Needlefelted Fairy Mobile Tutorial

I made this fairy mobile for my niece's 8th birthday. I was on a strict budget and did not have a lot of money to spend on birthday presents. But I do have lots and lots of coloured wool roving in my craft room, so all I needed to buy was wire. This mobile cost me very little money (less than $2) and a bit of time. 

You will need:  

* Wool roving - This is carded, unspun wool. Carding wool is a process that combs wool fleece and makes it usable. You probably want a variety of colours. There are a number of options if you wish to dye your own wool - my mum used to use food colouring to dye wool; Fruits, flowers and vegetables can be used to dye wool, eg onion skins, and beetroot; Otherwise, you can purchase dyes from craft shops and wool shops.

* Wire

* Pliers

* Felting Needles. These are special barbed needles that come in a variety of sizes. 

* Felting Mat or thick sponge pad.  Car wash sponges work well.

First, bend the wire into a circular shape to the size you require. I made two rounds, twisting the ends of the wire around the circular shape. 

Then get a decent length of wool roving and begin wrapping it tightly around the wire shape, until you reach the desired thickness. You want it reasonably thick, to be able to felt it using needles without hitting the wire all the time and bending your needle. Unfortunately I don't have photos of this part, as I didn't think about doing a tutorial until I began adding the flowers and details.  But you get some idea of the thickness in the photo. Once you have wrapped the wool around, put it on your felting pad or sponge, and begin stabbing it with your needle (this is a great way to get out any frustration that has been building up inside you). Use a large size needle to begin with, and use an up-and-down motion, rather than side to side (otherwise you risk damaging either your needle or yourself - and trust me, it hurts!). Try to avoid the wire as much as possible, but make sure you rotate it and felt the whole thing evenly.  Add more wool if some parts are skinnier than others.  Change to a smaller needle as the wool fibres begin to mesh together. 

 I learnt how to make angels from wool roving in an online tutorial. There are many tutorials online that show you how to make them. I just omit the wings and add a little bit more roving to the skirt to make fairies such as these. When I first began this fairy I made her arms rather short (as you can see) but I added extra wool to her arms to extend them, and you can see the difference between this photo and the photo of the finished mobile. 

Once you have felted the mobile's base, you can begin adding detail. To create flowers, get a tiny little bit of wool roving between your fingers and wrap it around your little finger to make a ring shape. Take it off your finger, squash it together onto your base, and begin stabbing it in.  

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Once you have stabbed in the flower, you can add a centre.  Get a tiny bit of a different colour, and roll it into a little ball between your fingers. Place it into the centre of the flower and stab it in using a fine needle. I use a size 34 or 32 for fine detailing - whichever feels best.

Repeat until you have the desired amount of flowers. You can use this technique to add flowers to fairies' hair; dresses; whatever you are creating.

To create a ladybird, get a small amount of red wool and roll between your fingers to create a small ball.  Rolling it between your fingers helps prepare the wool and shape it ready for felting. Stab it into place. Get a tiny amount of black (eg 2-3 threads) and roll into tiny balls to felt into place on the ladybirds back. You will need to use a fine needle for this.  Get some more black to felt for the head and the line between the wings.

The rabbit was created by rolling a fat oval and stabbing it into shape; 2 little ovals for the ears; and a small ball for the head. It is ok if things are not perfect straight away - it takes time, and at first it often feels like it is looking like nothing you had imagined.  That is ok.  Keep stabbing, add more wool if you need to; and if it really turns bad, pull it off and start again.  

The toadstools were made by rolling fat sausages for the stalks and stabbing roughly into shape and then stabbing into place. You do not want to over felt something if you are going to attach it - you want to keep the fibres where it is to be attached, fairly loose, so that it can be felted into the attachment.  It is difficult (ie, impossible) to attach firmly felted items to something, and vice versa. When making the toadstools, you need to keep the top of the stalk loose, so that the tops can be felted on.

To create the tops of the toadstools, roll some red wool into shape and stab over the top of the stalks. You might want to wrap the red wool around the stalk, so that it is firmly attached to the toadstool. There is no right or wrong way - do what works with you, and give yourself the freedom to experiment and try things out and don't give up if it is not working straight away.

Roll a little bit of white roving between your fingers and stab into place over the toadstool tops.

To add writing, take a long, thin piece of roving and roll it between your fingers into a thin line. Place into shape and use a fine felting needle to stab into place.

 

To create the butterfly, get a small piece of roving as in the above picture. I used two colours. Roll the roving into a ball and place on your felting pad. Stab into shape. I used the finer needle down the middle to create shape.  Remember that the more you felt something, the more the fibres mesh together and shrinks in size. Get a small piece (a few strands) of black.  Roll between  your fingers to create a line and place over the middle of the butterfly; stab into place using a fine needle.

Once you have created your butterfly, place on your base and stab into place.

The dragonfly was created by mixing a bit of sparkly non bondable Angelina with wool roving, shaping into thin lines and stabbing into place.

I hope this has helped to inspire you to have a go at felting if you haven't already.

You can find my other needlefelting tutorials here...
 Felted Balls

Felt balls

Fairy mobiles using felt balls at the top of the mobile.

These felt balls are a mix of needle felting and wet felting. I have tried making wet felted balls before, but they didn't turn out very well, and had huge cracks in them that I couldn't fix. But today I tried a combination of wet and needle felting, and they turned out great.

You will need:
* Wool roving, or carded sheeps wool
* Felting needles. I get my needles from Cobweb Cottage. They have a great source of information on the different needles and what they do.  When I started out, I only had one size, which was a thick needle. When I first found Cobweb Cottage, I was confused about the needles so just bought a set of 4 different sizes and I have learnt so much just from using them and getting the feel of them.
* A pad or sponge to work on. Car wash sponges are nice and thick to use, if you are just starting out.
* Dishwashing liquid
* Latex gloves
* Hot water

I get a lot of wool from my mum, who uses it for spinning. Mum cards and dyes her own wool, and spins it.  She often gives me the left over bits that she can't use for spinning.

Get a handful of wool.

Roll into a ball, as tight as you can make it. The ball will shrink in size substantially (about a third) by the time you have wet felted it, so allow for shrinkage.

Using a coarse needle (I use size 38) place the ball on your felting pad or sponge and begin stabbing the needle into the wool. Use an up and down motion rather than side to side, otherwise you may break the needle. Keep rotating the ball around so that you needlefelt the whole ball evenly at the same time.

Once the fibres begin to mesh together, use a slightly finer needle, such as a size 36. Keep stabbing and rotating the ball around so that it felts evenly.

I find that the sizes of needles are a bit like the gears of a car.  The size 38 is first gear, and is great for bringing the loose fibres together.
Size 36 is like second gear. Once the fibres have started felting, the larger needle becomes a bit more harder to use. Switch to 36, which is slightly smaller and is better for making your felting firmer as it can easily get into the already felted fibres.
Size 32 is a fine needle, which is great for finer details and finishing.





One thing about felting, is that the more the wool is felted, the more resistant it is to the addition of new wool, or to join on to another piece.  To add on more wool, such as if you have used one base colour for the shape of the ball and you want to add another colour, make sure you do so while the fibres are still loose, so that they will mesh together.

Keep stabbing using an even up and down motion, rotating the ball around, to mesh the fibres together.

Once you have needlefelted the ball firmly, it is time to wet felt it.  This process causes the ball to shrink even further as the fibres felt together. You may want to wear rubber gloves for this, to protect your skin from the hot water, and if your gloves have a bumpy surface, it also provides a bit of friction.
Squeeze a little dishwashing liquid onto your ball.

Put a little hot water onto your felt ball, and begin rubbing it into and around the ball. You want to create friction, as the friction in wet felting is what felts the fibres together. You only need a small amount of water to get the fibres damp and activating the dishwashing liquid. Press firmly on the ball as you rub and rotate it around, to felt it evenly.

The ball should start becoming more compact and smaller. Keep pressing firmly, rolling and rubbing. You can wrap it in bubble wrap to help provide a bumpy surface, and roll it around.

When it is nice and firm, rinse under hot water to wash out the soap.  This could take a few minutes. The hotter the better - hence gloves, to protect your hands.  The hot water felts the wool even further and finishes the process.

Place on a teatowel and leave in warm place (if possible) to dry.  This could take a few days to fully dry, depending on the weather and humidity.

One of my balls began forming a crack in it.  I took it back upstairs to my craft room and pulled out my needle felting needles and foam pad. Using a fine needle (size 32), I began stabbing around it and over it, to close up the crack. Then I wet felted it all over again, and the result was excellent - I could no longer see the crack!

When dry, use the felt balls as you wish to create a range of toys or home decor...

I used a needle and strong thread to make these fairy mobiles. The needle passed right through the middle of the felt balls, and I was able to do a couple of stitches in to the ball, top and bottom, to prevent the ball from sliding up and down.

You can find my other felting tutorials here...

Needlefelted fairy mobile

Painted Rocks

 These stone people are so much fun to play with. These stones were inspired by a post shared on Facebook about an artist who had created mix and match stone faces and bodies. So I decided to create some to take to school.  I used to love those wire-bound picture books that had heads, bodies and legs which you mixed and matched and created funny people! I wanted to include some fun faces and also raise awareness of other cultures and dress codes, such as wearing headscarves.   

 I went to Napier for a few days holiday, and found that the beaches were full of stones! Beautiful, smooth, round stones. So I collected some (well, filled up a bag to be honest) and brought them home.

 Where to begin?  I began by painting all the stones white, using white acrylic paint.

Then once dry, I painted the small stones with a flesh colour.  I used artists acrylic paint which I have had sitting around for a few years (unfortunately some of my tubes of paint had dried out over the years of neglect).  I put dabs of white, yellow, brown and red paint on a plastic lid (plastic lids from food containers are fantastic to use as paint palettes), and began mixing various skin tones to reflect the many different skin colours in our world/country.  

 For the bodies, I looked at photos of my friends and family to see what they were wearing. I browsed Facebook photos, family photos, and old photo albums for reference. I drew a whole lot of stone shapes on a sheet of paper and practiced drawing clothes on them. When I was happy with it, I used a sharpie pen to draw the outfits on the bodies, before painting them.

 I left the faces last to do, as I find faces difficult.

Again, I drew a whole lot of circle shapes on a piece of paper and practiced drawing faces on them.  I browsed photos, Facebook, and also did internet searches for particular images, such as of people wearing a headscarf, motorcycle helmets, and Stormtroopers.

 I started by using a fine Sharpie pen to draw in the face and hair.  I did a few faces at a time, and painted the hair in first, and let that lot dry while I began drawing faces on another 5 stones. I also used the hair colours to paint details such as mustaches and beards. Then I painted the whites of the eyes, and let dry, before painting the iris. When dry, I used a fine Sharpie to put in the pupil, outline the eye, and touch up or thicken the eyebrows.

 To create the lip colours, I dabbed white, red, and a little brown onto my palette and mixed up lip colours to match the skintones.  I added white to the lip colours to create the cheek colours.

 When dry, I gave them all a coat of clear nail polish to protect them.

DIY Camping Small World Play

I love small world play.  I love seeing children creating their own stories, using their imagination, and engaging in co-operative play.  I love giving children play experiences that allow them to revisit their own experiences, talk about them, process their knowledge, and share ideas.  This camping scene was inspired by some of the children's holidays, as some of them went camping, many went to the beach, and some went in a boat.  It all started off with a broken basket made of sticks, that I didn't want to throw away.

 I used some of the sticks to create a frame for a tent.  I chose to lash the sticks together using yarn, rather than hot glue I don't like using hot glue - I find it gets everywhere and doesn't stick very well.  

Once I made the frame, I got out the felt and draped it over to get measurements (no ruler involved!) and cut to fit - one rectangle, and two triangles, and sewed it together.  I didn't cover the base of the tent, but I sewed the felt around the base sticks, to keep it secure (apart from along the front).  I chose to use felt as it doesn't fray or need hemming.  I also like the look and feel of felt.

Once the tent was done, I decided to make a boat.  I created a pattern for the base of the boat and cut out strips of felt for the sides.  I used two layers of felt for the whole boat, to provide stability.

Then I made a family - Mum, Dad, brother and sister. This was a bit of an experiment as I hadn't made people like this before - I used pipecleaners which I wrapped in yarn, and wool roving for heads, as I wanted to be able to needlefelt the hair on, rather than use glue, as I find it gets a bit messy and doesn't always work out how I want it.  I don't have instructions on how to make the family, as I made it up and wasn't sure how it would turn out.

 The kids are wearing life jackets - we have had a water safety visit at school, where we learnt the importance of wearing life jackets when out on the water, and I wanted to set a good example.

Finally, I made sleeping bags - an essential item when going camping! These were simply made from two rectangles of felt sewn together. No rulers used, and exact measurements are not necessary. I just put the dolls on the felt and drew around them.

I can't wait to take these to school and listen to all the stories that the children make up as they play with them!

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