Basic Needle Felting Tools
It's not essential to have all of the above. To get started just some felting wool and a needle. I do recommend finger protection (it can be very painful if you jab your finger) and a mat (some people use a sponge to start, until they can get a mat).
Place cookie cutter on mat. Put wool inside as shown and arrange the colours. For this I used brown at the top, orange for the middle and grey for the bottom. Start jabbing until the wool starts to flatten and merge together. Try to keep the colours where you want them.
Take cookie cutter away. Peel the wool off of the mat gently. It sticks to the mat and if you pull too quickly it will separate. It's okay for it to look very fluffy. Hold the wool between your fingers (with something protecting your fingers) squeeze gently then using your needle jab and turn the wool after each couple of jabs until you have done the whole circle. When you have the outside looking nice and even, hold it up to the light and any see through bits you need to match the colour of wool and place a little on and jab until all looks even.
Now we move onto the eye. You can buy eyes to glue on but for this I am making the eye from wool. Get the colour of eye you wish to use and rub it between your fingers to make a loose circle shape. Then jab with the needle to the desired position on the robin. Try not to jab too hard or it will just go through the other side.
For the wing grab a piece of wool (remember when the wool is needle felted it shrinks). Then use the needle to pull the ends up and over into the main body and shape the wing. Once you have a decent shape and you have jabbed for a bit to secure the fibres together, then place between your fingers and squeeze gently then jab while rotating your wing. Don't jab the piece of wool that will be attaching to the main body. Once wing seems solid enough then you can use the small piece of wool that hasn't been felted to attach to the robin circle. Again place where you would like and jab until secure.
To do the tail, pull up the wing and place some wool from the top part of the head to past the main body and out as shown above. You may need to add more as you go. Again use the needle to pull the wool up and over into the main part of the tail. Then jab the shape you want.
You can use your fingers to get the shape you want as shown above. Then use your fingers to gently squeeze and jab the edges to make them more secure. When finished this process it should look as last picture above.
Now for the beak. Grab a small piece of wool and move your fingers from side to side to make a small sausage shape. I put a little pva glue on mine to make it stiffer and it means less jabbing. This is not a necessary process. Then attach onto face of robin.
You can make your felt creations into many things. A brooch (as above), keyring, an add on for a felt painting and many more things. Place the brooch finding where you want. You can sew the brooch to secure then do the next process or go right to the next process. Which is what I did with this brooch. Get a piece of wool that matches your creation and place over the brooch finding. This is slightly different this time as you jab your needle under the brooch and not up and down. Be careful as the needles can be broken easily and the metal could get in the way. Jab around the metal.
If you got this far then well done. If you don't understand anything at all just email me and I will endeavour to answer any queries.
Thank you.
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