I decided to learn a new craft…needle felting. It’s where you take plain un-spun wool and poke it with these special needles to form it into a shape. The needles are VERY sharp and have fine, little barbs on them that catch and basically tangle up the wool fibers. The more you poke the needle into the pile of wool, the tighter the fibers get tangled together and a dense, firm shape takes form. You can layer different color wool, merge different shaped pieces into one, add eyes and other features and lots of different things to create whatever you want.

The tools you need are the special felting needles, a foam block to lay the wool on while you are poking it with the needles, different color wool fibers, and finger protectors. The finger protectors are little finger covers made out of leather which prevent the needles from poking your skin. This happens a lot and it hurts! Other things like beads, wood sticks, jewelry or keychain fittings can be used to create your vision.

Since I had never done this before, I bought a kit that had all the basic tools, wool AND instructions for my first project. It was a little animal holding a present, and I turned it into an ornament for our Christmas tree.

Next, I decided to make up my own animal, and chose to make little birds. I gathered some different color wool fibers, needles, my foam block, and my finger covers. First, I balled up some green fibers and began poking to tangle and tighten them up into the shape of a bird.

Once I had a nice solid green body, I poked some white wool fibers into the front for the belly. I decided to add a little red for its throat.

Next, I poked a small bit of yellow wool fibers into a triangle for it’s beak and poked the edge of the beak into the bird’s body. And finally, I added two black pushpins for its eyes.

Last, I needed to make a stand. I decided to use a piece of bamboo skewer and a small wood disc I had. I poked a hole in the bird’s body and pushed it onto the skewer. Then I drilled a small hole in the wood disc and glued the other end of the skewer into it. Ta da!

I thought my little green bird needed a friend, so I made a little blue bird to keep it company!