GRACIE, NOGGINS, GUNTHER: I took two needle felting classes given by Kathy Hays in the Fall of 2001.
B.J. THE DRUMMER: I took a class in needle felting with Sharon Costello at the Fiber Studio in Henniker, New Hampshire during the weekend of August 17th and 18th, 2002. It was there that I created
"B.J. THE DRUMMER". He is my own design. I used unspun Romney wool, my fingers and felting needles to fold and jab
this fleece into the shape of a little man holding a drum. My oldest son B.J. enjoys playing the drums so I named this needle felted man after him.
This doll appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of "ART DOLL QUARTERLY" on page 126 in the SHOW AND TELL section.
PROUD GRANDMA - NEEDLE FELTED: I designed and needle felted this grandma and grandchild while my daughter was pregnant. At that time I did not know if she was having a girl or boy. After my piece was finished she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Chaya Nessa Pearl.
WHOLE BODY:
THREE-QUARTER BODY:
CLOSEUP:
GNOME AND OWL - NEEDLE FELTED: Sharon Costello came to my weaving guild (Frances Irwin Handweavers) in November 2002. We each made a gnome and an owl ornament. These are mine.
THREE NEEDLE FELTED BEARS: I took a wonderful class at Crafty College given by Kathy Hays and learned how to needle felt teddy bears. These bears are my own design. They are made using unspun Romney wool applied with felting needles.
ROBIN - NEEDLE FELTED GNOME
Robin is a friend of Ron, the gnome. She is now living in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is also a college professor.
RON AND ROBIN - GOOD FRIENDS Robin and Ron posed side by side for one last picture before Robin moved to Las Vegas.
RON NEEDLE FELTED GNOME WITH BEARD: I named this needle felted gnome, Ron, after one of my sons who is a college professor. Wouldn't you like this gnome to teach your class? I know you would learn a lot.
SANTA ORNAMENT #3
SANTA ORNAMENT #2
I made several needle felted Santas that I gave away as gifts.
SANTA ORNMENT #1
TEDDY BEAR VESSEL: I made this vessel at a workshop that I took with Sharon Costello. Since I love teddy bears I placed bears all around the entire vessel. This vessel is made by combining the techniques of wet felting and needle felting.
I made this wet felted necklace at a class given by Anne Einset Vickrey at Creative Strands 2004.
PAINTING WITH FIBER:
I took a wonderful class with Sharon Costello in 2003 called "Painting with Fiber". I applied 3 layers of fleece in at least 3 stages, wet it with hot soapy water and rolled and rolled and rolled it until it felted. The final stage was needle felting little bits of fleece to give my picture a 3-D appearance.
JACK THE JESTER:
Jack is a head made with mainly a wet felting technique. His detailed features were applied with a felting needle. He is my own design but I made him in a class in 2003 given at a conference called Creative Strands and held at Bucknell University. The class was taught by Deborah Pope. We made the head, stuck it in a plastic bag with a little hot water and soap and stomped on it many times. We then took it out of the bag and with a regular needle pulled the head into shape.
MR BIG:
Mr. Big started out as a little ornament and ended up 15 ½" tall. I guess I got carried away when I needle felted him.
PROUD GRANDMA AND ED THE FISHERMAN: Proud Grandma, who represents me, is sitting with Ed the Fisherman, who very proudly holds the big fish that he caught. Ed is named after my father-in-law who always wore a cap on his head. They are both my own creations and are needle felted.
BEST FRIENDS: - Two best friends sit on a bench. I designed these figures by needle felting their heads, hats and boots and making the rest of the bodies out of cotton fabric.
BLUE FISH: I just took another wonderful class given by Deborah Pope at Creative Strands in 2004. We learned how to make a fish by using the wet felting method and by adding beads, strands of wool and other embellishments.
JULIA AND HER FRIEND, THE BEAR:
I started with a wire armature, then added strips of batting and finally I both needle felted and wet felted this doll. I made her friend the bear from mohair which I cut and sewed. The tree is made from artifical leaves that I bought and then I strung them onto a dowel that I painted green.
WINTER FUN
(YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD)
I designed these needle felted figures first by making a wire armature so the figures could stand and bend and then by needle felting fleece around it to give it a shape and personality.
EASTER EGG, CHICK AND RABBIT:
I took an "Introduction to Needlefelting" on-line class in February 2005 through
Joggles. The class was designed by Amy Rawson. In the class we made an Easter egg, then a chick and finally a rabbit.
FELTED VESSEL WITH HEAD:
I took another wonderful class with Sharon Costello at Las Vegas Art Stamps during the winter 2005. We each designed our own vessel out of fleece. We used the wet felting technique and wrapped our fleece around a large rubber ball. I added a head to mine.
HILDA THE RED HAT LADY: For this piece, I wove the background on my peg loom and then needle felted a 3-D face on top of it. I named this piece HILDA after one of my aunts who loved to take me places when I was young.
RON CARVES A WOODEN HORSE: I took a photo of my son, Ron, and tried to duplicate it by needle felting. Ron loves to work with his hands. He is building a wooden horse for his two children.
AL IN ROCKER: Even though this does not look like my husband Al, I took a couple of pictures of him and tried to needle felt his likeness.
Look at the “Challenges” page for other felted figures.
DEVORAH: On this picture I used my granddaughter Devorah's real hair.
I designed ROSE and wove her fabric on my loom. If you go to the section called LOOMS on my website and scroll down the page you can see the fabric on one of my looms.
ROSE is holding two teddy bears that I needle felted. I learned the technique for these two bears from Bobbie Ripperger, a fantastic needle felt artist.
ROSE & FRIENDS
To make this necklace I made myself a template out of cardboard so each piece of fleece would be about the same size. I then layered 3 different colors of fleece one on top of the other. Next I took a pan of warm water with Ivory dish detergent and dipped the fleece into it- squeeze it out, added a little soap to my hands and then rolled the fleece back and forth to form a long narrow piece. I kept rolling until the piece was firm. At times I dipped the piece into the pan of soapy water to repeat this process. When I was happy with it I washed it in cold water and then soaked it for a short time in water with a small amount of vinegar added. When this was done I washed it again with clear water, squeezed it well, rolled it in a towel, and let it dry. When it was totally dry I took a sharp scissor and cut my felted piece into narrow pieces and strung it with beading thread and added purchased beads.
WET FELTED ROLLED FLEECE NECKLACE
To make this necklace - I cut out a template from cardboard so each piece of fleece for each ball would be a similar size. I then placed a small amount of fleece on my template. I repeated this for the amount of felted balls I would make. Next I dipped each section of fleece into warm soapy water and rolled and rolled it in my hands until it was nice and firm and round. I then washed it off in clean water and then let it sit in clean water with a little vinegar in it, washed it off again, rolled it into a towel to get the rest of the water out of it and let it dry. Then I made a hole in each one with a tool that is used to punch holes in a leather belt and then took my macrame cord and completed my necklace.
WET FELTED BALL SHAPE FLEECE NECKLACE
GNOMES: These gnomes were made by rolling fleece and shaping them with a felting needle.
FLORA: Flora was my mother who had beautiful white hair. This technique is the same as used on HILDA and DEVORAH
MR. HARRINGTON: The body for this figure was from a pattern by Marge Gorman. I decided to needle felt my own design for Mr. Harrington's head.
TINY
We used to have a rabbit called "TINY" so I named this rabbit that I designed and needle felted after him.
