It’s coming……

So you think you want to learn to needle felt? Well, here are my basic instructions. All you need is some wool fiber, a needle felting needle or two, and a foam base upon which to felt. Give it a try-you might like it!

Needle Felting Basic Instructions:

Loosen your fibers by gently pulling apart between your fingers. (You must pull the locks apart to open them up to dispel any veggie matter contained in them.) Arrange your fibers in a pleasing design on the foam base. Holding the top of the needle firmly between your thumb and fingers of your dominate hand, use a straight up and down pouncing/jabbing motion to work the fibers together. You MUST pull the needle out of the foam & fibers in the same direction as you inserted the needle or you risk bending or breaking off the needle tip,rendering it unusable.  The goal is to hear a faint “squink-squink” as just the tip of the needle penetrates the foam base; the goal is NOT to firmly pierce the foam base.  When the fibers appear evenly compacted, gently remove the prefelt from the foam and flip over. Continue to work the needle on this side, and repeat from one side to the other until you can no longer pull fibers apart. Finish your felt as desired, adding beads or stitching.

If you are using an armature, be certain to know where your armature is in relation to the felting needle. The needle is fragile and will break if you strike it against wire, or another immovable object.

Always know where your non-dominate hand is in relation to the needle-the tip of the needle and the barbs on the needle are very sharp and will draw blood

Always “park” your needle in the foam base when not in use-this protects you from injury and the needle from breakage.

Remember to use your elbow as the fulcrum to move the needle through the fibers, NOT your wrist.  Take frequent stretching breaks to avoid fatigue.

Most important of all-HAVE FUN STABBING SOMETHING INTO EXISTENSE! Until next time, go FELT SOMETHING!

I apologize for the late evening posting-my son & daughter-in-law had an emergency need for Granna to sit with young master Ezra for a spell. All is well, and I got to see my grandson-good news all around.

So, Tuesdays will be Tips and Tricks day, and today’s tip is to seek out opportunities to learn more about your craft! I was fortunate to discover the Harveyville Project and FELT SCHOOL about 4 months after I taught myself how to needlefelt. Here are pictures of me creating my very first cobweb wet felted scarf:

If I hadn’t begun to search for felt schools, felt classes, felt anything, I would not be where I am today, an artisan preparing to jump her art to the next level. (And I get to go to FELT SCHOOL http://harveyvilleproject.com/?page_id=41 again in about 12 days to get some ‘refresher’ courses!)

Until tomorrow, Wordless Wednesday, go FELT SOMETHING!

Anna

Thank you, the Nester http://www.thenester.com/ , for your inspiration to blog for the month of October. I think this will be a challenge akin to NanoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/ in that it will DEMAND I be intentional about blogging-a good thing!

So-what to expect here on annasplaceofholding? October has been designated as production month given that my holiday show season begins the first weekend of November and I want to have TONS of new product available for my customers http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/designsbyanna. Additionally, I have a needlefelt sculpture to complete for our local TWISTED! Fiber Fest http://www.potwinfiber.org/Site/Topeka_Twisted_Fiber_Festival.html AND I’m working out the thoughts for doing a Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/ to ramp up my creativity to the next level! Plenty of fodder here to blog daily.

So, for today, you have been warned-there’s going to be some FELTING going on during the month of October and I hope you’ll check in on me daily to see what I’ve been working on! Until tomorrow, GO FELT SOMETHING!

Anna

Our local Potwin Fiber Artisans will be holding the TWISTED! Fiber Festival the first weekend in November, and I am working on a sculpture to represent what we all do with the fiber arts, and thought that the eclectic collection of crocheters, knitters, embroidery experts, spinners, felters, etc. would be best seen as a vortex of fibers!

tornado

Yep, I’ve been trimming newly felted wool pieces today and collecting the debris, and will combine it with dryer lint and some lovely black and gray wool to create a tornado! Then, for grins and giggles, I’ll add threads, yarns, perhaps a few needle tools, and when complete, it will be the perfect representation of TWISTED!

Watch for upcoming pictures to document the process! (And I’ve got something really special cooking in the wings!)

Anna

FELT This! Needle Felted Bag-on-a-Block Class (2 sessions)

What have I been up to, you ask? Well, actually…..

GENCON-It’s been about preparing for GenCon (the best four days of gaming in the world), finishing the commission for Jeremy at Wastex Games to deliver at GenCon (the best four days of gaming in the world) and getting kits ready for my classes at GenCon (the best fo…you get the idea!)

So, without further ado, here is “Bud”, the mascot for Wastex Games:

To recap (and you can look at earlier posts to confirm), Bud was crafted first with a wire armature covered by poly fiberfill sheets to “flesh” him out. I then prepared blended rovings, wet felted felts, and other items to create the skin, which was needlefelted onto the fiberfill. Embellishments to complete his dettails included natural stone chip beads, seed beads, and mother of pearl dagger style beads. Bud stands about 14 or so inches tall, and his wings, when fully stretched out, are roughly 16 inches wide.

Bud’s owner, Jeremy Southard with Wastex Games, was quite pleased with how his commission turned out, and gladly showed him off at the booth during GenCon. The experience was great for me, and I look forward to the possibility of doing other commissions in the future. I do have an alpaca in the wings, as we speak.

What else happened at GenCon, you ask? LOTS of games, and I did get to play a couple, but for me and many others, it was about holding classes. I ran 6 classes this year, twice as many as last year, and while unlike last year where I sold out and then some, the 80+ students I did teach this year were amazing! Here are a couple of their creations:

Duck Bill Platypus!

Meme War Ninja!

Meme War Robot:

OWLS

The bad news is that GenCon is over for the year…..the GOOD NEWS is that you can take a class from me if you live in the Topeka area! And, if I have enough interest, I’ll set up a G+ hangout to teach a virtual class every now and then.

To my students from GenCon-I’ll be sending out an email this weekend with the tips, tricks and resource list that I promised in class. What I need from YOU is some feedback: what did you like about the classes? What would you want to see more of? Did your expectations get met or is there something I can do to improve? I’m already in the planning stages for next year, one of which may be an option to get a complete TO-GO kit during the hours I plan to hang in the open craft room between classes. This would be a great option for those who missed their class, for whatever reason, who could turn in their ticket and still have a kit to take with them.

It’s been a wacky, crazy summer, which ended for me last evening when my husband, youngest son and I took middle son off to college. Bittersweet moment for this mama for sure, but I am so proud of the young man Zack has become, and look forward to seeing him continue to grow into a man of strength and integrity.

We love you son!

Until next time-FELT SOMETHING!!

Anna

The next step in the process of creating this amazing dragon for my friend, Jeremy, has been done-creating the under body. As the armature is the skeleton of the sculpture, the under body is the musculature of the sculpture. Fleshing out the sculpture is easy to do with simple poly fiberfill.

I prefer to use sheets from a quilt top fiberfill, cutting it into strips to wrap easily around the armature. Then, as you can see from the chest of the creature, you can cut the strips into smaller pieces to help you further define the details of the musculature.

So, without further ado, here are the pics:

For those of you who are intrigued by the process, and who are attending GenCon in Indianapolis next month (https://registration.gencon.com/), take one of my FELT This! SPA classes and create a creature of your own!

Until we meet again, go FELT SOMETHING!

Anna