Friday, January 16, 2009

needle felted conversation heart tutorial

a perfect easy felting project for valentines day, or modified for an inaugural craft!


materials: wool roving, felting needle, silicone heart ice cube tray (ikea).this is an easy beginning needlefelting project.
start by rolling up a bit of the wool roving in a ball. roll the wool tightly.

place the ball of wool in the ice cube tray.
gently poke the wool with the felting needle. the barbs on the needle lock the wool fibers together. usually needle felting is done over a mat or brush or sponge, and the needle passes all the way though the object. but in this case you can just make sure to stop when you hit the plastic.
the wool will felt in the direction that you stab it from. so poke it from all directions.
just make sure to stab straight in and out, to prevent the needle from breaking.

turn the wool over and continue to work it from both sides and all angles.
it won't be exactly heart shaped right away. wrap more wool around the ball, and continue to stab it.
to create a more defined heart, you can also stab it when it's not in the ice tray.

you can keep adding wool as you like, to get the thickness you want.


to add words, take a little bit of a contrasting color wool, and twist it with your fingers.
hold the twisted fibers where you want to start making letters.
stab through and next to the contrasting color, forming the letters you want to write. you can always add more wool to make larger stronger letters.
if you are having a hard time finding the supplies for this project, i put together a kit of supplies that is available in my etsy shop.

12 comments:

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

This is FANTASTIC! I know so many people who want to get into felting and this is PERFECT! Thanks so much! I'll be linking.

Jo said...

What a lovely project! I've been reading your blog for a little while and kept wodering how 'needle felting' was done, so thank you.

Anonymous said...

Those are SOOOO cute!

Unknown said...

I love these! But, I can't find most of these things. My local yarn shop just closed. Please help me out, I just HAVE to make these! :-) Thanks so much for your help!!

liz said...

thanks!

anna sophia (and anyone else who is looking for supplies), i will have a kit of supplies available in my etsy shop after feb 1st.

Lisa said...

Great tutorial! Thanks!

Unknown said...

Thank you very much, very good idea,I'll try. :-)

leyya said...

its very fantastic..so nice..

elisabetha said...

what a great use for an ice-cube tray! thanks for the fabulous tutorial :)

Anonymous said...

and now i know how to felt the letters! :-) i love felt but i've never tried to do it myself! thanks for the great tutorial!

tatiana

gtwo said...

I am just learning to needle felt I will have to give this a try. Thanks for the inspiration !

Chiara Handmade said...

beautiful and very simple! Thanks!
Linked in my blog, ok?