Making a Needle Felted Figure

Ilse recently asked me about how to make 3-D needlefelted figures. I am not an expert, but here's what I do.

Make a loop at the top of a pipe cleaner. The height should be around 6".
Then hook another 6" piece of pipe cleaner around the twist of the first one.
































My photographer (E) was taking fuzzy photos, so there isn't a good one of the head. Begin the head by tightly wrapping small bits of wool around the pipe cleaner. Continue layering on more and more wool tightly--the wool almost felts itself and it should feel firm. The beauty of my figures is that they all have hats, thus the shape of the head can be a bit conelike :) Then needle felt the head, giving it shape with a chin.

Continue doing the same with the body making it cone-shaped with a wide base. Be careful that the wool doesn't start extending beyond the bottom of the pipe cleaner. Now needle felt the body until firm.




















Now wrap the arms, again, tightly. Begin at the shoulder and work down to the bottom of the pipe cleaner. When you get to the end, fold back the tip of the pipecleaner, wrap a bit more and then go back up to the shoulder. You will then have a little hand. I re-wrapped the arm on the left--it was too big.

I keep my eye out for fun beard wool when I'm at fiber festivals. For this guy's beard, I actually put a piece in front of the entire doll and then pulled it apart a bit to reveal the face. Tack it on with a needle felting needle.








You are now ready for the fun part of dressing and accessorizing--it's when my children become inspired :) For this man, I wrapped his body in green wool and needle felted it. Then I did the arms. Finally the hat. I save the eyes for last. I use tiny amounts of wool and poke them deep into the face so they don't just stare out. I made him a knapsack and put twigs into it. He looks a little pale. I clearly need to get some slightly darker wool.

dawn klinge  – (December 9, 2007 at 3:55 PM)  

I'm so glad you posted this. I have really wanted to know how to make these. Thank you so much.

Anonymous –   – (December 10, 2007 at 6:41 AM)  

Hi,
Ooh thank you so much Sarah! This is wonderful. I can't thank you enough.
I gave it a try this weekend, I didn't use a pipecleaner for the body only for the arms , i think i will do that next time, thanks . So my first result of the needlefelting is..... a lovely winterqueen.
I'll send you a picture of it.
I'll also post it on my blog on tuesday.
Ooh and your green man is so cute, I like what you did with the eyes!

have a lovely week

Ilse XXX

xl pharmacy  – (November 22, 2011 at 12:25 PM)  

Looks so beautiful, you do have a great imagination.

Buy Viagra  – (November 25, 2011 at 9:40 AM)  

Awesome work, thanks for sharing this beautiful art.

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