WoolPets

Waldorf Inspired Felted Puppet Family

My path of discover in needle felting began many years ago when I was in a Waldorf teacher training program. Part of my training involved learning how to use natural, soft, beautifully colored wool to make dolls for puppetry.  I learned how needle felting is a technique that allows the wool fibers to be sculpted together. And I fell in love!

Jump ahead 12 years and I still love making those beautiful puppets for the kindergarten.  It was actually a challenge to create these simple dolls as compared to the sophisticate detailed dolls that I typically make for adults to enjoy. The simplicity of these dolls are what is most important. The lack of details and facial expressions allows for the child's imagination to provide whatever it is they need from the puppet. In other words, there is no predetermined expression and so the puppet can be sad or happy.

 

If you are interested in learning more about the Waldorf philosophy and how it applies to doll making, I suggest reading The Doll Book by Karin Neuschutz. The first part of the book is about child development and the roll of dolls and toys. The second part of the book is doll patterns and instructions. It seems that this book maybe out of print or hard to find, but well worth the extra money and effort to find it.

Happy Wednesday!

We've gone Finnish!

Hey, that owl looks familiar! A few months ago, one of my editors at Creative Publishing announced that the Woolpets book was being translated into Finnish! I'm so honored that there are people all across the world learning how to needle felt and using the Woolpets book to help inspire them.

 

The Finnish publishing company is called Tammi-the third largest publishing house in Finland. I would love to take a trip to Finland and do a needle felting workshop!

I typed the title into Google translate and only "Woolen Pikkupehmot" resulted. Can anyone tell me what 'Pikkupehmot' means?

Feltique

  

Feltique by Nikola Davidson and Brookelynn Morris is all about felt - needle felting, wet felting, knitting and felting and using commercial felt to make things. The techniques are fully explained and the projects are easy and fun.

I contributed a needle felted dog project to the book.

I like this little knitted and felted bag with owl change purse.

And this diver is part of an undersea playset made using commercial felt. 

Visit Craftzine.com to read about the artists who have contributed projects to the book.

The main authors, Brookelynn and Nicola were at the Urban Craft Uprising a few weekends ago here in Seattle to help promote the book and to teach a needle felting workshop at the show.  Most people had never tried needle felting but everyone was excited to learn.

Thank you, Brookelynn and Nicola, for including me in this fabulous and fun book!

Crafty Book Finds - How We Felt by Carol Huber Cypher

I just read through Carol Huber Cypher's book, "How We Felt". There are 19 different projects in the book including vessels, clothing and jewelry. What I enjoyed most about this book is the variety of styles and techniques that Carol shares between the reader and the various felt artists. For this, I am very grateful to the artists and Carol.

Heather Kerner of SpiralWorks shares her technique for creating a coil rimmed vessel in the book. Since I am partial to 3-D artwork, I'd really like to try this project.

 

Phyllis Dintenfass shares her techniques for making needle felted beads. I was really excited to learn that she needle felts with gold thread to create the look of  cloisonne-type beads.

One of the wonderful things about feltmaking is that there are so many different ways of working with wool and other fibers. The possibilities for creativity and design are infinite.

I tell students in my classes that I can offer them my techniques and the methods I have used to teach myself needle felting, but there are many techniques artists have developed. Hopefully, this encourages students to take risks with their work and try new things, knowing that there is no right or wrong way to felt.