Needle Felting – Page 2 – a hippie with a minivan

New needle felted creations.

I have not posted my newest creations in quite a while and I have a new one I want to share but though I should get up to date before that.

So here is a post to bring my creations up to date here on the blog. It might be a bit long!

After the Mushroom Girl that I made and shared in the last needle felting post I made this one, which I call Emma’s Garden.

The raised bed garden has an array of vegetables that can be planted and harvested, along with potted flowers, a small flower garden with stones, a tomato plant in an old tire, a watering can an a bowl of freshly picked tomatoes. Emma’s apron can also be removed.

After that I made a few small animals, some magnets and a vegetable set.

I found a supplier for raw undyed wool just over the border in Ontario and they have wool that come from Quebec and Ontario and the prices are quite reasonable. I got black, white and grey and when I got it I knew that I had to make sheep. Isn’t that pig cute?

My next big project was a bigger one… It stands a foot high and is the perfect hight for one of the families that I make. There were a lot of learning with came with which included making a hollow shape that could stand up well, making the hinged door and window and the detailed vines on the sides.

I found these vintage planters at a antique shop and decided to give them a new life as pin cushions. The cushion can be removed so the planter is still intact.

After that I made this cute dragon set that comes with a girl and a boy and chest full of treasure. This one is made sturdy for little hands to play with.

My next creations were made for the We Shine unschooling gathering in the Catskills in June. We had an amazing time and I loved to be be able to share my needle felting at the street fair and even was able to get some people to try felting.

These are my new little toys creations that sold very quickly at the street fair. Crocheted Carrot with a needle felted bunny and a crocheted wedge of cheese with a needle felted mouse.

Not needle felted but this the crocheted mason jar cozies that I make, I only drink out of mason jars and love using them for hot beverages also and with the handle it makes keeps you hands warm without burning.

I also made this needle felted painting that fits in a 5 X 7 frame

some miniature vegetable and fruits (in crocheted bowls)

and some little felted scenes and items that could become magnets or pins or ornaments.

I am having so much fun creating with wool!

Am I an Artist now? More new Creations…

I have been spending so much time needle felting and it feels great, especially after the kids are in bed. I love having a craft to dive into and I am loving the things that I create. I found an amazing supplier of roving and beautiful coloured wool in Montreal called Bure & Linon. Not only does she sell wool in Bulk (well bulk when you are needle felting) but she does so from her own home and I love to support someone local. I bought a few colours which was an investment, but I am looking at it in that way. As an investment. With each creation I make, the better I become and I am starting to recognize that.

(more…)

Latest Creations…

I just added a few more creations to my Etsy page so I thought it would be a good thing to share them here also…

Last time, I shared this guy:

Well, now he has a mate and a little baby! Isn’t the baby adorable? She can nestle up to her mama and it looks like she is nursing. The adult Bunnies are around 5″ tall and the little one is about an 1 1/2 inches…. The parents both have their own personalities and I love the way the whole family looks together.

This mama and baby are a bit rustic but I still love the way she turned out. She has a bun in her hair and a beautiful green dress all made of wool and she even has underwear under that dress 😉

I need to get more comfortable in making humans though because there is something about the face that gets me. I see the attraction of doing Waldorf style dolls for that reason because they often don’t have a face.

I really like the way that these mice turned out but there was something about them that were not exactly what I wanted when I thought of what I wanted my mice to look like. I feel like these two belong together though. I have come to think of them as the twins… After having made my last set of mice, I am now thinking that they guyys may look more like rats. Though I am still not sure… what do you think?

I love how this Bird and nest came out. The bird is a perfect size for playing with and the eggs are so simple and look no natural in the nest. The nest itself is made from two different coloured wools and I just felted it until is came into shape. I have a feeling that there will be more like this in the near future…

Right after I made the bird and nest, I made these… it actually started with just one and then I decided to try to make an earring out of it. It was much simpler then I thought. Then of course I have to make another that looked exactly like it. Which worked out perfectly.

My last and latest creations are another set of mice. These were more what I was envisioning and I am so proud that they turned out the way they did! I started with one, which turned out to the be little one and then realized that he looked childish so of course he needed a parent. When I was done both of them, there was still something missing, so I started on the scarf and vest. Now they are perfect! The scarf is knitted on size 2mm needles using Fine (Sport or 2) woollen yarn and is just 8 tiny stitches across using the stockinette stitch. The vest is crocheted out of the same yarn using a size 2.5 hook. Aren’t they cute?!

It can and does take hours for these creations to come together but each one take on a life of its own and I love to do it.

Of course, if you have fallen in love with one of these little guys, check out my Etsy page!

Crochet sets and more needle felting

I have been keeping busy lately either crocheting or needle felting depending on my mood and the time. I find that needle felting is easier in the evening after Willa is in bed or when she is playing outside in the snow with the boys (but when she is outside I always end up cleaning up). The way I have been needle felting lately is that I start making something without knowing what I am making and just letting it transform, so when I do that I want to get into the moment and it is easier when there are no constant distractions or little hands wanting to touch what I am doing.

Here is another bunny I made with a carrot. Like the first little guy, he has a pipe cleaner base and can be posed. I think I will be making more of these and selling them. They are so cute, the perfect size for playing and fun to make. At one point I would love to make a family of bunnies with a little woodland home for them to play in.

This dragon started with a head and I had no idea what he was going to be until I started shaping him more. He almost became either cow or a croc but then I decided that he would make great baby dragon tuckered out from a day of playing…

This guy also started with a head but I had a feeling that I wanted him to become a squirrel and so he did. He is actually quite big with his head being more then 3 1/2 inches tall and his tail reaching 5 inches. I made a little acorn for him also which he can hold between his paws.

In other moments I am often Crocheting. There are a few shows that I really enjoy and that I watch on the computer and when I did so, I would always feel guilty that I was “wasting” time that I could be using for doing something productive instead of just something that I enjoy but that doesn’t bring me fulfilment. Crocheting is the perfect answer to that. I can sit a watch something and crochet at the same time. Have my guilty pleasure yet still be productive. I Love it!

I am trying to find things that I can sell so I thought that dish cloths and scrubber set might be a good answer to that.

Aren’t they pretty?

I am hoping that a set like this might be a good seller. The dishcloth is 8 1/2 inches wide and the scrubber is about 3 inches wide and fits perfectly into your hand when scrubbing rough to get spots on dishes.

Another thing I have ready to sell is a cat costume with ears and a tail like the one I made for Willa. However, this one is actually adjustable since I made ties instead of being one piece or with a button and not only that but the tail portion is even more adjustable with the way I made the tie.

Now to figure out prices… (that seems to be the hardest part!!)

Needle Felting…

I had heard and seen what could be done with needle felting but never really saw the interest. I don’t know why but I think I just didn’t really give it much thought. (and yes, Joanna… you had even mentioned it in a comment a few weeks ago 😉 )

Well, On Dec 15th, I went to the Xmas party at “Le Milieu“, that little artistic café/workspace that I had talked about in a previous post. I met up with a few friends and made some new friends and at a table this amazing woman named Pandora was giving a little workshop on Needle Felting. My friend Gen said that she was going to go try so I went over with her but didn’t have any intentions of doing it… until I saw it being done… then I wanted to do it.

What ended up happening was sitting down talking and sharing and needle felting for the next couple hours and what I cam home with was this little guy… and a new addiction.

(doesn’t he have attitude!)

A few days later, I ordered my first kit of supplies. I ordered it from the Canadian store Maplerose, which is not only Canadian, and in BC but in Nelson! where I was raised and where we plan to be moving once we can sell this house (and by a big coincidence, where Pandora, the girl who was giving the workshop also lived at the same time as me when we were kids, and even went to the same school as me!!)

So, I got a set of beginner needles, wool batting, an assortment of merino roving colours, a few pipe cleaners and a foam to work on.

and I finally received my order today.