Actually, Peter is not a cottontail. The bunny shown here is from felted Suffolk sheeps wool and the photo barely does his cuteness justice. I discovered recently that in addition to her many other talents my friend Miriam also does felting, in this case needle felting.
Needle felting uses finely barbed needles to fuse a layer of fiber onto a base. In this case, Miriam used a base form of wool and felted it together with more wool to create and keep its form. These little bunnies are about five inches long and light as a feather. Although they look and feel delicate, they have seen plenty of action with Miriam’s grandchildren, including service as a football. Aren’t they cute?
The Suffolk wool used to make these bunnies is from a “down” breed typically raised for food rather than fiber. The wool is spongey, with less lanolin than from breeds raised for fiber. The character of Suffolk wool lends itself well to needle felting.
On the left, here, Miriam was making a bunny from the wool of llamas she used to own. She steadily punches the top layer of wool with the barbed needle and the fibers catch and mat together.
On the right, below, are some of the tools she uses in her needle felting. The yellow and green fiber is silk. The orange fiber is wool.
Happy Easter!
Kay, You always add so much good information on your posts. Thank you. It looks like a very cuddly animal that most children would love to own!
Happy Easter or Passover to you and to your friends and loved ones!
Those are so cute! I’ve always wondered about felting — have seen felted soaps, but never really understood the process. Thanks for the information, Kay! 🙂
Cute! 🙂 Happy Easter, Kay!
As I understand it, felting is about catching and matting fibers. Needle felting uses fiber that naturally has a kind of roughness that lends itself to catching on the barbs of the needle. The felting that uses soap and water uses the acids from this process to release and hook together the fibers through abrasion. (If I understand it correctly.)
it looks cute! but i would not have the patience for something like that, i think..
regarding the internet; i think i learned a lot because of it. i did got to libraries when young, but just googling is so much faster! you do need to know, ofcourse, how to separate fact from fable etc etc…. i do prefer to receive a card than an email… currently i receive neither that much.. 😉
Thanks for this post! I’ve been interested in trying needle felting for a couple of years. This might get me going with it.