Needle-Felting (elfing rewind, part 1)

As the last of the Christmas decor is FINALLY put away, I figure I better share the rest of my gift giving elfing before one more month of 2010 gets away from me.

First off,  Project:  Needle-Felting.

Have you heard of this?  Neither had I except that the Fancy Tiger’s etsy shop carried some fun looking kits and they had a jellyfish ornament kit so I just knew I had to try it.  My mama really likes moonjellies and I was looking for an adventure so I set off for the shop just before Thanksgiving break and ended up my own kit, instructions, wool roving, needles and foam.  There are a ton of sites out there that explain the process of needle felting but basically you take sheep’s wool and poke it with a wicked sharp, barbed needle over and over, and over and over until it “felts” itself together and gets hard/less soft and very strong.  Essentially, it is like molding and sculpting out of wool.  So weird.

The Jellyfish!

I sat myself down with doubts of having success but, sure enough that needle into the wool does make it get very compact and strong.  I fretted over the size and smoothness of my creation until my needle broke.  Rats. I was nearly finished but the time between getting a new needle got me thinking…If I can make a jellyfish blob, I can probably make a couple of different size blobs put them together.  And I could use different colors.  Say, I could use some blue and some red and even some yellow.  I had seen bird kits so why couldn’t I make my own little “bird”??  And that was all it took, the creative juices started flowing and my confidence was high enough that when I made it back to the shop to replace my needle, I took the plunge and bought my own stash of red, yellow, and blue wool.   Then, I set off for home with Jayhawk shapes on the brain.

You should see this stuff – it is gorgeous!

Many, many, many hours and many, many, many pokes later I gave myself carpel-tunnel syndrome in my wrist and I also created a Jayhawk (Yes, I might be a little crazy!).  In my mind I really pictured this bird to be tiny, like hang it on the tree small but somehow this silly hawk had a mind of its own.  I fooled around with the beak longer than I’m proud to admit because it was just such a schnoz and I was determined to size it down.  Alas, the bird and the ginormous beak came to be – it gives true meaning to the phrase, “Beak ‘Em, Hawks!”  I really love the process of needle felting (SO unique) but I don’t think I’ll be doing any more of this for a very long time.

This just makes me laugh…

More elfing recaps coming soon.