Gorgeous Felted Mermaids

Una Sassa began felting with us in the Spring of 2015; she jumped right in with our wet felting slippers kit and CD tutorials for needle felting dolls. Since then, her dolls have brought many smiles and tons of inspiration!

Una shared that she used MC-1 Cotton and MC-1 Midnight Blue on this doll.

– Una Sassa, England

Theresa LaBrecque needle felted this very original mermaid on Facebook…isn’t she lovely?

Patti says she is practicing realistic hands and this sweet gal has Merino Top for her hair.

“This was inspired by the mermaid art submitted by Anne Zimmerman.”

Patti Bronecky, California

In case you have not seen images of Anne’s Mermaids, here is one. She has shared a few of them with us over the years and all are equally wonderful.

– Anne Zimmerman, New York

Ruth Yoder shared her beautiful Mermaid, Lorelei, on our facebook page, wow!

Sonja shared hers as well! We think she is a fairy mermaid!

“I just finished this mermaid doll. She is about 12” tall and is fully poseable, including her fingers. She is core wool covered with flesh tone Mc batt, and materials from the fairy artist pack. Her hair features your amazing Teasdale locks. She is hand beaded with hundreds of mixed glass beads, swarovski crystals, and natural stones on her bra, tail, and wired into her hair.”

– Sonja Weeks Oswalt, Tennessee

Beautiful Felted Ocean Scene

“I always start with core wool, then use a variety of Living Felt felt wools. So many colors! After it is dry I needle felt some detail. This also has some wool nepps and silk in the beach.”

– Lisa Shanor, Wyoming

Realistic Needle Felted Birds

Susan Beal in Vermont needle felts incredibly lifelike bird sculptures. She shared that she combines her wool with our CW-1 Core Wool and colors of our MC-1 Batts.

Some of those colors include: Black, Storm, Birch, Driftwood and Clay, Blueberry,
Winter Blue and Chicory.

“I’ve tried other company’s wool and keep returning to yours
for my birds because it felts so well and is so clean and uniform,
and there is a terrific range of colors. I also use your needles—
a single #36 triangle is my workhorse (I go through a lot of these!),
along with the #38 star needles in the 10 needle felting tool
and the Clover tool.”

 

She also shared that a number of her birds were made for a conservation group in Mississippi who uses the birds in educational activities, while others are created
and for sale in her etsy shop.

“They’re all life sized, and because I strive make them as lifelike
and realistic as possible, I’ve had to keep developing new techniques
along the way. It’s immensely gratifying.

Thanks for all your passion, love and good vibes!”

Best wishes,
Susan, Vermont

See more from Susan in her etsy shop: Flightofheart

Felting Wild Life with Judy Titche

Judy Titche lives in Indiana and is a trained artist with a degree in painting and drawing. Her creative exploration, however, has moved her more toward 3D works which she really enjoys.  Her felted animals and the rich colors and textures in her scenes are utterly brilliant.

“I have done a great deal of work in 3D mosaics. My current show at the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette is a combination of mosaics and fiber held together by the theme of animals.”

“I have always had a fascination with vintage fabric and needlework. I saw a photo of needle felted embellishment and I plunged in head first. I love to learn new art forms and I also like the challenge of pushing them to their/my limits. I like the little ”surprises” of wet felting and the variety of color in wool rovings.  Needle felting is both a challenging and unique sculpting medium.  I find the final form is also unique in its texture and detail.”

 

Judy considers “nature” to be her greatest inspiration. “Every day I am amazed at the beauty of nature. I think I captured some of that beauty in my baby duck piece, the Snowy Owl and the Cardinals in a Magnolia Tree.”

Judy shared that her greatest artistic challenges to date were around the felted snowy owl hanging in her current solo show.

“I think the Snowy Owl was the most challenging due to the armature I had to build to provide support for the life sized wings and body. Also the installation piece around the owl was quite challenging.  My vision was to create an ethereal setting for the owl to be flying through.  I was quite pleased with the final result.”

Next on her bucket list of “things to felt” is an installation representing several different jellyfish.

 Judy offers encouraging words to those just getting started:

 “Keep your eyes open and look, look, look. Train yourself to see detail and the numerous hidden treasures all around you.  There are innumerable textures and color combinations that are awe inspiring. Use what you see as  inspiration for your work.”

Judy shared her use of Living Felt Fibers and tools:        “I use Living Felt core wool for most of my 3D work.  I like the foam pads for needle felting and Merino wool for its softness and color variety.”

 Besides her current exhibit, you can see more of Judy’s eclectic style in her etsy shop: ReZoom

Needle Felted Whale & Calf – Stunning Felted Sea Life

Sue Stasiowski recently shared some of her brilliant works of art felted with Living Felt wool.

This jaw dropping mother whale and calf  are like none we have ever seen. The brilliant use of color and contrast keep the eye moving and truly bring them to life. The whales each have a thin wire armature from the nose to the tail.  They are mounted a piece of found driftwood, and the sculpture is 11.5″ high x 25″ long x 18″ deep.

Sue shares that these whales “were great fun to make.  The whole piece took about 2 months to finish.  The whales were started with core wool and then different colors of the Merino-Cross Batts were layered on top of one another until I achieved the look I wanted.”

Sue uses Living Felt CW-1 Core Wool, MC-1 Felting Batts, New Zealand Corriedale and Merino Top. She writes,  “Thank you for all your wonderful wool.  It’s a pleasure to work with it.”

 Also by Sue, and featured previously on our blog was a graceful  needle felted dolphin and this incredible blue heron.

See / PIN more pics …PLUS! learn all the colors she used on the heron:  on this post

Sue Stasiowski is a fiber artist who became interested in needle felting after years of making hand knit clothing and blankets. Sue spends most of her time needle felting and knitting in her home studio, and also makes time to experiment with other art forms such as fiber wall hangings, bowls and other three-dimensional sculptures. Her work is sold at Leslie Curtis Designs in Camden. She lives in Camden, Maine with her husband, dog and cat.

You can see more from Sue on her website: http://stasiowskiart.com

Needle Felted Marine Life ~ Needle Felting Realism

These fabulous needle felted sculptures come to us from Joshua Gardner of Los Angeles, California.
Joshua shares that his works are “inspired by realism in art, and a fascination with wildlife.”

We really appreciate the photos showing the scale of the felted animals, they are impressively large for needle felted art!

Joshua incorporates a variety of fibers into his needle felted sculptures, and completed all of these pieces with a single 36 gauge felting needle … really.

Joshua shared that he “learned a lot about the anatomy of animals while trying to capture them in a realistic sculpture. i love that needle felting is an additive process with endless possibilities.”

He tells us that his next big project is a life-sized lions’s head….and he is using Living Felt MC-1 Felting Batts for that. We look forward to seeing it and sharing it with you all!

Wet Felted Shoreline – Beach Scene

 

FELTED BEACHY THINGS & SUMMER FUN! Share your sun, summer, beach, lake, etc. felted pics this week! This lovely felted picture comes from “Felted House” .. the artist does not list her name on the her blog ,we know  she is in the UK, but it was too lovely not to share!
“Can you incorporate real shells in layers of felt? Well, yes you can, if you really want to, but you have to be careful. I laid out two fine layers of fibres, then put some shells and pieces of shells in, then added another two fine layers of fibres so they were covered. I used some edges of silk squares for the swirly froth as the waves break on the sand.”

“When the piece was felted together well, I rolled it up using bubble-wrap and a foam pool-float – I usually use a bamboo blind but I thought that might be too hard for the shells!  When the felt had shrunk and fulled a bit I gently cut small holes in the top layer just over the shells to expose them a bit, and then carried on rolling.”

“All was fine until I thought I might throw the felt just a bit since it didn’t seem to be hardening as much as I expected (how silly is that – to treat it really carefully to start with then chuck it against a table?)- this was when I broke two of the shells, I thought they might be a bit more protected by their cushion of felt! But they’d lodged in their little pockets of fibres so well that I was able to insert another couple quite securely. The shimmery pieces of shell did break up a bit but stayed lodged in the surface.”

MORE FROM THIS ARTIST > FELTED HOUSE