool horizontally. It would be more effective if they poked the needle horizontally (moving left and right) or rotated their shape to align with the direction the needle is moving.

You can get quite devious with this concept. While working on a sheep broach, I had the face quite sheepish, but the nose was not as firm as I wanted. Who wants a soft-nosed sheep, that is just flaccid, or a limp-nosed un-sheepish aardvarkish-sheep? If I poke from the outside, into the nose, I will distort the nose, and I will have to add more wool and reshape it. There is a second way to firm up under a surface structure that you are already pleased with, if you have not finished sculpting the back side. You need to know where the first barbs are on your needle and how far to push the wool so the needle does not emerge past the finished surface. In this case, I worked from the back of the head, pushing fibre through the sheep’s head broach towards the nose, from the back, to firm up the nose without changing the outer surface. It’s sneaky, but it works.

3.1) Moving the wool to firm up the face if needed.

3.2) 2020 demoing for the delivery guy sitting by my side door

I also usually explained that needle felting sculpture is both additive (like clay) and Subtractive (like Stone). Usually, you use some of both concepts when you sculpt with wool.

Additive:

You can make a shape and then add it to your creation. Sara from Sarafina Fiber Arts (lots of YouTube videos, including the Mermaid feltalong) works a lot this way. It has the advantage of being easy to explain what you are doing and is repeatable by other felters.
You can build up a body by layers of muscle, which is a great way to study musculature, but not a fast way to sculpt. Most sane people just add the general superficial musculature in a simplified form. You can also just go for cute and make more of a caricature of what you are making.

4.11) A circle of fibre, needle felt across the diameter, then fold in half. Felt along fold line and as far down as needed, leaving an unfelted fringe giving an edge to attach to the main shape. Sara creates most of her sculptures this way.

4.12) adding fins that have been pre-shaped and the attachment edge left loose to allow it to be secured to Shark Boy

Subtractive:

If you poke in the same spot repeatedly, the fibre under that spot will entangle and compact. Visually, you will see the area that is being poked indent. Which looks like you have removed the wool above the dented area, while in fact it’s just compacted the fibres and moved them in the direction the needle was pointing.

4.2) Stabbing repeatedly in the same spot will both indent and compact that spot relative to the surrounding area.

Hybrid – working with loose fibre (using both additive and subtractive methods to sculpt):

I often use loose fibre, use a few pokes to attach it to the area I want to sculpt and then, by careful poking, shape it into what I want to see. I tend to do this more when I am building up the under structure. But sometimes for adding detail, too. This is not as fast as remaking a shape and adding it, but it’s a lot of fun.

4.31- 4.32) Miss Manta demonstrating adding loose wool and sculpting it into place.

Common 2-D felting question:

When I am working on a picture, people will stop and watch me add small wisps of fibre, layering them to get to the depth of colour I want. “Oh, I would never have the patience to do that!” OK, that technically isn’t a question, but that gives me the opportunity to talk about the various ways you can approach making a picture with needle felting that they could use.

Like a pastel: (usually a good approach with landscapes)

Working from the background towards the foreground.
It is easier to overlap images and create depth.
This usually makes the most sense for most images as an order of working.

Treating wool/fibre like a watercolour: (slow but impressive results)

Slowly layering tiny bits of fibre like washes in water colour painting. The transparency of the application allows the upper layer to be affected by the under layers. If you have lots of patience or just like to putter on a project, this may be your choice.

Like an acrylic (paint by number or colouring books): (much quicker than working like a water colour)

If you use a small window to isolate part of your reference image, you can match the colour you see in the little window, mix that colour, and then add it. Move to another spot and match and add that colour. You can think of this more like a paint-by-numbers kind of approach.
You can mix larger amounts of colours that occur in various parts of the image, which gives the image cohesion and it’s faster than mixing the same tone multiple times.
This is quicker than working like washes of watercolours.

Using a bit of each approach:

If you use the work order (like a pastel) from the background /mid-ground /foreground
Use colour matching to lay out the main parts of the picture, then
Use wisps of colour for blends and highlights in the blocks of colour.

5.1-5.2) 2018 Makers fair demo

I also get asked about “What fibres are you working with?”

This gives me the opportunity to talk about different properties of fibres. We can use lots of different kinds of fibre, sheep, alpaca, lama, Dog, Cat, Yak, silk, even plant and manmade fibre. I can show on the fox picture that some of the cream coloured fibre is cat hair. That there is silk in some of the highlights, and the whiskers are horse hair, but I am looking for the outer guard hairs of a muskox, which I think will work better. Most of the rest is various breeds of wool.

Different types of sheep have different wool properties. (light reflection/ texture/crimp) fibre preparation; carded or combed, can also be used to affect your picture)
- Merino absorbs light, so it works wonderfully for shadows
- Bluefaced Leicester has a higher light reflection, so it works well for highlights
- Shetland and Coriedale are what I tend to use for most of the image
We can also use fibres from other fur-bearing animals; dogs, cats, llama, alpaca, muskox, yak, bison, angora goat or rabbit, etc.

“Where do you get your fibres”? It is usually the next question.

Local yarn or fibre shops, online, and local farms.
Try to give a few options that are near to where you are demoing, if possible

6.1) 2017 Ann demoing the Blending board at the carp fair

If the demo is at a fair or large event, remember you may only get a few minutes of their time, so give the brief version of an answer (I have trouble with this. I can be verbose, I know you are shocked to hear that!). If they don’t look like they need to leave, you can either go into more depth or ask them if they have more questions. If they look interested, but rushed (kids are trying to drag them away to the rides), try to have contact info for the local group that they can track down later. A business card is great to hand out, or a sign with the contact info that they can take a photo of and consult later is helpful too.

6.2) 2019 Farm show demo, part of the table display

6.3) 2025 Dickonson day demo, Amanda getting help with her spinning

Synopsis:

Smile, engage people by asking them questions, show them what you are doing, and have a contact for more information (it can be an online option if you don’t have a local guild/group). If you don’t know the answer, say so and suggest they contact the local group for more information.

The three important concepts for needle felting are

Rule 1) the sharp end of the needle goes in the wool, not your finger (following this rule saves on bandaids)
Rule 2) the needle goes into and out of the wool in the same vector (no changing direction as you poke), and
Rule 2.5) The direction you poke is the direction the wool will move.

I hope this gives those who have not tried demoing yet some encouragement. It’s lots of fun and you get to meet future fibre people! Have a wonderful long weekend, Monday! The next long weekend will be Labour Day Monday, September 1st, 2025! Have fun and keep felting!

Summer Needle felting Demo, July 12 2025

July 15, 2025 Jan Comments 7 comments

Summer Demo at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum

I have spent the week, investigating possible new cars, trying to fix the cell phone that had just been Fixed with a new sim card, so I can chat with my car’s Doctor and my bank. After one call out it is again refusing to let anyone talk to me. (it’s not that I get a lot of calls, but some day the visa purchases I am told I made, while I was sleeping, will be delivered. What will I do with all those amazon iPhone? I wonder who is getting them and who’s visa it is that keeps paying for them?

Was it a few weeks ago I was out at the father’s day Blacksmithing event in Dunvagen Ontario. While there, felting and taking pictures of blacksmiths, I was asked if I could come demo felting for their fiber and fabric event in July. I said I was interested but would have to confirm closer to the event. I am still not back to feeling like myself yet.

1.1) the add for the Glengarry Pioneer Museum event.

So beside the phone and the car, I spent part of this week trying to find my demo stuff to do a display of both 2 and 3 D needle felting. (I should probably have found Miaka’s giant fish to sow wet felting, but as I said I am still not quite back to normal and seem to still be forgetting to think of things.)

Of course I need to take the Mer-Boyfriend I was working on too. Now where did he wonder off to? he went into the guild a couple weeks ago, I am sure he came back. What is it with Mer-Teens wanting to play hide and seek in my house?? We searched the bags that go back and forth to the guild, no, I looked in the office, the bedroom and was trying to search the living room. Glenn even checked the basement. I was so disappointed. Maybe he had found Miss Mer and they were hiding together? Maybe I should collect the rest of what I want to take and then look again.

I got the Moose bag with the landscape and the bags of fiber to work on it from the hall and added it to the commercial felt bin with handles. Glenn said he found the sample punctures down stairs. I found the green tool bag and extra foam garden needling pad to work on. I found the bag of core wool of carded roving from World of Wool and wound a couple big balls of wool from it. (I am going to have to get some more soon I hope Ann needs something from them!) I had Glenn’s moose bag hanging in the bedroom, when I grabbed it, it was lumpier than I remember it being…. I looked in and guess who was hiding inside? Mer-Boyfriend!!!

1.2) a bit of a drive with all the construction on the highway

Saturday July 12 2025, Glenn loaded the car and we were ready to go. oh my, its seems a bit warm out! As you step out the door it feels like you are wrapped in a very worm wet wool blanket, except for the wet part that would sound nice, but the blanket is wrapped around the head too and you are trying to breathe through it. Not so nice, really. If only my car would consider letting the AC work, well I still remember cars without AC so rolled down the windows. The drive was not too bad once we were moving and we arrived with time to set up.

Other than hot it was a beautiful sunny day, booths were scattered around the museum grounds and buildings. I had a fabulous spot on the covered porch at the corner of the building and very close to the handy cap parking! We loaded up the grey box on the walker and threw the black car blankets on top. Glenn brought the other bags and we quickly set up a display. I turned the commercial felt box on it side so the opening was towards the back of the table where I would be sitting. This gives both a spot to hide stuff, like my camera, extra work tools, and wool, as well as give height to the display. I used it to lean the Mer’s against as well as one sitting on top of it. it also supported the two moose bags and the picture of the winter round bales. I had miss manta and Sharkette sitting in front of the work area and the little aluminum folding table from the car had the fox face picture.

2.1-2.3) the Mer’s getting ready to People watch and hoping for a tennis match.

When I have the Mer’s comfortable, we can made a quick tour around to see some of the booths before people started to arrive.

Glenn took a few shots of the demo as I was working and chatting. They will show the display better and prove I was actually there!

2.4) Glenn had the cool chair and a book on architecture as well as my old camera.

2.5) Winter hay in the Ottawa valley

2.61-2.62) Proof I was there (I never seem to be in the photos!!)

2.7) Fox and my sturgeon reference photos

3.1-3.2) There was a quilt display in the open sided barn

I was hoping to get back and take some close ups, But kept having people stop and ask lots of questions about needle felting. I hope I got them inspired to try it.

4.1) Oh no I better hurry, the first few people are arriving. (Glenn is manning the demo so we can go take a quick look around.)

Most of the venders were under tents.

4.2) Sewing

4.3) Knitting and Sewing. I think the pom-poms will melt shortly!

4.4) HUM selling alpaca yarn and teddy bares. I didn’t see any fiber but I tried to get a quick look.

4.5) a close up of some of their stock

4.6) Just past the building with the forge there was a booth with crochet. I got distracted looking ahead, and almost missed her!

4.7) There are booths hidden under the trees and by one of the log buildings.

Oh there are more booths hidden by the open carriage barn! I almost missed them too, lets look over there first.

There must be fiber here somewhere!

5.1) Swedish weaving. it’s a type of needle weaving on already woven fabric. The patterns were very interesting.

5.2) Swedish Weaving Guild of South Glengarry and Area

5.3) I think this was a display of Lace but I didn’t ever get a chance to get back and look. They had a lovely shady spot!

5.41) this was a display of rug hooking

5.42) some of their display

5.51) Anagarumi gnomes, bees, and sea creatures!

5.52) close up of the bees and the Cows I didn’t notice!

5.61) Braided rugs, the one on the end I particularly liked the colours chosen

5.62) cool sewing machine

5.71) the embroidery guild display

5.72) the embroiders enjoying the shade

AH HA!! I found fiber people!

6.1) Drop spindles and fiber prep!

I found out later there was a drop spindle competition between three of the guilds represented here today. Think I was told it was The Twistle Guild of Glengarry, the Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners Guild and the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild (OVWSG).

I better get back to work soon or I will get fired before I get started!

Oh there is one more booth on the way back, it advertised bespoke Tartan kilts! (But no modeling display!!!) Sorry I got distracted by the tartan sample books and missed the kilts on the table.

7.1-7.2) tartan sample books

Ok, now to demonstrate needle felting. I am focusing on making the flattish bottom of the sturgeon so I will have to build up on either side of the wrapped armature.

8) Mer-Boyfriend in progress. focus is on under side of fish part of body

I explained multiple times why i was making a Mer-Boyfriend to lour the missing teen-Mer back to the office.

I was doing quite well with chatting and working on the under body, then realized there were booths in the school house too. Since the people seemed to be elsewhere it’s time to take a quit trip to the bathroom then on to the schoolhouse!

Oh this is where the fiber people are!! Two of the booths have drop spindles, one selling Ashford and the other had their own design. Quite hefty but I tend to like heavy whorls (I was tempted) I got distracted by second hand quilting hoops and bought 2.

9.11-9.12) Tools

9.21) Drop spindle demo to a customer she had batts on the shelves at the back too

9.22) washed and unwashed fiber various breeds

Here is the winner of the 2-hour drop spindle competition. They were each given, the same amount, of the same fiber, and had to spin the longest even amount (?). I am not sure if they had to ply it, or if they were spinning singles.

10) this is the competitor from my local guild who won!

11.) odd I was sure I took a lot more progress pictures as I was working.

It was close to 3pm and I wanted to make a quick run (ok running is not really quick and it doesn’t look like running…) but I had wanted to go take pictures of the quilts and see what the yarn seller beside the wall-less barn was selling. I had a couple more people come up, just as I was wheeling away from the table with my camera who had questions about needle felting. By the time they had run out of questions, I looked up to see this.

12.1) the quilts are disappearing!

Which quickly became this:

12.2) 4pm and packing up

Oh well, maybe next year?

I did have a lot of great conversations, including with the photographer I saw at the blacksmithing weekend. He gave me a few more tips on the new camera (we both were admiring each other’s lenses)

I got an invitation to demo in Van Kleekhill but I found I was still feeling the drive, so it’s probably too far out for me yet.

I packed everything away and Glenn got it into the car. Which was quite warm… I think that the temperature outside the car said 38c. it seems hotter in the car… let’s roll down the windows. On the porch there were occasional little breezes blowing through, but when the breeze drops and now we are in the car, that blanket we are breathing into seem to be even wetter and warmer than this morning!

We stopped at the gas station before getting on the highway home, to buy cold peach drink and a Fresca. Ah that feels so nice. Window down as long as we are moving it feels a bit better. Just wait a couple months and we will be complaining about the cold. I guess we have got to enjoy the lack of snow banks while they are missing!!

The hot weather is grate for washing fleece when you don’t have hot water outside. So it’s not all bad! However, it has taken about 3 days to get the washed fleece to dry. I have now started the third batch of the giant white fleece and it got an extra rinse in the heavy rains with the thunderstorm yesterday!

In case I was feeling up to staying for the social tonight at the guild I brought someone to work on. The Mer-Boyfriend seems to be in a rush to get more work done so I had better get back to work before he wants to felt me! I did get a good chunk of library work done, but I was feeling wiped again by the early afternoon so did not stay for the rest of the social. Mer-Boyfriend got his hands on the felting needle I had been using on the weekend. He was all set to do a bit of work on himself!

13.1) still a lot more work to do on the under structure

13.2) I had better get that needle away from him soon!

I hope you enjoyed the drive out to Dunvagan, Ontario, and that it wasn’t too hot for you. (the car said it was 26+humadex on the way out and 36+humadex as we headed home.) Have fun and keep felting!!

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