Felting has become pretty popular as of late. You see pieces imported from abroad cause felting is oh so exotic. Then there's machine made trinkets at such fine establishments such as Anthropology©. It has also been one of the staple forms of art found at Waldorf schools (some others include water color paintings and beeswax sculptures). I have dabbled in wet felting as a child, but had never attempted needle felting. So why did I take up felting even though I was suffering from an overload of school work?
Simple-
The colors!
One of the vendors was selling beautiful hand dyed roving. I kept coming back to it. I was even considering buying some just to gaze at them. Then I learned that an artist friend had taken up felting and was doing detailed portraits. I quickly went to her table to seek guidance. Turns out needle felting is quite simple. You merely stab wool with special needles. I already had the proper felt backing and my school, coming to aid, sold the needles and foam board. With the remainder of my money, I purchased four clumps of the pretty roving seem above. Though choosing the colors was quite difficult.
I went off to start my first painting(?) that very night. I knew from the beginning what I wanted to felt.
Yay my friend's farm! I took some liberties with the exactness (cause damn, spindly trees are difficult!). I also learned that accidentally stabbing oneself in the fingertip is horribly painful. Though these days I am such a virtuoso that I can stab as fast a as floored sewing machine (and not stab myself!).
I am currently working on another piece that is a bit more architecturally inclined. I also made felted things for xmas and birthday presents this winter. It's trying to portray everything in felt. I felted a tiny tiger on a bookmark and then half of a rib cage on another piece.
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