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.

vote TODAY on change.org to save handmade!

have you been following the news about the c.p.s.i.a.? it stands for 'consumer products safety improvement act,' new legislation slated to go into effect on february 10th.

the idea behind the new law is to protect children from toxic products. but the way the law is currently written, even small and home based business who make all natural items in small batches for children would be forced to pay exorbitant testing fees to say in business legally.

the image above is from cool mom picks.

there is a lot of information available at http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org

most importantly, today is the last day to vote at www.change.org!!

felt cafe ornaments for 2008

natural brown merino, wet felted into a ball. the modern snowflake is then added using the needle felting technique (stabby stabby).and if you liked the felt ball of hope, it's now an ornament!

they're in the shop, and i have some more holiday objects in the works.

yes we did!

by a landslide.

last night while we were watching the returns on tv, in a quiet residential neighborhood of seattle, there were fireworks outside and cheering from down the street.

last year, when i was in japan, i was shocked by how closely people were following the democratic primary. i went to get a haircut, and after she found out i was from the states, the first question the woman cutting my hair asked was who i liked better, hillary or obama.

the whole world has been waiting for this.

live coverage from democracy now

if you are reading this on tuesday night, this is live coverage from democracy now, http://democracynow.org a 5 hour special broadcast that started at 7pm eastern time. they will also have a special 2 hour report on wednesday morning 8-10 am eastern time.

i'll be back tomorrow with more craft related posting. for now, i hope you are watching the election results with your friends and loved ones. in fact, i am full of hope.

a felt ball of hope '08

i made this felt ball from white merino wool, using the wet felting method. there are a number of felt ball tutorials out there; i'll post my method next week.

then, i needle felted the obama 08 logo onto the ball.

only three more days to the election; go out and vote, people!