Felted Ornaments

Although it's already well into January, I decided to continue working on Christmas crafts for my fifth and final blog post. This time, I made several ornament-like balls for my future Christmas tree. Similar to my last post, I used wool and a needle to poke everything into shape.

According to Artful Christmas: 30 Elegant Craft Projects by Susan Wasinger, this project only required wool roving in a variety of colors, needle-felting tools, and Styrofoam balls. The Styrofoam ball would make up the inside of the ornament.

Next, the author said to, “Jab the roving gently with the needle-felting tool. Go over the surface of the ball thoroughly… As you finish working over one section with the tool, tear off and add new pieces of roving. Felt them into place with the tool until you’ve covered the entire ball” (Wasinger 51). I followed these instructions and gently jabbed the wool onto the surface of the ball. 

After this step, all I had to do was lay some yarn on the ball and let it zigzag, loop, or swirl around in different patterns. Continue poking the yarn and wool into place and make sure it is secure (Wasinger 51). Instead of using yarn, I chose to use wool still. I followed the rest of the directions and used strings of white wool and circled it around the ball in various shapes and patterns.

Since one ornament wasn’t enough, I proceeded to make balls of other colors and designs. Using another Styrofoam ball, I wrapped it in blue wool first, then used pieces of white wool to carve out a unique design. I attempted to spell out my name. I also tried making an ornament using green wool and other colors for the pattern.

 

I enjoyed making this craft, just like I enjoyed making every other craft that I posted about in my previous blog posts. The art of creating Christmas crafts and crafts for other occasions has helped me become more patient, focused, and creative, and these qualities have made me a better person.

What is your favorite craft to make and why do you like making that kind of craft?

Wasinger, Susan. Artful Christmas: 30 Elegant Craft Projects. Lark, 2014

Felted Wool Animals

As I have mentioned before in my other posts, I enjoy making various crafts. With the help of the book, Artful Christmas: 30 Elegant Craft Projects, I was able to make another fun art project. Although this book focused mostly on Christmas projects, it also contained several ideas for other types of cool, creative crafts. For this post, I chose to make felted wool animals.

The materials needed were many different colors of wool, felting needles, a foam pad, and optional finger gloves to protect your fingers from the needles. I bought a felting kit online that included most of these materials.

First, I decided to make a bunny. Using the felting needle, I took some white wool and poked it into a ball. This would be the inner layer. After poking that into shape, I wrapped some pink wool around the ball and began poking it. “Lay it on the foam pad and jab at it repeatedly with the needle-felting tool. The fibers will tangle together and form a firm shape” (Wasinger 54). The most important thing is to make sure the wool is hard enough and doesn’t fall apart.

To make the ears, I was supposed to take a little bit of pink wool, fold it in half, and poke it until the shape of the ear formed. By poking in the middle of the ear more, it became more indented and better resembled a bunny ear. Use the leftover fibers that are hanging off the ear to attach it to the head. Needle all around the base of the ear so that it’s securely attached and is forced to stand up by itself (Wasinger 55). Then use a small amount of black wool as the nose and the mouth.

Once this step was completed, all I had to do was place the eyes. This was a bit harder because it wouldn’t secure into place very well. I had to use a special tool to help me make a bigger hole in the spot of the eyes for them to slide in well enough and stay.

After making the bunny, I proceeded to make a seal. Following the same basic steps as before, I used the felting needle to poke some white wool into a ball. I made the tail and fins by taking a little bit of wool and poking it into the right shapes. This process took some time and patience because it was harder than it looked. I attached these parts the same way I attached the bunny’s ears.

The third animal I made was a penguin. I followed most of the same steps and created the shape of the body first. Using some white and orange wool, I made the penguin’s belly, beak, and feet. After attaching these onto the body, I slid the eyes into place and poked around to polish up the shape.

Out of the three felted wool animals I created, my favorite one was the penguin because it was cute and colorful. All in all, this project was fun and the final product was nice, but I need to keep practicing. I also need to have more patience because felting is pretty time-consuming, but I hope to make more little animals in the future!

Which animal do you like the most? Would you be willing to give felting a try?

Wasinger, Susan. Artful Christmas: 30 Elegant Craft Projects. Lark, 2014