On Sunday I had the fortune to take a needle felting class from Lisa (click here to learn more about all of her classes and instruction offerings). Seeing wonderful embellishments and amazing felt sculptures over the last few years had me more than curious.
The class was a lot of fun because each student wanted to make something a bit different – it was like learning four techniques all in one! We learned about the tools, a bit of history of the craft, safety (I am the eternal klutz, so even though I tried to avoid it I did poke myself a few times) and different ways of looking at and evaluating roving (the wool used to create felt projects). We also learned different strategies for different types of projects, in terms of how to use the needle and when polyfill or other “internal structure stuffs” to accomplish different goals.
One student worked on creating a 3D squid while another used felting to accent cables in a felted project. A third student worked on creating a 3D flower broach and I started a 3D bunny (don’t laugh too hard, this is an incomplete project – look’s like Marvin the Martian’s bunny right now).
I had a great time and found needle felting theraputic in a way that knitting and crochet are not. Needle felting, for me, requires so much focus and laser-like passion that I couldn’t stop after the class itself (the project will take me a while since I’m a beginner). Lisa kindly gave us all roving to take home as part of the class and thus I was on my way last night. My efforts so far are above.
I give needle felting two thumbs up (albeit, one is covered in band-aids) and Lisa, as an instructor was top notch in patience, kindness and flexibility – giving each student the room to try different ways of arriving at the same destination. Very, very fun!
