Needle-felting and happy doodles!

Whiteboard doodle by talented artists

My first needle-felting project completed

Don't you just love finding doodles that make you smile? I liked this spider that had been a 'joint' doodle by my children. It looks so cheeky and happy, I had to include it here.

Last night I completed my first needle-felting project. Farbles! (Felt marbles!) All you do to create these little beauties is to alternatively wind a small amount of wool fibre and some wool in layers until you've built up a small ball shape, which looks incredibly fluffy and lacking in substance! Make sure the last layer is wool fibre. Then you place the fluffball on a foam block and carefully push the felting needle in and out at intervals over the ball until the wool is secured, then continue inserting the needle all over until it's felted. The longer you use the needle the firmer the ball will become. Be careful with the needles! They need to be pushed in straight so they don't bend or snap, and they are extremely sharp and you don't want to stab yourself. I had to cut one of the farbles in half to see the colours inside, and you can see from the photo that it is felted right through. It's such an amazing process. I want to make lots of them now! I'm thinking that you could perhaps make smaller ones as beads then thread them onto a necklace or bracelet. Very original fibre art!