Tuesday, November 04, 2008

I try hand needlefelting

I've seen lots of beautifully sculpted hand needlefelted items. I use a felting needle sometimes to attach the hair to my dolls, so I thought I'd have a go. First I made these maggots to attach to Grandson Number One's mummy costume for halloween:


(click on photo for bigger image)

I started with a small roll of polyester stuffing, and wrapped it with a thin layer of wool fleece (roving). Then I needle felted it and it worked really well, so I sculpted in the segments and added the nasty little eyes.

Flushed with success, I made this funny little lizard in much the same way:


(click on photo for bigger image)

I made the body first, then I made the legs and 'needled' them on.


(click on photo for bigger image)

To attach the wings, a piece of 'mangled' silk, I 'needled' them on, then put a couple of strands of knitting yarn along the 'seam' and 'needled' that in to make it secure.


(click on photo for bigger image)

These little bits didn't take long, using polyester stuffing as a 'core' speeded up the process a lot. And, of course, having a 'core' of polyester stuffing means they weigh next to nothing. I'd like to have a go at something bigger when I get the time!

UPDATE: the first comment on this post was made by a spammer advertising pokerplaying - I can't remove it, because Blogger is currently not showing a trash can on my comments page. I HATE these people!

UPDATE: thanks for the tip Helen, I've deleted that comment!

6 comments:

Elizabeth A Patterson said...

Hi Kay! Thank you for your nice comments on my blog!

I LOVE your dolls. Really really love them.
Your drawings are soft and beautiful.
Those fabric boxes I saw by randomly exploring earlier posts are great!

So glad you found me, so I could find you!

Elizabeth A Patterson said...

... one more thing... how could I forget to mention the maggots!? They are fabulous. Absolutely.
Lucky grandson!

arlee said...

You ARE a bug Queen-----these are great!
The polyester "filling/base" is a great idea!

Conni said...

Love your needlefelted creatures!

Helen said...

Hiya,
thanks for the comment :D
I love your drawings and sketches! How talented.
But... the maggots! Wonderful and gross at the same time, lol.

Helen said...

p.s. I found a way to delete unwanted comments...
go into the posting tab above where you write your new post - then edit posts. you come up with the list. Click on comments for that post and they all appear with a delete button :D