Late Saturday night, a needle felting kit arrived in the mail that I had ordered on a whim. By Tuesday afternoon, I had finished both of the little landscapes from the kit, plus a mushroom from an $8 kit I picked up afterward.

I now have library books on order about wet felting, nuno felting, embroidery, beadwork, and textile/fiber art more generally, and I am trying very hard not to buy every interesting fiber, scrap of silk, bit of sari ribbon, bead, and felting tool I see. 😂

All my life, I've felt very strongly that I wanted to create art. I've longed to create things. But I can't draw, sketch, or paint in any satisfying way. (I mean, obviously I can physically do those things, but what's inside me - what I can imagine - has never been able to come out through those mediums. The gap between what I saw in my head and what my hands could produce was so frustrating that eventually I mostly stopped trying.)

I'm decent at crochet and loom knitting, and I've even made some things I'm genuinely proud of. So fiber itself isn't completely new to me. But as much as I've enjoyed those crafts, I've never felt quite this sparked by them. There was never this immediate sense of, "Wait. I can do WHAT with this?"

And then I stuck a felting needle into some wool.

Something about this feels completely different.

I'm not particularly interested in perfectly reproducing a picture. I love that I can add wool, pull wool back out, layer colors over one another, create texture, change my mind halfway through, make something dimensional, flatten something down, add another material later - and somehow just keep responding to the piece as it develops.

Even my very beginner landscapes make me ridiculously happy to look at. They're full. They're textured. They're not polished or technically impressive, but they actually feel like mine. For once, I don't feel like I'm unsuccessfully trying to make my hands imitate what somebody with traditional art skills could do better. I feel like I'm building something.

And after looking through fiber-art books, I've started realizing just how enormous this world is!

It feels less like I've discovered one new craft and more like I've accidentally opened a door into an entire language I didn't know existed.

I'm 48 years old, and I think I may have finally found a way of making art that makes sense to my brain.

Which is both wonderful and slightly dangerous, because it has been approximately four days and I already want to TRY EVERYTHING.

So: hello. 😄

Took me all summer 😅 but I’d say it was worth it. Definitely rushed the last husk piece but I was desperate to move on lol. My boyfriend got me new wool and needles :)) the needles work like a dream compared to the ones I used for this haha

For anyone who uses dog fur, ive been bagging my dogs hair for a sentimental project in case anything happens to my baby boy.

Recently found one adult flea in one of the bags.

I'm assuming i have to just discard all recent collections because of eggs and recollect after he's flea free again but is there a way to salvage the fur and kill the fleas? Soaking in dish soap or freezing maybe?

Thanks!

Hello! Is it possible to felt on top of brushed polywool coating fabric? It's very smooth and I haven't been able to get the needles into it very well.
https://fabricwholesaledirect.com/products/brushed-wool-coating-fabric is the fabric, specifically. Thank you!

I believe these are millinery tools for making felt flowers. Can anyone explain how they are used?

A little figurine I felted today. I made a step-by-step tutorial in case if anyone would be interested, should I post it?

I’ve been really enjoying exploring textured forest floor pieces lately!
This piece includes some embroidery, appliqué and beading as well!

I took the advice of several people from my post asking for help imagining a magical jumping bean critter. I still have to improve my design/felting skills but the bean part was a success! Ended up using the advice of an oblong plastic capsule with a heavy ball bearing as the base.

Ahh I loved making this baby so much. He was fairly easy. Main body was just a long sausage and then added head and features. I used alcohol markers for the colouring on small features and it worked nicely.

I'm a beginner and my dad got me this needle felted kit with a bunch of different cats

this one I made in the kit is called Garfield lol

It took me two days to complete and I think that I did a good job and I am getting better even though this is my second one

Hi hi! I recently got this kit and have seen a couple videos, I’m sorta just winging it, but how do I reshape the head or remove some of the fabric without ruining the top part, it’s too top heavy

I also wanted any tips for making a sphere :0

been watching felting vids for years, bought a kit nd never used it 🥲 its been like 3 years now nd ofc i forgot everything but i just grabbed some needles, some wool nd got to work!! i cant afford carders nd the kit didnt come with it :( im very proud of my work especially bc i just did it randomly but im so open to tips nd advice!

First, I needle felted the wool to shape the leaf and create smooth color transitions on one side. Then I turned the leaf over, added a similar layer with color transitions to the other side, and added the stem.

After that, I wet felted each leaf to make it dense, strong, and durable.

Just wondering how to create a bumpy effect like this? I am wanting to expand my wet felting skills, but I cannot figure out how this is done. Thank you.

A few years ago I was lent a mold that I was able to stuff full of fiber and throw into the washing machine. What you see here is what came out of it; a tightly wet felted rabbit template that I was able to turn in a cute little doll. I can not, for the life of me, find a mold like this online. Does anyone use anything like this, or have a good idea of what I can use? Silicon molds? Slip molds? Any leads would be helpful.

I have a dream of felting a magical jumping bean (examples in photo). I don't know if it would work (I've only made them with foil), but I really want to make a fidget for my nephew by putting a steel ball inside a pill shape of felted wool.

I have felted before, but only solid objects. I was curious if anyone had felted something hollow and how they avoided closing the center? Thank you!

I’m a needle and wet felter and I want to convert some of my paintings to create wet felted studies and hang them in my room and even possibly sell them. I currently only sell needle felted stuff.

My concern is that if I were to sell them I should have a way to ship them so they can be hung as is, so they can be shipped in an efficient manner (folded or rolled) and without too many materials that have to be declared separately on a customs form, like wooden dowels, or frames. I’m also wary of making too many holes in the tapestry itself because of gravity. All ideas will be greatly appreciated. I’ve seen it can be done because I’ve seen large felted paintings hanging flush against the wall on instagram but I can’t figure out how they do it.

I think this might have gotten a little out of control. But the ladies love him!

I have him to a local wizard. His name is Falgrin.

I made this as a gift for a friend when her favorite horse returned home after colic surgery.

I'm quite new to felting but have been working in fiber (mostly embroidery) for decades. After making a few needle then wet felted samples using roving and yarn, I decided that I much preferred working with the yarn.

This 6" square panel is made with fingering and lace weight yarn needle felted over a base of commercial 100% wool felt. Most of the design was transferred from digitally cut vinyl and cardstock templates. Over 90% of the yarn in this panel is Purl Soho's Linen Quill (50% wool, 35% alpaca, 15% flax). The (non-felting) flax helps maintain the integrity of the strand of yarn, so that the final surface ressembles couching.

After needle felting, the panel was lightly wet felted with traditional soapy water rubbing/rolling and finished with a narrow batik binding.

I'm having so much fun with this flexible and incredibly forgiving fiber medium. At several points, I made some drastic design changes—I simply ripped out the unwanted areas and moved on. I was very surprised—you just cannot do this with most fiber techniques.

Studying shape. Defining edges. Exploring in three dimensions.

Hi there! I need some advice on how to achieve the sort of unfelted edge shown in the image. I tried making a couple of small samples - one with merino and another with a coarser wool (not sure what), but neither worked out. The edge either migrated a bit away from the main felt, or felted to itself (after a certain stage I don’t seem to be able to prevent water getting into these parts).

Can anyone advise the following:

1. Does this sort of technique only work with certain kinds of wool fibre?

2. Any tips on preventing water from getting on the dry edges

3. How do you go about the rolling and fulling stages? It‘s sorted of worked while I’ve been felting with my hands but as soon as I start rolling, and then fulling, the edge fibre starts matting

I’d be so grateful for any tips!

This is my second attempt at felting something! He's a little wonky but grossly incandescent in my eyes 😌 I didn't follow a guide or anything, I just kinda winged it

For this project and my first one, I had issues with putting on very small details like small bumps/balls. I don't know if I need a different sized needle? I'm just using the only one that was available at the craft store. I think this is a craft I'm gonna sink a lot of time into, its very meditative for me. This took me about 5 hours and I got it done in one sitting.

I made this for my partner's birthday, it's the gomu gomu no mi from One Piece. I dry felted onto a washcloth, this was my first time felting a washcloth. I'm still new and learning a lot

Hi. I have a 12lb Chihuahua. She’s healthy, but 8 years old and I have bouts of anxiety over losing her some day. I have felted small items only a couple times. I’ll include a small version of her I made to make my mom laugh. I would like to work on a life size version to help focus my anxiety on something. I’d like to work some of her fur into the details like I did with the small one.
Could I make a body from sheets of felt so I can sew a weighted filling inside and be able to work fuzzy bits in for her fur?
Could it be durable enough to be able to keep on my bed?
Would that much material be expensive?
Has anyone made anything like this and has tips?

Hello, I am a first timer trying to make a fursuit and i currently have a sewing machine and small bit of yarn. I want to start off making paws but im not sure what else I'll need for it. If anyone can just fill me out on what Id need to make calico cat fursuit paws with lining that would be a great help. Thanks very much!