Why hello you chubby little fuzz ball!

Stumbled upon this little guy the other day on Etsy. Double points for cute and cuddliness. I hear that real Koalas are not so friendly. I believe I will stick with the needle-felted variety.

This is a creation from BirdonWireStudio, who appears to be on a mission to make the most adorable array of things possible. I fully support her in this!

As for this fuzzy sculpture in particular, I like that he has no arms or legs. Limbless felted creatures are somehow much cuter than those who appear to be mobile. He can’t get away from my hugs!

I found these adorable little chickees while browsing on Etsy. They are the creation of Bossy’s Feltworks, and are sold alongside many other cozy-looking farm animals in the guise of pin cushions and mobiles. I love the naturally dyed wool that this felter uses, particularly the sunny yellow of this little chick. I also like the idea of an all-natural hand-made child’s toy, and have thought of attempting something like it myself. A chubby carrot or a fuzzy broccoli has definite cuteness potential. While the toys are a great idea, they are probably best suited for children who have outgrown their toy-chewing stage. They need gentle love!

I think that these little chicks would probably be fairly straight forward to make, but it is their simplicity that makes them so friendly and cuddly looking. This felter has a lovely, smooth technique, and I love the stitched details around the beak and eyes. Thank-you for this adorable addition to the felting world, Bossy Felts!

I have been on a short needle-felting hiatus lately due to an extremely busy schedule, but my fingers are itching to get back into it. I want to try a completely new fruit or vegetable this time. I am looking for something obscure, but not too extreme. It needs to be recognizable as produce. After consulting the fruit and veg dictionary that my brother gave me, I have a few ideas that may be coming soon:

-garlic

-rhubarb

-corn

-fava bean

-mushrooms!

As is usually the case, I have more ideas then I do time. I am still excited to start something new. I am also going to try and extend my blog focus to include other cute felted creations, other than my own. I know that there are many of you out there who share my passion for the strange and adorable, and I invite you to join in my search and to share your comments.

Broccoli truly is a magical vegetable. Not only is is packed full of Vitamin C, K and A, and a fantastic source of dietary fibre, but it is also a vegetable with a ton of personality. This makes sculpting it an interesting and exciting process.

Broccoli already possesses a very expressive human trait: hair. The hair of my broccoli was the most fun to sculpt. The stalk was much more difficult, but not disheartening. I like to start with the branches attached from the very beginning, because I find that if I felt them onto the stalk after it is done, they are not as strong. The hair is not overly felted, because I like to keep the poofy look to it. Also, it creates a broccoli-esque appearance if you felt concentrated lines into an otherwise loosely felted ball.

Attaching the broccoli hair to the stalk can be difficult, and I have had a couple of issues with it coming apart. This can easily be fixed, you just have to make sure that you spend some time really securing it with a few good jabs of your needle. If you are still having issues, I would recommend just putting a dab of hot glue there as it is underneath the crown and nobody is going to see it.

Ah, the chili pepper! My spicy friend.

I have really gone on a pepper kick this year, although I have yet to document it here. This was the first type of pepper that I tried. I thought it would be the easiest because of its distinctive shape and colour. It proved to be quite successful, and I have since gone on to make a jalapeno and several bell peppers. Hopefully, I will have them up soon.

I enjoy how this guy is giving us a bit of a wink. It is actually because I made one of his eyebrows too large, but I didn’t really notice until I looked at this picture. Happy mistakes like this give my veggies that much more personality, so I don’t mind.

I was inspired to put up the chili this evening because I chopped a couple up and put them in my yam soup for dinner. It was DELICIOUS, I highly recommend.  Enjoy

The radish is an under-rated vegetable. With its beautiful colour and distinctive tail, it makes for a great needle-felting model.

It was also quite simple to felt. I started with the pink colour which makes up the majority of his body. After sculpting this portion, I attached a bit of white to the bottom which I then blended by going over it with a fine needle again and again. The tail took a bit of experimentation, but eventually all I did was take a bit of white wool roving and roll it between the palms of my hands, until it became a very skinny tail-like piece. I attached the end of it to the bottom of the radish and it looks just about right.

For the stem, I used the same technique that I did for the carrot, except that I felted the green pieces a little more before I attached them. I also cut them off instead of leaving them long, like I did for the carrot.
Here he is, my radish:

So in honour of my birthday a couple of days ago, my wonderful sister and boyfriend created this Moobs themed cake for me. I have to say, it looks spectacular and tastes even better.  It is carrot cake (naturally!) with cream cheese icing. Yummmm!

My brother, who is currently visiting from England, also gave me a Moobs inspired gift. It is a book titled “Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruit: An Illustrated Encyclopedia” and will be a great help as I search for more and more obscure fruits and veggies to needle felt. I may soon be posting images of felted endive or durians with eyes. Stay tuned!

I found myself very busy over this holiday season, creating and packaging gifts for people. Every year I put off making gifts for my family and friends until the last possible moment, and then panic the night before. This year was particularly hectic because my workplace offered to buy quite a huge chunk of my stock to use as gifts for the other employees. This was a great opportunity for me, so I snatched it up. Little did I realize that I didn’t have quite as many little Santas and Snowmen as I thought, and I had to needle felt like mad to get them all done. I did finish, and packaged them all up with little bows. Take a look.

Here is another rosey-cheeked winter friend. Santa!

Santa stemmed from the snowman idea. They are both very basic, not-entirely-3D designs that make quite cute Christmas tree ornaments. They can also be made into broaches, and I may even try magnets!

Santa starts with the head shape. I chose a peachy-pink skin tone, because it was actually all that I had. It is quite good because he ends up looking a nice healthy robust colour, which is how I would imagine Santa to be. I needle felted the red part of the hat onto his head, then added the white fur trim and pom-pom. After this, I did his eyes, nose and rosey cheeks. The nose is just a small piece of wool that I attached on and then shaped using a single needle. Most of this work needs to be done with a single needle because it is quite small and detailed. The cheeks were done in the same way as the snowman; I just took a few fibres of pink wool, and attached them with a couple of pokes.

Santa’s beard went on last. I started by attaching some white wool and then needle felting it quite a bit, so that it was quite firm and sturdy. Then, I attached some looser pieces that I didn’t felt quite as much. This gives his beard a fluffy, Santa-esque look.

Ah, the carrot. This little guy is a descendant of my first attempt at needle felting vegetables. I created a carrot for my friend’s birthday, and everyone fell in love with it. The rest is history.

I think that it is the colour and distinctive shape which make the carrot so popular. Also, a lot of character is expressed through his hairdo. I like to make it extremely long and fuzzy.

The construction is fairly straight forward, just form the shape, and then attach on the hair. I also make the rings around the carrot by just needle felting in a line around the circumference. I do this a few times at various spots along his length, and the result is quite convincing.