A rainbow mix of Merino wool tops for felt making or spinning. The 100g bag contains a selection of 10 colours including purple, navy, turquoise, forest, green, gold, yellow, tan, scarlet and madder pink. This varied selection of colours is great for sampling our range of Merino wool fibres by making felt balls for jewellery or small animals, such as the caterpillar featured here. Use it all in one go to create a multi-coloured 30cm square of felt fabric. Please note that the colour mix may sometimes vary.
To get you started with felting, we include below a tutorial on beginning needle felting.
Needle Felting an Object
A felting needle is very sharp, with tiny notches cut near the tip of the shaft. The notches are cut at an upward angle, so that fibres catch in the notches, and carry into the mass. When the felting needle is retracted, the fibres stay in place. With each stab of the needle, the fibres become more and more entangled and compressed.
- Both the angle and the depth of the ‘poke’ of the felting needle are important for shaping. The fibre goes exactly where poked; directly down from the surface carries the fibres straight down, and at an angle, they are carried sideways. Poking only a small distance works only the surface fibres. This toughens the top layer and forms a ‘skin’ while the interior fibres stay loose and fluffy. Deep poking (burying the needle ¾ of its length) forms deep indentations. This is the key to three dimensional felt shaping.
- Do the deep shaping first. Too much shallow work will lock the surface fibres and they will become resistant to moving. Start by deep basting using deliberate, deep pokes spaced 0.5 to 1 cm apart along the shaping line. Have a foam pillow under your work to take the end of the needle stroke. Go back over the line with deeper pokes, until it is the depth you want and stays roughly in place. Then get down to the line holding the fibres on each side with the index and middle fingers in a ‘V’-shape and the felting needle with the other hand.
- Now start detailing. As you poke, some of the initial shaping may soften; go back over it later. It helps to rough shape the entire outline and then go back a second and third time to refine and define the shape. Poke with ‘angles’ to give depth to a feature; for a nose, poke all around aiming at an imaginary centre.
- After the deep basting, use a ‘shorter stroke’ of the felting needle for the refinement. Finish up with a very short poke all over to give the final ‘skin’. Apply any final colour with mid-strokes to attach, followed by short strokes to push/pull it into shape along the edge and finish.
- Where stubborn fibres stick straight up, work the needle in a small circular motion around the fibres, and then poke down so that they catch in the needle’s notches. If there are still fibres sticking up, trim them with scissors.
