Creating something is more exciting than destroying. I reinforced that knowledge yesterday when I attended a needle felting workshop in Maryland for the day. A project that challenges you to create a 3D sculpture from wool does take about six hours or longer. We had six and fit in lunch, and it was a ball.
So what is needle felting? Crafters and school children are familiar with flat squares of wooly fabric which can be cut into projects, and this technique takes the act of making felt to a fuller and denser level. Commercial artists of collectible felt art such as AnnaLee Thorndike use felt to sculpt flat pieces into dimensional objects, but at our workshop inside Sarafina Fiber Art we used wool from the inside out to create a variety of shapes and bring objects to life.
Our workshop attendees came from western Pennsylvania and North Carolina, so my journey from New Jersey seemed small (about a 90 minute drive). We shared large tables filled with all the materials we would need to create a ram from wool, complete with horns and hooves. It isn’t a beginner project, but some of us were well versed in the video tutorials if not in actual practice, and we were able to keep up with the slightly more challenging parts of the project, such as how to turn a circle of wool similar to a Pac Man ghost into part of a face.
How do we make part of a face out of wool? We stab. The key to needle felting is to use a sharply barbed needle to tangle fibers into a definitive shape, as well as not stabbing too much (making a wooly hard ball with no bounce) or too little (a wool squishy). I quickly found that I am a too loose stabber and have to poke more to get my shapes. . . .well, in shape. That’s probably the preferred choice of the two, as once you’ve got it too solid, you can’t take it back, but you can always stop stabbing whenever you want, review and then stab some more if necessary.
There is something therapeutic about shop and felt guru Sara’s concept of “stabbing to life” an object. We found ourselves happily poking and angling (and sometimes getting an ouchie on a thumb) as our shapeless blobs of wool began to show signs of looking like something recognizable. Our project involved an added internal feature: an armature, which like in drawing is a base on which to build, using two wires and pipe cleaners. Small, but effective.
By lunchtime we had actual bodies sitting on our tables, and by the end of the day we were looking into the eyes of our rams with adoration. Of course, with all of us learning as fast as we could process the steps, our completion levels were varied, but we each left with a project that looked 99 percent like what we intended to do, and that’s fine with me. The commitment of the people who participated in the workshop with me was such that we learned enough to finish tweaking our sculptures at home. My plan is to build up the horns on my ram, whom I’ve named Bram (yup, Bram the ram), and do a little cosmetic surgery on the face and neck. We had extra wool to take home with us, and I think I’m in love with this new hobby, especially since I now have Bram staring at me from the coffee table at home. I created him, and I’m responsible for him.
I have worked with crocheting for ages and am finishing up my thirtieth afghan, so trying something new is good at this point. I promise to post a photo of the completed Bram the ram when he looks ready for his closeup. Meanwhile hand me some wool and a needle and a bandage for my thumb. I’m into stabbing now.
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