Maurine's

Fiber

Friends

  Additional Dolls Made By Felting

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.

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.

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.

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.

    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.

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.

"GEDALYA THE MAGICIAN"

This needle felted figure was made for a challenge.  

For this Mystery Challenge, we had to use 1 small 

rubber chicken and 1 tin can.  The following items had 

to be visible:  3 buttons: 1 red, 1 character and 1 – one 

inch or larger.  We had to use 1 zipper, any size, any 

color;  3 or more feathers  and 1 clothes pin, any 

shape.  The challenge was sponsored by the Las 

Vegas Silver Doll-ers doll club.

    Since I love to needle felt, I made a magician.  His 

bow tie is a clothes pin, his jacket has a zipper down 

the front.  He is holding a yo yo of large buttons. His 

pockets have a red button and a fancy button on it. 

 The  chicken  sits  in a magician’s hat which is filled with feathers.

     I named him Gedalya after my oldest grandson.

    He received two awards:  1st for THE BEST USES

                                             2nd for CUTEST

"GEDALYA THE MAGICIAN" was also published 

on page 60 in the March 2009 issue of 

"DOLL CRAFTER AND COSTUMING"

I purchased a pattern from Marie Spaulding called "The Happy Dog".  The "Happy Dog" is a needle felted beagle.  This is my version of the pattern.

DOTTIE - Each December our 

 Las Vegas Silver Doll-ers Doll 

Club has a pin doll exchange at 

our Holiday party.  I picked 

Dottie's name out of a brown 

paper bag.  This is the pin doll 

that I made for her. 

I took my rattail cording and by 

using the macrame technique I 

made the doll's skirt.  I strung her 

pearl bead arms onto wire and I 

needle felted her face using 

Romney fleece.  She is 12" tall.

At a Bachelor party they often have a young beautfiul girl come out of a cake.  I made this senior citizen gal come out of a cupcake.  She's so hungry that she has a handful of this delicious cupcake in her hand ready to eat.  I needle felted this entire piece out of Romney fleece.  I had just taught another one of my "Needle Felting a Gnome" classes so she has kind of a gnome look to her face.

For these creations I wove the background on my Harrisville peg loom and then needle felted 

the 3-D faces on top of the woven pieces.  Going across from left to right on the top row is 

Gedalya, Devorah, and Flora.  The second row from left to right has Yaakov Zev, Chaya Nessa 

Pearl and Hilda the Red Hat Lady.  Gedalya, Devorah, Yaakov Zev and Chaya Nessa Pearl are 

four of my grandchildren.  I used their real hair for these pieces.  Flora is named after my mom 

and Hilda was the name of my aunt.

I enjoy needle felting teddy bears.  These are 

small pin dolls that I made for three of my friends.

This is a picture 

of my friend Fran 

Parrigan Meehan 

holding the needle 

felted bear pin that I 

made for her.

While I was teaching one of 

my '"NEEDLE FELTING A 

GNOME " classes I worked 

along side of my student.  I 

made "KNOBBLES THE 

GNOME"  He is completely 

needle felted.

I needle felted this black cat for my friend to add to her Halloween project.

"IDA" - I made Ida using the same technique as the California Rag Doll except that I needle felted her head and made her necklace by macrame.  Her skirt is woven on a Harrisville Peg Loom using a special cutting and weaving technique to give her a ruffle skirt.   She is named after my husband's grandmother.

 I  designed " FLO" and wove her dress on my loom in Green and 

Orange Huck Lace weave using 10/2 pearl cotton.  Each month's colors 

were to represent the month.  The colors for March represent the Irish 

flag that is green, orange and white for St. Patrick's Day. I chose two of 

those colors.  I love to needle felt and needle felted her head.

Flo wearing her Huck Lace dress 

Front view

Flo wearing her Huck Lace dress 

Rear view