Felting is the process of tangling, matting and pressing animal hair fibers together to create a sculpture or material. Typically this is done with sheep's wool, but many animal fibers can be felted including alpalca, llama, angora rabbit, and mohair (from the angora goat.) Needle felting uses needles that have small barbs that catch the fibers and tangle them together.
Dolphin in progress!
What do you need to start needle felting?
You just need three things! Needles, wool, and a mat/pad.
Felting Needles:
The most important thing, besides the wool, are felting needles. They come in different sizes, typically from gauge 36 to 40, 36 being the larger hooks (for the beginning stages of shaping a work) and 40 being smaller (for detail work). They also come in different shapes: triangle (the most common), star, and triangle spiral. This refers to the shape of the part of the needle with barbs. Triangle needles have three edges with barbs, star needles have five. This means that there are more barbs on a start needle and the process should go a bit faster. Twisted needles also tangle the wool more efficiently. I like to have some size 40 and 38 needles on hand at all times, and I do the bulk of my felting with 38 gauge needles.
However, you should know that not all felting needles are created equal. A kit of needles from Amazon generally seem to be lower in gauge than what the label says. A size 40 feels more like a 38 (or honestly even lower). It still works, but for finer details and smaller projects like earrings I prefer to use more expensive needles that I get from websites that specialize in needle felting. Some of my favourites are Sarafina Fiber Art and Grey fox felting. I tend to buy both so I have a large quantity of cheep needles I can accidentally break (it still happens all the time) and then a small amount of really good needles I can save for the special projects I need them for.
You can get a needle holder that holds more needles for faster felting, or makes a single needle more comfortable to hold.
You might also want some leather finger guards as well if you don't want to poke yourself. However, I find these awkward to work with so i just end up poking my fingers a lot. But I know a lot of people would prefer to avoid this.
US sellers for felting needles:
Amazon felting needles This kit includes 80 needles, 20 of each size, and some finger guards. It's under $10. Sarafina fiber art needle sampler High quality needles! This sampler includes 10 needles, 2 of each size. You can also buy more of one size, but this way you'll find out which sizes work best for your needs. It includes needles that are much finer (smaller hooks) than the amazon ones. It's $14.
My favourite needle holder! It's $16 and comes with 3 needles in it. It feels like holding a pen.
Left to right: triangle, star, and triangle spiral
Wool Roving or Batting:
Now that you have your needles, you need something to felt. There are a lot of different sheep breeds and ways the wool is prepared.
Roving is wool thats been washed and carded (kind of like brushing the wool) and then further processed to remove any shorter fibers and clean out any debris. It becomes a sort of rope but the fibers aren't twisted together, just layed on top of each other so they're all going in the same direction. This means you can pull it apart pretty easily but it will stay together otherwise.
Batting is more of a fluffy mass of wool that's also been washed and carded, but the fibers go in all different directions and the shorter fibers are left in. However, there may be small amounts of debris in it you'll have to pick out.
I find that batting is easier to work with for needle felting, especially for creating the basic shape. But you can definitely use roving as well!
The second choice you'll need to make is what sheep breed. Some common wool breeds are Merino and Corridale. My favourite wool to work with is a mix of sheep breeds. I find Merino roving the most difficult fiber to needle felt because shows all the needle holes it takes forever to get a smooth finish. However, there are some merino batting mixes that work really well. Corridale roving is ok, but it also takes longer to get a smooth finish on a piece then a mixture. By smooth finish I mean it doesn't show the needle holes or have hard lines from fibers going in one direction or another. Merino works really well for wet felting though! and it's super soft.
Where to buy wool in the US: (1oz of wool is a lot!! Especially if you're working on small sculptures)
Sarafina Fiber Art Their core wool is my favourite wool to work with! It's roving, but there are still lots of shorter fibers so it's really easy to use. They don't have a huge selection of colours though.
Grey Fox Felting I love their batting! They have a huge selection of blended colours that are gorgeous. They also have roving in even more colours but I find it a bit more difficult to work with.
Living Felt I love their MC-1 (a merino blend) Felting batts! They're a more expensive which is why I use them less, but they needle felt wonderfully.
Felted Sky More great needle felting wool! They're also a more expensive than Sarafina and Grey Fox but great wool and lots of colours.
A Felting pad:
The needle needs something to go into sometimes, or all the time if you're doing flat felting, and you'd probably prefer if it's not your leg. If you don't want to buy anything new there are so many things that could work for this. An old pillow, an old couch cushion (just make sure you're not going to use these again because needles might break off inside them and that would be unfortunate to sit on.) However, the best things are foam or felted wool. I often find free pieces of old foam at garage sales or in closets. My friend even cut off a corner of her mattress topper to use! The downside to foam is that it starts to come apart eventually and little bits of foam get in your projects that you have to pick out. However, it's pretty easy to find free pieces of foam, which is great for larger projects.
Wool felting pads are just needle and or wet felted wool in the shape of a little square. You could make this yourself, or buy one. The downside to wool is that it's a lot more expensive and it's not easy to find them in larger sizes. So if you want to make a felted painting that's 4ft long you'll probably have to use foam. Wool pads can become unusable when they get too compact and lumpy, which I fix by adding more wool to it. You can also fix foam pads with wool, but it's a bit more difficult to get the wool to stick into the foam. However, then you'll have a lovely hybrid felting pad that won't get little pieces of foam in your work anymore and can be whatever size you want.
If you fix a pad with wool, make sure to felt it down A LOT so the new wool won't get stuck in your projects.
Where to buy felting pads in the US:
Small foam pad from Grey Fox Felting This one is $4.50. They also have a larger one available for $9.
Small wool felting pad from Grey Fox Felting This one is $16. They also have a larger one available for $32.
From top to bottom: lightly used thick foam pad, Heavily used foam pad repaired with wool, pure wool pad repaired with wool.
Some beginner needle felting tips:
The more you felt your work, the more compact your project becomes. Sometimes a project can become so compact it's not workable anymore. But on the plus side, it'll be super strong.
Change between different gauges of felting needle to see which one is the best for the stage of your project at that moment. If a needle is causing more of an indent than you'd like, use a smaller needle. If it's taking too long or not attaching very well, use a larger needle.
Use core wool for the insides of sculptures to decrease cost. Core wool is also often easier to work with so it might help your projects go faster too!
Needle felt at different angles if you're working on a sculpture. You want to be felting towards the center of the sculpture so the fibers don't start poking out the other side.
Pay attention to the direction of the fibers when you lay them on your sculpture. I try to lay out fibers in the direction the fur would be going if it were a real animal, and then lay some over each attachment point to smooth out any hard lines. Don't be afraid to add more wool!
I hope this helps you get started with needle felting!! Feel free to reach out with any questions!
So helpful, thank you! Any ideas about where to source good needles in Europe?