Wooden you love an Otter? Needle Felting

Thank you @grenouille78! Creating their clothes is always an interesting challenge! :wink: :otter:

Thanks @jemimah!! That’s quite a compliment and certainly always my goal! Thank you again! :smiley: :otter:

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Delightful character! You make me wanna jump right into some felting, myself. I have the supplies, just got 'em! Just need more time to get to it. Your work inspires me!

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Thank you!! :otter: :smiley:

Felting is fun and a very forgiving craft!

Do your supplies include a foam pad? If you decide you want to get into felting more seriously, ditch the foam and buy a brush mat (Clover makes one). Use a piece of flannel to cover the brush mat. The flannel will need to be replaced now and then, but the brush mat will still be as useful as when you bought it a decade or more later!

If you get that far (i.e. replacing the foam pad with a brush mat), you should talk to me about felting needles! :wink:

Yes, it does include a foam pad. I bought every thing that was required: large wire brush, small wire brush (for blending colors) a bunch of needles, wool roving, and of course the foam pad. I made a sheep once several years back when I was trying to get into felting, but got interrupted when I was asked to make a jelly bean painting for the place where I was working. That took quite some time to do because I never did one of those before and so had to gather tons of jelly beans and whatnot, not to mention having to figure out how to go about getting it done. Meanwhile, the felting supplies I had got ruined because I had stored it all in the basement and it flooded. That ended my short experience with felting.

profile pic

sheep top right

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Nice sheep!! Nice jellybean painting! :smiley:

There are three basic “problems” with using a foam pad for felting.
The first is foam pads will eventually breakdown from being repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object. The blades of the needles slip between the bristles of the brush mat so do not cause it to break down over time.
The second is foam pads “give”. Every time you stab some of that energy is wasted because the foam pad “gives”. Brush mats don’t give at all so less energy is required, and more effective.
The bounce of the foam pad when stabbing can exacerbate carpal tunnel syndrome if you are sensitive to that. Brush mats don’t give/bounce at all.

The only disadvantage to a brush mat is the bristles will “grab” fiber which is easily solved by placing a piece of flannel over the brush mat. Brush mats do need to be cleaned from time to time. A brush meant for cleaning reusable straws works very well.

What was the explanation for a large wire brush and a small wire brush? I use two large wire dog brushes to blend colors. It would be less efficient to blend colors if the wire brushes were different sizes.

I got the brushes because I saw that was what was used to blend colors for the hair when someone was making a dog from a photo. I am an artist as well as a craftsman (tho a craftsman much more so) and I do work from photos as well. I just thought to see if I could maybe do some work in felt. Doing different things is what I am about; I really don’t tend to stay working in one genre for long. Like I said, I hope to get to felting soon! And also ribbon art. Thanks for all your great advice!

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