Student Work: Needle Felting

I went to my blog recently to find photos to share of all the wonderful art my students make, and that’s when I realized the photos aren’t here! I take the photos but for whatever reason, I haven’t been posting them.

Today, I’m fixing that! This is the first in a series of posts, organized by topic/technique, to share my student work.

I started felting in 1997, I was introduced to it at Arrowmont School of Art and Craft because of their open-studio policy. Even though I was in a metals class, I was able to wander over into the felting class, where I met some of the top felting teachers in the world!

The techniques taught were traditional, wet felting, and I learned more when I attended the Michigan Fiber Festival and took workshops. Maybe that’s where I learned about needle felting? I don’t remember. But when I was asked to teach it, I said sure, and we’ve made a number of different pieces in workshops over the past year.

This spring we did flower pins:

Student work, needle felted rose.

Student work, Felted Flower with Smiley Face!

This summer we made little scenes, these are about 4″ x 6″:

A work in progress by me.

Lovely student work!

Here’s a charming owl from a previous class:

Needle felted owl by student.

This owl has since been joined by a tree trunk and branch, a baby owl friend and will be framed in a shadow box!

And penguins are so fun and easy to make! Here are two I’ve made, show with a handmade Waldorf-style doll I made ages ago, on our seasons table.

Penguins, Needle Felted by Elaine Luther

My students LOOOOOOOOOVE stabbing the wool! It’s a great stress reliever for those who love it. Needle felting is one of those crafts that you either love or hate, there’s not much in between, I’ve found.

Want to learn how? Want some book recommendations? Ask in the comments, if there’s interest, I’ll update this post with that information!