Intro to needle-felting

There are many tutorials around on the internet, but I find that generally with craft the best way to learn is through experimentation- that way you can really make it your own, rather than just copying other people. I’ll give some basic tips and pointers to help you teach yourself.

First off, you will need some equipment:

•  A foam mat, so that you have a soft surface under what you’re felting. You can buy special felting matts, or you can use a bit of old foam you have lying around the house. I use a bit of old foam sofa padding.
• Raw wool fibres. You can get packs of wool fibre in many different colours in most craft shops, my favourite place to buy from is www.thefeltbox.com 
• Needles. You can use single needles, or a multi-needle tool. The more needles you use at a time, the quicker your felting will be, but the less control you will have over the detailing. I use a three-needle tool for most of my felting, then a single needle for small details. Needles come in different thicknesses. I’ve always used fine needles but you may want to try others to see what works best.

Things to remember when felting:

•  The needles are incredibly sharp! This is why it is good to have a foam mat behind what you are felting, so that if you miss or stab too viciously you hit the board and not your fingers!
• The needles are very brittle. This means that they will snap at the slightest bend. It is important when stabbing for the needle to go straight in and out, without any bending or twisting. The needles should be able to go into the fibres without much resistance, don’t force them in or they may snap.
• The felt will compact as you stab it, so start with a handful or fibres that is quite a bit larger than you intend the finished shape to be. When felting on the mat, you should pick up your piece every so often to make sure that you haven’t felted the item into the mat.

A few pointers. These are generally the easiest ways of doing things, but you can always try different things:

• The easiest shapes to make are spheres, as corners are quite difficult to create in felting.
• The easiest way to make an accurate shape is to felt into a cookie-cutter. Deep ones work best for this. To do this you will have to tear off some felt fibres and stuff them into the cutter until it looks about full, then stab that side for a while, before picking it up and turning it over (so it doesn't stick to the foam matt) and stabbing the other side. Then repeat until you feel it has been felted enough. Once you have taken it out of the cutter you may wish to stab the edges a little to neaten them up.
• You can attach shapes together by holding them together in the placement you wish them to be, and stabbing through the join multiple times in many different directions. You must make sure that the needle goes in far enough that it does stab through the join, not just the surface of one of the shapes.
• Squashing your shape between your fingers will keep it flat whilst you stab it (just be careful not to stab your fingers!) 
• Adding small details can be done with small bits of felt and a single needle, though this is quite fiddly.
• If you wish to avoid the fiddly felting of small details, you can always sew on buttons/eyes/bows etc. Sewing into felted items is usually very easy, as a non-barbed needle will go through the felt easier than the barbed ones.
• If you choose to use a wire armature (which will allow your figure to be poseable) be careful not to stab too viciously as the needles will break if they hit the wire. This means that felting around a wire armature may take longer than not using one as you will be able to stab a little more viciously if there is no wire to worry about hitting.

And finally, have fun!