Alien Needle felt critters

Another needle felt alien using the batts I bought from A Touch of Alaska . These are a blend of many different fibers and felt really well and pretty fast compared to the merino . I did use some scraps of prefelt Romney for the "wings" and may still do a bit more detailing on them at some point .


This little alien is a flightless "bird" (which I may still add wings to), but I kind of like the simplicity of him and I certainly like that he only took a few hours to make . I tried something new for the eyes . I first cut a 1" by 3" piece of foam from one of my old felting foams and embedded the eyes into two small holes . I then added white roving around the foam section . It took several thick layers to completely cover the foam but it was interesting to experiment with felting into the foam and it does stay nicely . This is a technique that I picked up from another felter....The felted Chicken , (you can find her blog on my sidebar of blogs) . She has some really amazing items and great tutorials and loves to experiment with new techniques .

I then felted a very simple ball shape from the A Touch of Alaska batt and once fairly firm, laid the foam piece on top in the eye area and felted that to the ball . I added several more layers of roving ontop of the eye area to hold it into place . I think the experiment worked pretty well but I don't know if it was any easier then using roving but I plan on experimenting more with foam as it is a great way to use my old felting pads so they don't go to waste .
I love the look of the wisps of fiber sticking out of the head, tail feathers and ear area but this makes this little guy a bit more for gently handling . Although I try to root the hairs as deeply as possible, they can be pulled out if tugged or become felted if rubbed to much .

The greenish background is some wet felt that I made for the leaves for my new flowers but I made the mistake of over felting . I put it into the drier to get out some of the moisture and left it in there for to long . Some areas still might work and the rest I can use as "parts" for my aliens and green critters .

Happy felting .

needle felting in Merino and Romney

Two more........ Critters...... Origin Unknown or "COU"s....Well, I may need to work on a better acronym but I can't say I could classify them if I saw them runnung through my yard so I think of them as "fuzzy unidentified critters"...that acronym is even worse...hummmm any suggestions?

I did these back to back to get a better feel for the differences of felting with merino and Romney . Besides the Merino feeling softer but felting slower, it just feels different under the needle . I can't say I actually have a preference at this point as both have characteristics that I like better then the other and they sort of balance out in the plus/minuses . I think I will just keep alternating back and forth as I do like the diversity of how each fiber responds .

It was fun to get to use my mohair curls as I have been hoarding them as to pretty to use but I relalized that they are really to pretty to sit in a bag in my fiber bag and I can buy more .

Have a great weekend .