Needle Felting

This is something I'd wanted to try for ages, and I managed to convince my lovely Mum to get me a kit for Christmas. I wanted to have a try at making Christmas Angels, I'd seen people make them on You Tube and it looked easy enough(!). So these were my first attempts at Needle Felting...

It isn't difficult really, but it is painful, at least in the beginning!  My fingers took the brunt of the needle for the first few attempts, but gradually you learn to keep them out of the way (most of the time)!  Even so, by boxing day my fingers were throbbing!

It was worth it though as the angels turned out ok, but I found they were a bit delicate and wouldn't stand up to much handling. In fact they wouldn't stand up at all (on account of having no legs!).  I decided instead to have a go at making figures that would stand up on their own.  The basic principle is the same as the angels, but it involves a lot more stabbing (and injuries! lol) and a little more felt to get a firm base that's flat enough to stand unaided.  But the end result is something I'm much happier with.

I tend towards making things on the smaller side, so they came out at just under 4 inches for the adults and 2 1/2 inches for the child. I'll post more of these as and when I make them.

And then I went all-out, got a bit cocky and decided I needed a Clanger in my life. If you're asking yourself what a Clanger is and you've never heard of the Soup Dragon, then all is not lost because they're bringing them back to tv... http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/clangers/characters   Although they'll never be quite the same, obviously... ;)

I made my own version of Tiny Clanger. She was a bit of a labour of love, as I just had some one-dimensional images off the internet to go by, but I'm happy with the result.  I have to say that because she's watching me type this blog...

I also have to say, I'll never needle felt another Clanger in my life!!