Needle Felting…A most dangerous craft!!!!!!!!!

Needle felting is the art of sculpting wool using special barbed needles. By stabbing at the wool repeatedly with the needle, the fibres become matted together and begin to take shape. Stab wool, add wool, stab wool, add wool, repeat process and voila…you have needle felted something.

Earlier this year after finding some beautiful examples of needle felting on the internet, I decided to have a go with a small starters kit. As with everything made by exceptionally talented hands, it looks much easier than it is. 

Lately, when I've been feeling creative but can't face drawing, I dig out the wool roving and attempt to create something with felt. My needle felting technique goes something like this: 

• Stare at wool for indeterminate length of time
• Go for a drink and snack
• Return to wool and resume staring
• Wait for idea to form
• Ponder the complexity and worth of the idea
• Reconsider the idea
• Decide to go for it
• Face the dilemma of which colour to use
• Browse the internet and make panic purchases of new colours
• Start the making as half a day has already been wasted
• Shape wool with hands
• Stab wool with needle 
• Add wool
• Stab wool
• Add wool 
• Stab wool
• Stab finger badly, scream/curse (this depends on the mood) and bleed profusely everywhere
• Take small break to treat wound, have a coke and find courage to pick up the needle again
• Repeat the last six steps until you have needle felted something that hopefully resembles the original idea.
• Go to bed with sore neck, shoulders and a throbbing finger but proud for completing something unique.

Oh the fun!!!!!

This weekend, I dreamed of dry, warm climes and embarked on a set of mini cacti and succulents to decorate my desk. It was probably during this day dreaming when I sustained the most injuries to my flesh. Much to my shock, I stabbed the needle all the way through my finger for the first time. Yes, it went in one side and popped out the other before being dragged back through the finger and out again. Needless to say, I took a very long break after that and decided that it is a most dangerous craft indeed.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my needle felting fun and frolics…..

Wool roving

My foam pad and needles

One of many wounds

My cactus and Succulent Farm

A cat I made some weeks ago

 Oh and an owl :D

All images copyright HKJ

Batty

batty

ADJECTIVE (battier, battiest)

INFORMAL , chiefly British

Mad; insane:you’ll drive me batty!
Lately I've been feeling more than a little batty, so I decided to make this the theme of my week. I wrote a poem, admired them flying about our garden, dug out a pipistrelle bat illustration I did some time ago and imagined the bat that I would create if I had my own frankenstein laboratory.In an effort to maintain the little brain function I have, I try to engage it in an educational task each week. I used a dictionary and also found some amazingly interesting information about bats to share with you.
Bat facts:

• Fossil evidence of mammals similar to bats dates back to over 50 million years ago.
• Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. Approximately 20% of all mammals in the world are bats.
• Bats can hover, fly backwards and turn in a tight space extremely quickly.
• Bats make high-frequency sounds (echolocation) , and the echoes of these sounds bounce back which enables a bat to work out the size of objects, their location, how fast they are travelling and even texture. Some bats can locate their prey up to 20/30 metres away.
• There are thought to be over 1,100 species of bats in the world. Bats are native to all continents except the Arctic. 
• Only three of the world’s 1,100 bat species actually feed on blood (and they are only found in Central and South America).
• A baby bat is called a ‘pup’. Pups can fly four to five weeks after they are born
• The collective name for a group of bats is a ‘colony’.
• 99% of bats worldwide have been lost in the last 100 years, due to loss of food, habitat and human activity.

 

Incase my messy handwriting is indecipherable, here is my poor attempt at a poem typed out for ease of reading:

Upon this balmy summer night,

out glide the tiny bats in flight.

They dart and swoop, they dive and tear,

at flitting black shadows I sit, I stare.

Inky shapes skim the pale moon face,

they dance, bound, loop in silent grace.

Beneath blinking stars the air grows chill,

hushed fluttering all that breaks the still.

The darkness deepens, a shrouding veil,

to bed on velvet winged dreams I sail.

THE END :D

All images copyright of HKJ and Coity Wallia Commons