How To Add Eyes To Needle Felted Animals

Tips for Making Needle Felted Animals

Felting needles
Polyester Batting for Base Shape
Making Animals Fluffy
Limbs
Types of Wool
Dyeing/Drying
Basic Tips
Thin Legs
Hooves
Glass Eyes

This is not a consummate tutorial, simply a collection of my preferred techniques for making needle felted animals.

Needles

1. My favorite make of felting needles are '#38 medium star'. These are all-purpose needles with extra notches that make them felt faster (more than fibers matted per stroke). Although felting needles come in a wide array of shapes and gauges, I use '#38 medium star' for all sorts of work, including felt miniatures.

update: y'all should as well check '#36 star' needles that appeared recently; coarser than #38, they are better suited for preliminary work; I likewise love 'twisted' (or 'spiral') needles that felt fast and are very durable

Y'all tin buy those needles on eBay or Etsy, just query for 'star felting needles' or 'twisted felting needles', without quotes.

2. At that place are 'needle holders' that combine several needles for faster felting. They can exist especially useful at earlier felting stages to create the base shape. Yous can buy them on eBay or Etsy likewise or brand your own holders by tying several needles together with a string or a thread, or using a glue gun.

a three needles 'holder'. my brother Grisha who besides makes felted toys taught me this trick.

I usually showtime felting using a bunch of three needles, then switch to two, and only then to one. The longer you work on a sculpture, the harder it gets, then at some point felting with 3 or even two needles becomes difficult.
Miniature toys and parts similar limbs may exist easier to practice with a unmarried needle correct from the start.

three. To avoid breaking your needle while felting, don't jitter it from side to side, but push in a direct line (not necessarily perpendicular to the shape surface, merely with no lateral motility). Needles intermission when y'all drive them in and so motion sideways, even slightly.

The notches on a needle article of clothing off over time reducing the felting upshot, so at some bespeak yous'll need to supersede your needle with a new ane. It's a good idea to have a few needles/sets at whatever given time and swap them now and then, since felting with the same needle for a long time makes it very hot and the notches disappear even faster.

Wool

four. When I make larger animals, I use polyester batting or polydown for the base shape in order to relieve wool. These constructed materials are cheaper, but are as easily needle felted as wool. Afterwards making a base shape with 1 of these materials, I cover it with a layer of real wool.

polyester fiber; for the base of operations shape, use any inexpensive wool or synthetic material that can be felted, if you want to save high quality wool.

five. The base of operations shape should not be felted too difficult. As yous felt the base shape and so add layers of wool, the felted material gets harder and harder with each needle stroke. Information technology'due south possible to make wool almost rock difficult by felting, subsequently which you won't exist able to farther shape it with a felting needle.

Delight note: Polyester batting and polydown felt faster than wool and get harder, so information technology's easier to spoil a sculpture through overfelting when using one of these materials.

base shape covered with wool

half-dozen. At a sure stage in the felting procedure you can start shaping with your hands instead of a needle, as if working on a clay sculpture. The piece needs to exist hard enough for that, to proceed the shape that yous give information technology by manus-sculpting. One tool that is quite useful at this stage is a long needle or an awl. To squeeze your shape, button it with your fingers or thumbs. To make some part of it larger, stick an awl in and pull the textile up. So, after hand-sculpting information technology as needed, y'all can reinforce the shape past boosted needle felting.

9. Your finished toy can be equally soft or as hard equally you like, merely soft sculptures have to be handled carefully as they don't continue their shape well. Brand your pieces harder if y'all desire them to preserve every minute particular in shape and expression.

10. A dog brush with metal bristles can be used to make felted animals fluffy. Felt the surface difficult enough first to avert ruining your toy when brushing it.
There are special needles for creating fluffy surfaces. They accept reverse barbs that pull fibers out of the shape instead of felting them in. They are easier to use than a canis familiaris brush and create a piffling different consequence (shorter, tidier, curlier pilus). Etsy shops that sell reverse needles. Other possible names: 'inverse needles', 'contrary barb needles', 'inverted needles'. Here is a toy with hair created using one of these needles:

the hair was fabricated using a felting needle with reversed barbs which pulled fibers out of the shape. no constructed fiber was added inside this toy to avert it coming out as hair. by adding a combination of wools of different colors inside the sculpture you can create spots and transitions when using this technique.

Withal some other technique for creating long creature fur that has become very popular in contempo years is detailed here.

eleven. Wool can be matted even without a needle, but by rubbing, then to keep its fiber construction intact, it should be handled carefully before existence felted.
For a super smooth surface, choose thin wool and apply wet felting technique: dip your finished piece in soapy water and rub its surface thoroughly to mat any devious hairs left after needle felting. Wash your toy well after moisture felting to avoid a yellowish tint from lather. Wet felting does diminish the size of the slice, especially if the piece hasn't been felted very hard. Without wet felting, yous may need finer needles to make the surface quite smooth.
Use (often cheaper) rough wool to create less detailed and more natural looking surfaces. Fine needles are not required when using crude wool, but rub the surface of the slice lightly with your fingers to hibernate any poke holes from needles.

12. Limbs can be created separately and then needle felted to the body at whatsoever moment. Just go out (or add) some unfelted wool at the cease of a limb to attach it to the torso with.
Information technology may be recommended to use wire in legs for heavier animals every bit even hard felted limbs will bend under a heavy weight over time. Leave some wire at the end of the limb, brand a hole in the shape using an awl, put some gum on the limb wire and stick it in the hole, and so felt a bit of wool over the junction to hibernate it.

xiii. I use undyed carded wools or batts (sheets of wool) that are available in a wide range of natural colors. I too use raw uncarded wools.
To mix wools of different types or colors, you can use carding paddles (also called 'wool carders'; available on eBay).
For horse manes and tails, fleece works fine.
Felting wool tin as well come up in the form of sliver, roving, or top. For my own felting styles, these types of wool are non as good equally batting or raw wool as they accept a more parallel fiber structure that may be difficult to hide. Merely they are useful for creating long animal fur, as mentioned above.

undyed carded wool

this piglet was needle felted from uncarded wool (washed raw wool); information technology'southward Romanov wool that has some baby-sit hair in it (coarse black hairs in the moving-picture show).

Down is more than difficult to needle felt, simply it tin can be used as well.

this hare was needle felted from the down of Angora rabbits which is more hard to needle felt than sheep wool.

Basically, all sorts of wool can be needle felted, although some are not equally easy to felt every bit others. Every bit a full general rule, finer wools are felted faster (that doesn't apply to downwards though).

Pictures

xiv. Sketching and making clay sculptures helps figure out particular details in animal anatomy. If yous become stuck, it may exist a good thought to brand a sketch or a dirt sculpture/detail sometimes, since this works faster than felting.
Using pictures as a reference is inevitable but not always helpful, as a 2nd picture (or even a set of pictures taken from dissimilar angles) often tells surprisingly footling about a 3D shape. At least, when outset studying your model, realistic beast toys, figurines, and sculptures can provide a more than useful reference.

Procedure

fifteen. Much of the felting procedure is tedious; before y'all even commencement sculpting, the base shape needs to be completed. This preliminary piece of work, equally well as another stages in the felting process require very little concentration, and then audiobooks tin be helpful.

16. Be careful: it's easy to hurt your easily with needles, especially when felting miniatures or miniature details. For some reason, felting needles hurt more than regular ones.

More:

Basic Tips

At the basic level, needle felting is easy, which may be one of its greatest appeals. Y'all start past making a tight ball of wool (or constructed fiber or whatever is your textile - I will telephone call it wool here for simplicity). For this, you lot can wind a piece of wool on your finger tightly, then pull it off, air current some more and fix it with a few needle strokes, then just go along adding material by winding it onto your shape and needle felting until you get the basic shape, such every bit an oval, or a ball, depending on what you're making. Merely try to brand this shape hard enough by winding wool tightly, that will save you a lot of needle felting work subsequently.
After you have your bones shape, you start more detailed feting piece of work.

In that location are lots of bones needle felting video tutorials on youtube.com.

Thin Legs

For thin legs, I create limbs from pieces of wire (y'all can create a whole wire skeleton, but I detect information technology more than difficult).
I apply some glue to a leg 'bone' and then current of air a piece of wool effectually it tightly.
Avoid using rusting wire as it will stain your sculpture if yous wash it. Copper wire is recommended for wireframes.

Bird Legs

To create bird legs, do the same as higher up, just use a thread instead: apply some glue to the wire leg, then wind thread around it tightly.

Hooves

Hooves for both odd- and fifty-fifty-toed ungulates tin be made from polymer clay or carved from forest and then optionally painted. To attach a hoof to a leg wire, oestrus a knitting needle or a piece of wire and burn down a hole in the hoof with it. Then apply some glue and stick the tip of the leg wire into the hole.

Glass Eyes

I buy eyes on eBay: search for 'drinking glass optics' within the 'Carry Making Supplies' category: http://www.ebay.com/sch/Comport-Making-Supplies-/50253/i.html?_nkw=drinking glass+eyes (on eBay, you can also find vintage glass eyes sometimes). Try to society several different sizes to detect out what works for yous. If you lot buy ordinary cheap optics, have more 1 pair of any size every bit eyes and specially pupils don't ever friction match.
I employ drinking glass eyes on wire for my animals. Cut the wire and so that an inch (or less, depending on the size of your toy) is left, make a hole with a big sewing needle or an awl in the shape where the eye needs to exist attached, stick the wire in halfway, employ some glue to information technology, and so bulldoze it all the way in. If you utilise clear optics, try to avoid applying glue to the centre itself and so that information technology doesn't look fogged. Simply if you lot did and yous've been using a transparent super glue, just let it dry, afterward which pry the eye with a needle to unstick it from the wool, and it volition become clear over again.

glass eye on wire ready to be attached.
attaching an eye.

Dyes

If needed, wool tin exist dyed with natural or synthetic dyes.
If you soak your toy in a dye solution (as opposed to applying dyes by dabbing), pay attention to its orientation while information technology's drying. The colour will exist well-nigh intense on the downwardly side of the toy. For instance, if y'all turn a felted quadruped upside down to dry out, its back and the height of its head will be affected past the dye the most. Fifty-fifty if you just wash your creature afterwards an unlucky dying endeavour and so dry it, the down side may get slightly colored as whatever dye leftovers will accrue on the lower surface.

Indents

To make a pigsty in your shape (e.g. for a nostril), just poke the same place a few times.

Farthermost Shaping Techniques

If your piece got too hard through overfelting (peculiarly likely when using polyester batting or polydown), y'all can sculpt past cutting pieces off your shape or decrease its size past brushing with a domestic dog castor and and then pulling out or cut off actress piled wool. This may exist necessary if y'all have overfelted your animal and can't modify its shape in whatsoever other way.

'extreme shaping technique' case: a section of the neck was cutting out, then the two sides were sewn together with a thread; afterwards that, the seam will exist covered with fresh wool

Ruining Wool Fibers

Smaller shapes, similar limbs, may go softer instead of harder with over-felting. This happens when yous ruin the fibers then that they no longer concord together. Then it'due south nearly impossible to reinforce the shape without adding much more wool to it, which will make it oversized.
Pushing the needle all the way through the shape is nearly likely to create this unpleasant effect. When yous push the needle all the style through, it pulls fibers out of the reverse side, you felt them dorsum in, they come out once more and then forth until the fibers break and can no longer be matted. You could use a wire frame or even glue as a final resort, but it's not always practicable.

If you accept whatever suggestions for improving these instructions, please allow me know. Give thanks you.
Victor Dubrovsky (vriad_lee@chushka .com)

Source: https://chushka.com/felting_tips.html

Posted by: goodwinengifiricent.blogspot.com

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