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Fish should not have squishy centers!

Fish should not have squishy centers!

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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;

3 fotos, the armature, head body and fist arm initial wrapping in white wool, second hand close up has 5 fingers and a thrumb... 3 photos: front and back of upperbody and head, adding first wrapping on tail1.1-1.2) 05-2025 Cangames (you can see what happens if you get distracted winding fingers…I fixed that too.)

mer-person (under layer underway) self stabing while holding a ball of core wool 1.3) 06-04-2025 Mer-boyfriend trying to get me to rush his felting

adding more fiber to fish parts at demo in Dunvagon Museum1.4) 06-15-2025 Blacksmithing weekend and felting the mer-boyfriend

visiting the guild mer-person lounging langudly on table (back vew)1.5) 07-14-2025 Social

Mer-Person with felting needle self felting his 6pack abs.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?

 

Diagram of superficial felting with a less felted core.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.

 

Diagram inserting the needle deeper to affect the under layer 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.

 

mer-person at wet felting workshop. he is face down on the table and may have fainted?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 back4.1-4.3) 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!)

 

Front vew of the firmer fish bits back vew of the firmer fish bits5.1-5.2) 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)

 

Photographic collection of some of the refference photos i have collected to help with the next part of the project adding the spikey parts5.3)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.

This and That.

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

 

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Playing with prefelt

Playing with prefelt

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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.

Edge Vessel

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.

commercial prefelt strip
carded batt layout
carded batt prefelt
top to bottom: merino strips from commercial prefelt, carded batt prefelt, tops prefelt
Prefelt for black lines

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.

 

freehand shape
red prefelt with circle template
Making red circles

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

Testing out different layouts

Now to actually make a sample.

My chosen layout

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.

Sample 1 completed

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.

Sample 2 layout
Sample 2 layout with extra layer
Sample 2 felted
Sample 2

 

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
Sample 2 underside: very little migration
Comparing undersides of samples 1 & 2

 

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.

Needle felted circle
Sample 3 layout
Sample 3 felted
Sample 3 finished with a printed tree
Sample 3 using needle felted circle

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.

layout for layers 1 & 3
layout for layers 2 & 4
Side 1 – still wet
Side 2 – still wet
Side 1 – nearly dry
Vessel with 2 circles: sample 4

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

FELT SWAPPING

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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?”

Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

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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.

jan working on felted pictue of 2 sheep in front of large burlap bails of wool at wool growers co-op 2019 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.

 

Doer felting needle 32G diagram2.1) Doer felting needle 32G

Doer needle chart to help ordering triangle needles2.2) Doer needle chart for triangle needles

2019 small muskox landscape, Demoing at a social, under drawing and adding wool, finished image2.3) 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.

diagram working from the back of the head to firm up the nose without changing the external shape3.1) Moving the wool to firm up the face if needed.

2020 demoing for delivery guy while i was sitting by my side door. image shows the front edge of a manta wing adding black figer and sculping intersection betweeen colours i am useing a pen tool wiht 2 needles (can hold up to 3 needles) 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.

diagram showing felting across a cercle then folding the cercle along the felted line then felting along the fold to give a shape with a loose edge that can be attached to the maine shape. 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.

adding fins that have been pre-shaped and the attachment edge left loose to allow it to be (sharkboy under structure and 2 fins)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.

diagram shows stabbing repeatedly in the same spot will both indent and compact that spot relative to the surrounding area.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.

Miss Manta demonstrating adding loose wool and sculpting it into place. tail detial corner of mouth and scoops being sculped with loose fiber4.31- 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.

displaying fox picture and working on sheep image. 3-D dragon with hand died silk wings in background more of table display, to right huge fish cat cave eating Struffed cat, table drape has name of guild and just out of from is web site and QR code for contact info5.1-5.2) 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

2017 Ann demoing Blending board at the carp fair. explaining what happens with leftover bits of fiber she dosnt use up in projects. the blending board was poplular with adults and kids watching 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.

2019 Farm show demo, part of table display shows table drape with contact info and name of guild. also a strong selection of felting6.2) 2019 Farm show demo, part of the table display

2025 Dickonson day demo, Amanda getting help with her spinning this kid was facinated by the wheel. adults can also be captivated but are usualy more reserved about trying it out.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

Summer Needle felting Demo, July 12 2025

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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.

flyer for the event 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!!!

map from Ottawa to Dunvagan Ontario. about an hour driving.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.

setting up felting demo display felting display 2D and 3D Close up of the Mers (Mer-Persons)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!

old chair beside display of felting2.4) Glenn had the cool chair and a book on architecture as well as my old camera.

Ottawa Valley Hay rolls in winter2.5) Winter hay in the Ottawa valley

manta ray and sharket in forground jan in background Mr. Mer, Sharkboy, Jan in back ground2.61-2.62) Proof I was there (I never seem to be in the photos!!)

Fox face clsoe up needle felting in a way similar to watercolour2.7) Fox and my sturgeon reference photos

open sided barn with quilts displayed inside closer vew of a few of the quilts3.1-3.2) 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.

first people ariving for the event table and sign and people4.1) 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.

Booth with sewen items4.2) Sewing

Knitting and sewing itums4.3) Knitting  and Sewing. I think the pom-poms will melt shortly!

pop up tent with Alpaca yarn underneeth4.4) HUM selling alpaca yarn and teddy bares. I didn’t see any fiber but I tried to get a quick look.

closer vew of yarn and alpaca bare display4.5) a close up of some of their stock

Chrochay itums4.6) Just past the building with the forge there was a booth with crochet. I got distracted looking ahead, and almost missed her!

looking ahead towords more log buildings with tents with booths 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!

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

close up of sign and some of the patterns5.2) Swedish Weaving Guild of South Glengarry and Area

tables of booth beneath large trees 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!

Rug hooking demonstration and display table beside5.41) this was a display of rug hooking

Rug hookers display table close up5.42) some of their display

crocheay anagarumi5.51) Anagarumi gnomes, bees, and sea creatures!

anagarumi bees and cow5.52) close up of the bees and the Cows I didn’t notice!

braded ruggs5.61) Braided rugs, the one on the end I particularly liked the colours chosen

braded rug display with cool old sewing macheen 5.62) cool sewing machine

the Embroidery guild display of work5.71) the embroidery guild display

the embroiderers and more of there work5.72) the embroiders enjoying the shade

AH HA!! I found fiber people!

2 seated drop spinners and one seated carder 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.

books of tartan samples Historical recreations of tartens7.1-7.2) 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.

Mer-Boyfriend in progress. focusing on underside of fish parts8) 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.

spinning tools and wooden knitting needles more tools and qui;t hoops in the back ground9.11-9.12) Tools

one of vendors showing how to use a drop spindle9.21) Drop spindle demo to a customer she had batts on the shelves at the back too

bags of fleece some washed and some raw in various breeds9.22) 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.

the drop spindle compatition winner was from the OVWSG10) this is the competitor from my local guild who won!

Mer-BoyFriend is progressing11.) 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.

the quilts are being taken down close up of the one i had been admiring as i worked12.1) the quilts are disappearing!

Which quickly became this:

packing up the venders and quilt display12.2) 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!

Mer-Boyfriend with felting needle stuck in his low back13.1) still a lot more work to do on the under structure

Mer-Boyfreind getting ready to self felt!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!!

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

Comments 14 comments

I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

Sheep Keychain

Sheep Keychain

Comments 11 comments

I started working on this a while ago and have managed to do one. I can hardly wait until school’s done at the end of the month. I don’t seem to have any time to do anything at the moment. Oh well, enough griping.

You may remember that for my Guild’s anniversary exhibition, I made a little flock of sheep. What to do with them now? I could just put them away or make a display, not that I have room for that.

In the past, I made key chains by threading a cord down and back up through the sheep and then adding a split ring. It worked, but the cords wear too quickly. Then I saw some cool headwear for keychains. They seem to just put beads on them, but what do they know? I bought a multi-coloured pack.

Of course, I also had to buy some new beads for this. Really, I did, I didn’t have any large hole beads that would fit on the pole. Sorry about the bad picture, way too much reflection on the left one, and I didn’t want to dump them out. The one on the left is mixed, so there are solids, stripes, crystals and some different textures.

I picked a green keychain to go with the green sheep.

 

The first thing to do is to make a hole in the sheep. For this, I used a leather awl. It worked quite well; I only had to fiddle a little to get the post through the sheep. You can see that the beads unscrew at both ends. This makes it easier to add the beads on the top and bottom after adding the sheep.

Then add some beads and and screw the ends back on.

I like the way it looks. I need to give him some eyes and probably a nose. None of the sheep or the shepherdess had facial features for the display.

The other thing I want to do is fix some of the ears. I was running out of time, and I knew they wouldn’t be handled, so I didn’t worry about some of the ears not being as sturdy as I would like.  Some of them are too fluffy and underfelted, so they will not last as key chains.

The other thing I bought was a little stand and some cards to attach the keychains to. I hope that it makes them look a little more finished and worth what I want for them.

They are too big to fit in the little bags that came with the cards. I will have to look for some different ones.

P.S. I have not picked a name for the little ram lamb yet. Nothing has really jumped out at me as the right one, yet.

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 3

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 3

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Sunday

Am I awake? Im not sure, it may be Sunday? Or maybe its second Saturday? Give me a moment I may make more sense after my meds. Yes, Surprise!! its Sunday and we are heading back to the curling rink, Glenn has at least one more train game and something else and I am back for the very exclusive side of the convention, Felting!!!

You are probably more interested in seeing if anything has gone wrong with the young mer I am working on.

I had a couple comments that; “we would find out soon who you are using as a model for your voodoo doll”.  I suspect I have to be more careful in where I rest my needles.

Mer peson has 2 felting needles into his heart 11.1) “Are you doing voodoo?”

back vew of Mer person11.2) posterior delts and lats building up.

I am starting to add muscles, I keep adding an extra muscle to help hold up his head so he can see where he will be swimming. If I dint he would swim into things while looking at the lake bottom.

I started herring cheering and odd grunting noises coming from the middle of the hall. Lets go investigate.

cave men stacking shapes game (no speeking)12.1) block stacking game without words?

This game seemed to be two groups of cave men, and women, one whom had to get there cave mates to stack shapes in a particular way without saying anything. They seemed to communicate yes and no by hitting the table with a blow up club once or twice. Each team seemed to be making a different combination so you could not just look at the other team. Each team seemed to have a judge or referee, keeping an eye on how they were (not) communicating. They seemed to be having a great time. Each time a block was confirmed, by their leader, to be in the right place, the whole team would grunt and cheers!

Monster mash game has lots of small rooms and monster will be fighting monsters12.2) Monster mash

I spotted this game starting and wondered over to check out the map board of rooms and lots of monsters waiting to start the game.  You play a monster and fight other monsters. The table was full of little rooms with lots of detail again they look like they were having lots of fun.

I had seen this from a distance and it looked like robots or meck fighting in a tropical location, but when I got closer I realized what I was looking at.

lego mec game!!12.3) a game with Lego mecks

Anything with Lego’s has to be fun!

Book binder bender booth13.1) One of the other vendors was a bindery which had handmade books and bound fanzines

I was drooling at his cutter and behind that is a small press!! He showed me the hand stitched spines on his note books. it was all very interesting (no don’t get into another craft!!)

Ok, this is a felting and gaming convention we should really get around to the felting part before we get distracted and get lost in a game!

Technically there were more votes for “Orca” as a boyfriend, but the concern from the “Sturgeon” voters, that she would likely lose her family to her possible in-laws, was a concern. So I have decided on the more difficult sturgeon.

starting to add wool to fishy parts of mer person 14.1) on to the fish-y parts!

added fin wiers 14.2) adding the Pelvic fins

fins added to fish parts14.3)Adding wool to the fish part and adding Fins at the hip(Pectoral fins), more lower fins(Pelvic and anal fins), Dorsal fins and a cool tail (Caudal fin).

I guessed at the length for the wire for the fins, but as I added wool I can already see I may be short. We will find out as I add more wool and firm up the under layer.

14.4) building up the fiber and consulting some of the reference photos

I know I was wanted to watch the live action kill doctor lucky game, but I am sore and very tired. Glenn is happy with all his gaming and is content to head home. So I am packing up and sending him out to the car with all my stuff.  At least felting, wet or dry, is lighter to carry around than his blacksmithing stuff!  I was a bit too quick with the packing up to get a photo of how far I got the under structure so I will have to get one after I get home.

So far no sign of the missing teen-Mer-dotter, but I am sure she will notice if I work on him here in the office.

If you lose one of your Mer’s and need to make another to lure the first back. I suggest re-watching the Mermaid felt along with Sara (Sarafina fiberarts)

notes from rewatching Sara's Mermaid felt along 14.5) This was my notes from reviewing Sara’s videos, I modified this a bit from her original. You can extend the body length with extra wire if your fish is longer than the average Mer-person.

Mer-Boyfriend has gotten hold of the needle that was in his back and is prepared to work on his fishy-bits if I don’t get back to work soon!

mer person holding feling needle in his hand 15.1) preparing to self-felt!

he is prepaing to poke his fin 15.2) considering where to poke first

I am trying to explain to him that I am a bit busy this week, but maybe he can come to a demo next week and I can continue working on him!

If you are in Ottawa next May long weekend, I hope you will consider visiting CanGames (their web site will give info on games being played and the cost of the convention).  I am sure you will enjoy trying some of the games and then drop by with your drop spindle or (dry) felting and join me for a bit!

have any of these games got you thinking of sheepish versions you could invent?

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 2

CanGames and Felting Convention 2025 Part 2

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Saturday

I hope you are well rested after your nap at the end of my last post. If we want to have accessible parking, we should get going early! Don’t forget to bring a bit of money, there are other vendors and the second-hand game sale is today. Now off to the car with an extra item (ok, Glenn was carrying the extra item). Wow, the highway in town is not busy this morning, oh yes, it’s Saturday, not Monday!

I am again set up by the open games area. I think they are used to me sneaking in beside them by now. Today I brought in my little Canadian wheel, the Lendrum Rook. Gord Lendrum, a Canadian spinning wheel maker, made about 40 of them in the mid-1980s. Mine needs a bit of repair, it was at least second-hand when I got it. The weaver spinner whom I was chatting with on Friday said she would be dropping by, I can show her how this one works and hope it’s similar to the wheel she has at home.

6.1) The Rook wheel and some pretty roving were added to yesterday’s felting stuff.

I worked for a bit while watching for the line to start, then it was time to line up for the sale. This year, I was second in line! Again, with the same person in front of me, last year I was third in line. This year, Glenn had me hunting for another train game. This one was called “British Rails”.  It still does not sound as fun as sheep.  While the organisers were setting up, they put a pile of train games close to the checkout. I was able to see them from the line! I know where to check first!

pile of games on the table more will be added. 6.2) A quick peek as the games are still coming in this morning to the sale and are being put out on the tables. By 10 am, the time the sale starts, games more than fill every table!

Last year, I had bought some of the games Glenn had brought in to sell, because they looked like ones he would enjoy.  This year, I know his badge number, so I will try not to do that again! Shortly before 10 am, I looked behind me to see how long the line had grown. It went all the way across the curling rink!…. turned and started up the far side of the rink, passing where my table was and extending past the open gaming section!!  Oh my! I am glad I am second. I put away boyfriend-mer, who I had been working on while sitting in my portable chair (ok it’s my studio on wheels… er.. alright it’s my walker) and got ready to shop.

looking back across curling rink to see the lenght of people lined up for the sale 6.3) The line goes across the curling rink and then proceeds along the far wall

10 am arrived, and they let the shopping horde surge forward. All of us are trying to fit into the confines of one little corner of the rink with tables stacked high with piles of games. Some were in rows on their side, but most were piled multiple games high. All the miniatures for war gaming were on the back table, I skipped that for now and headed to beside the cash where I had seen a pile of train games. (You may want to go the other way around the table and keep an eye out for the elusive sheep games! Even an alpaca game could be thematically fun?)

I picked up the train game he wanted, found a few more and spotted one of those unfun 18XX games Glenn likes, sold by badge number 118, oh Drat! He is badge 118, so I better not buy it for him!  There were lots of pretty boxes to look over. I was trying to shop for Glenn and find some games for my brother’s cottage, too. I even found another Sheep game to add to the collection. This one is for 2 players and has little wooden sheep tokens.  They are sooo cute!!!

I finally escaped the crushing throng of game seekers and made it back to my little table to resume work on the new mer-person. Building up his torso, now his head seems too small.. ok add more brains!  (think zombie voice “Brains”) Glenn returned from his morning train game, victorious (he came in first) and was checking over what I had found. I was successful in my game quest for him, and he was pleased with the others I picked up.

game with sheep on the cover6.4) “Agricola” is a 2 Person game about raising sheep. (We have not tried it yet, but the sheep are wooden and look very cute!)

pile of games on small table 6.5 Some of the Games I found, including what he had requested!

We took another peek at the games as the crowd thinned. Odd, I saw lots of things I had not noticed the first time. I added a couple more to the pile while Glenn got us lunch. The curling rink caterers are very good this year. I had asked for grilled cheese with bacon, but got a club sandwich, which was very tasty, but seemed short of the grilling and the cheese. Well, maybe we can have that for dinner?

I did promise I would get back to work on felt-related matters (this is a gaming and felting convention!).  I continued slowly building up the muscles on my new Mer-Boyfriend.

upper torso from the back of Mer person, felting needle sticking out of his back 7.1) stabbed in the back by a felting needle, but he has a bit more latts!

mer person lounging on bag of white core wool7.2) Lounging on the bag of world of wool core carded roving

mer person from the back starting to work on glutes 7.3) Ooh, I have reached the glutes and the first fins!! Oh, the possibilities, they have to be good glutes, to attract Miss Teen Mer back to the office when I get home!

Then I realised the weaver spinner I was speaking with yesterday should be arriving soon, back from her shopping trip to Wabi Sabi (that’s one of the local yarn and fibre shops in Ottawa). I had better get ready for her arrival and switched to my wheel. I have a bit of yarn on the bobbin and some of the same fibre left to spin.  Let’s finish spinning that and then wind it off into a double-ended ball. That means it’s wound so you can pull from the inside of the ball and the outside end of the ball at the same time. The advantage to this, over plying with two bobbins, is you always get to the middle at the same time from the outside and the inside piece! With 2 bobbins, often you have one bobbin still having yarn on it when you have emptied the other. The drawback of a double-ended ball is that it can all go horribly wrong and get tangled if you are not careful (and sometimes even when you are careful), but if you’re frugal or only have one bobbin, this is a handy way to ply yarn.  Oh yes, not all of you spin, plying is taking the single yarn you just spun and spinning it back in 2 layers or plys in the opposite direction you spun the single ply. See clear as mud! But it keeps your yarn balance if you do it just rite. If you knit with energised yarn, you can make diamonds instead of squares, which can be interesting but probably not what you wanted.

You can weave with energised singles yarn (there is still a good amount of twist energy present in the singles). There are some medieval fabric finds that are woven in plain weave (under over under over under over……). Because they are warped in little groups of yarn spun with the twist going one direction (Z) beside little groups with the twist going the other (S), when you take the fabric off the loom, the twist fights with its neighbour, producing what looks like some complicated twill all in plain weave. I will try to show you that someday.

Lendrum Rook spinning wheel with tiny scain of blue/green yarn7.4) cleaned off the little bit of yarn on the bobbin, ready for spinning.

I got back to felting. I continued to asked anyone who stopped to chat the questions; if they thot an Orca or Sturgeon boyfriend would be better….I continue to get the orca would look better, but the sturgeon voters kept reminding me about the horrible, possible slaughter of her family if she dated an Orca!

8.1 The open gaming section filled up after the game sale had slowed down and remained full all day.

mer person on table with foam nealing pad as work serface game going on in background 8.2) I added sewing pins to give me eye locations while I work. It’s getting very busy with games now.

Since there is no sign of the spinner/weaver, let’s take a quick look at what gaming is happening today.

There were games I had no idea what was happening, and battles setting up for carnage and slaughter

game with small shapes making a pathway with little meeples on the path 9.1) Not a clue what is happening, but they seemed very focused and having fun.

car racing game very pritty bord and extras 9.2) This is a racing game that was being played on the table beside me. Like many of the games I was seeing, it has lovely graphics.  Even if watching cars drive in a mostly circular track isn’t really your thing, it’s still really pretty to look at.

part of an army about to go to battle stored in top of box 9.3) Definitely impending carnage!

small painted buildings as part of playing area for combat game 9.4) Some of the war games with figures had very interesting architecture or terrains

town with trees set up as playing aria of this war game.9.5) This one had a part of a town, I don’t remember what kind of army was fighting through it. It was possibly more normal than guys in space suits from the other table.

Being set up at the other end of the hall from me was a large metal cube that rotated on a frame. That looks intriguing, shall we go have a look?

table in front has cards and robots for the game cube on the next table10.1) This game is for 12 little magnetic robots. You can see the little robots on the nearby table, all sides of the cube is where they will be racing.

close ups of game being played10.2) A robot racing game on a cube

This metal cube has magnetic-backed maps showing pathways on each side. The robots are also magnetic and will drive around the various sides of the cube. Each robot has a hand of cards; they have to select five instructions for their robot to follow like a program, and lay the cards face down in the order they want the robot to move. Everyone reveals one card at a time, and the movement occurs. Unfortunately, things can go horribly wrong when robots try to land on the same square or miss count and bump into a wall or other obstacles.

takgin a photo of one side of cube to figure out the next 5 instructions to give the robot10.3) A good strategy seemed to be to take a picture of the part of the board your robot was on, then select your cards from your photo(then hope for the best).

cube showing robots are now on 2 differnt sides of the cube  10.4) As you can see, the robots are dispersing on two sides now

5 cards layed out the first 2 are now turned up 10.5) They are working through the second card of this round.  They are having lots of fun, and it’s been fun to watch.

I wandered back to my felting but again got distracted by all the cool details in the  3-D printed dungeon architecture.

3-D printed rubble and castle doors10.6) You can see the layers, so those must be a sedimentary plastic rock, maybe sandstone? Such fine detail in the 3-D plastic!

skelitons in coffins and skelitons climeing out of graves10.7) These little skeletons were so cool, but where would I put them? I did enjoy looking at them over the weekend, and they were quite photogenic for skeletons.

Glenn has returned victorious in another train game, and I was wiped. Even though I had not seen the weaver spinner yet, it was definitely time to go home to sleep. You can stay on if you like, and I will meet you back here for day 3 tomorrow. I hope to get started on the fishy parts then!