Ballerinas

After sharing Vera's nursery on Project Nursery I had a request from another mom for two needle felted animals, like the ones used for Vera's mobile. I made a ballerina rabbit and cat for her; my favorite parts to make were the little ballet slippers, "tied" on with embroidery floss. The tiny tutus were pretty fun too.

12 Days of Handmade Holidays Giveaway

Visit Think Liz for a chance to win one of my handmade needle-felted ornaments!

Giveaway ends Tuesday, December 14th at 10pm.

Happy Monday!

Green Felted Spider

I had a custom order last week for a green spider. smart customer. everything is better in green :)

Etsy Additions

A couple new holiday additions to my Etsy shop:

Snowflake drawstring bags

Felted ornament

Felted Yorkie

I just finished a custom order for a felted yorkie. This was my first long haired felted animal, and it was quite a challenge! The technique for implanting long hair is pretty straight forward, but takes a lot of patience. This palm-sized dog took several hours to make.

I used an alpaca/silk roving blend, which is a lot smoother than the wool I normally use. After implanting all the hair, the dog looked like a big fuzz ball, and a lot of work with a comb and scissors was needed. I think I ended up with more hair on my clothes than on the dog.

Carlsbad the Bat

I thought October would be a good time to introduce a needle felted bat to my etsy shop. Meet Carlsbad the Bat:

Squeaver

S: I sat down the other day to make a needle felted squirrel, and ended up with a beaver. We'll call him Squeaver. I had sketched out plans for a squirrel but as I started felting the head I began to have doubts.

"What does this look like to you, Zach?"

"A groundhog...or a beaver."

"Or a squirrel?"

"No, not at all, that's a beaver."

Sigh. but no worries...slight change in plans but all he needed was a tail to become a full fledged beaver. He also got a little vest, buttoned on with a button that I made from polymer clay. I decided to start making some of my own buttons for my needle felts since they are so expensive to buy. I think the first batch turned out pretty well.

Z: In the days of yore, Sarah would have taken the Squeaver to market and she would have sat in the hot sun all day eating watermelon and fanning her pretty sweaty face hoping that someone would walk along and fancy her homemade needle felted craft. Yawn. We live in the digital age people! This is what happened: Sarah made a digital post to sell her non-digital Squeaver on Etsy and within 30 seconds someone had digitally purchased it. I believe that's a digital record. Sarah, in her humility, was not going to reveal this to our blog readers, but I'm here to verify that she made the fastest sale of a needle felted Squeaver ever.

S: I also searched the yard for acorn tops to use for these felted ones. They look pretty cute resting in a leaf-shaped dish that I have.

Minnie Millery at The Book Box!

S: My needle felted animals are now being sold at The Book Box in Pflugerville! If you live nearby and are thinking about selling your old books, or buying some new ones, stop by The Book Box...and check out the local artist displays while you're there!

Needle Felting

I didn't know much about needle-felting until Zach bought me a needle felting kit last Christmas. Since then I've been experimenting and learning the process. Needle felting requires two things: wool roving and a barbed needle (made especially for felting). The wool roving is light and fluffy and reminds me of cotton candy. You felt the wool by stabbing it repeatedly with the barbed needle. This causes the wool fibers to stick to one another, or felt, and become dense. It's quite a long process.

Needle felting tools

My very first try I made a tiny bird with a little scarf. Then I made our cat, Cleo, which really creeped Zach out. After that a penguin.


Once I was fairly confident I new what I was doing, I made these:

Needle felted bear, bunny, and cat

They are currently for sale in my Etsy shop. Fingers crossed someone will think they are as cute as I do! Thanks to Zach for the magical Christmas gift that inspired these.