Wet Felting and Needle Felting Lines
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Felting lines, whether for outlining shapes or adding details, requires precision and control. Here are some techniques to help you achieve clean, well-defined lines:
Needle Felting Thin Lines
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Category: Tutorials
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Step by step how to add glass eyes or felted eyes
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Here's a step-by-step guide on how to add glass eyes to a felted animal:
1. Choose the right size and type of glass eyes for your project. Make sure they are appropriate for the scale of your animal.
2. Use a felting needle or awl to create a small hole in the right spot on the animal's face, ensuring it is the correct size and depth for the glass eye.
3. If needed, needle-felt a small indentation around the eye hole to create a socket that matches the eye's shape.
4. Apply a small amount of clear drying glue to the back of the glass eye.
5. Carefully push the glass eye into the socket from the front of the felted face.
6. Gently press the wool around the eye to secure it in place and ensure a snug fit.
7. Use needle-nose pliers to adjust the eye if necessary, being careful not to touch the glue.
8. Once the glue is dry, you can add additional wool around the eye to build up the eyelids and blend the eye into the face.
9. Optional: Add eyelashes using horsehair or embroidery floss for an extra touch of realism.
When creating felted eyes:
- Choose a suitable colour and size of wool roving for the pupil and iris.
- Create a soft ball of wool in the iris colour, and needle onto the head where you want the eye to be, go around the eye first to create a clear outline and shape
- Roll a small amount of the pupil colour into a soft ball and attach it to the middle of the iris area with a felting needle.
- Shape and blend the wool to create the eye's contour, using a barbed felting needle to secure it in place.
- Add additional details like eyelids and lashes as desired.
For a more info on making felted eyes please see Helen Winter's article or Amanda at Fit to be Loved Felted eyes
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What you Need from your Felting Mat
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What you Need From your Felting Mat
Size is important, you want to have a large enough working area to have your needle felting and rest at least one hand. If you are making felted pictures, ideally you want the entire picture on the mat.
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How to Create a Smoother Finish
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Create a smoother finishing
- Use higher gauge number needles, see our smooth finish mix
- Finishing with crown needles around your felted piece can catch smaller wisps of wool
- Use a twisted 40 gauge needle and crown needles to felt the top layer of wool firm while leaving smaller holes.
- Go over your felted piece with some nail scissors.
- Smoothing with your hands also helps lightly felt the surface, creating a smooth finish.
- Experiment with different types of wool
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Carding Wool Instructions
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Carding Instructions
Carding wool is a way to brush the fibres to make them easy to manage in preparation for spinning or felting. Below are the named parts of the carder.
Step 1 Charging the Carder
Hold one carder flat on your lap, take a piece of wool and place fibres on to the carder by pressing down or dragging the wool over the teeth of the carder.
The ends of the fibres should be at the handle end of the carder. Cover the carder from one side to the other. Try not to overfill the carder as this will make carding difficult.