I was in the middle of doing a tiger when someone sent me a picture of a needle felted bunny, and I just had to make one myself.

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1. As always, I start with a fluff of wool, a barbed needle made for felting and a foam pad.2. Start poking wool into basic shape.

3. Make base of head on top.

4. Add more wool and start building a shape. You can see in this picture I started adding some more wool for the cheeks and the lower legs.5.  Felt a roll of wool separately. This will be the arms. 6. After it’s firm, cut it in half. 7. Poke half the side in so that it’s profile looks like the one on the right when turned. 8. Poke the loose wool into the body. 9. Build up the face more.10. Add more cheek fullness. 11. Poke in a continuous line to make mouth and nose definition 12. Make a pointed tube like this. This will eventually be the ears. 13. Cut it in half lengthwise.  14. Split in half. 15. Flip over so that what was the inside of the tube is facing upward. Poke at the center. This will help hollow the ears out. 16. Poke in and pinch near the tops. Then place this on the head and poke on.17. Add on bottom paws with the same technique as arms. The loose wool from that will help form the lower legs. Add more wool to fill out. 18. Add beads for eyes by sewing them on.

19. Cover the eyes with wool and then shape them.

Add a hint of pink on the nose and some tan around the eyes and mouth. Here is the finished bunny below.

After my brain is fried for the day, I like to unwind by poking wool. This is my latest little side project.

What you’ll need:

1. Wool batting
2. Felting needle
3. Pipe cleaner
4. Black beads
5. Needle and thread
6. Some silkier wool for mane and tail
7. Some grey wool if you want to shade the hooves

This is how it always starts, just lump of loose wool, a needle and a cushion.

Start by making a basic form. This is accomplished by taking the needle and sticking it into the wool repeatedly. The fibers of the wool knot together.

Shape some more.

Oops, I really should have added support for the legs since they are going to be so skinny. I’ll have to do it now.

I’m taking a scissor with a good pointed end and cutting through the wool. Then I will drag my pipe cleaner through it. I’ll do this for the front and back legs.Build up the neck a bit. Fill in some of the holes I cut with new wool and start building up the hind legs. Build up the legs and start adding wool on for the head.Add wool and just poke away.  Starting to make some definition around the head and legs. Adding wool to the lower legs is easier if you wrap it around tightly. Wrap the wool as tightly as you can and secure it with some poking at the seams.   In this picture, you can see the definition I added to the upper leg. Make some ears. Leave loose wool on the bottom to attach with.  I added ears and cut out an eye socket. Testing out different black bead sizes for the eye. Remember you are going to add some wool on top so a little big is better. Sew on the eyeballs (black beads). I added some wool on top of eyeball and I am laying some softer angora wool strands over neck for mane. 

I poke in a straight line up and down the neck until the hair is secured.Gathered some softer hair into a tail and poked ends into back of horse. I trimmed mane hair and glued on a clay horn. I also lightly poked some loose wool over the hooves. poked at nostrils and basically fine tuned her.  Finished unicorn.

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I’ve recieved a lot of questions lately about needle felting, also known as soft sculpture. When I first started, all my information came from free online sources, so I’ve decided to return the favor by posting some tutorials of my own.

I’ve decided to start with how I make my noses.

All you need is a cuticle stick and a bar of polymer clay. Most craft stores sell small packages of polymer clay. Warning, don’t let the clay touch your finished wood surfaces. Whatever oils they use for this clay can be damaging.

Make a three dinmensional triangle but round all the edges. Make a line down the center. 

With the point of the stick, make two holes.

Make lines from the holes, to the sides.

Check the package of your clay for baking temps and times. I baked mine at 265 degrees for twenty minutes.

After it cools, glue the nose onto your needle felted critter. I will sometimes make several noses in one batch for ease if I’m going to be doing a lot of felting. Also, it helps to have several size increments available.

My example below is a bulldog WIP. If you like him, check back in the next week or so. I’ll be posting a tutorial on how I made him and be giving him away.