How to choose needles for felting wool. Felting technique

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

The Slavic lands are considered the birthplace of the ancient craft of wool felting, which means that the passion for this technique is in our blood. Therefore, the products are of the highest quality and most beautiful precisely from the representatives of the Slavic peoples. Once you try it once, you're sure to get hooked on it for a long time.

The abundance of felting needles often leads beginners to a dead end and puts them in front of a difficult choice. How not to make a mistake and buy suitable felting needles, thanks to which you can create a unique and beautiful thing with your own hands? This article will help you with this.

If you look at the needles for felting wool with an inexperienced eye, then most of them will seem exactly the same, but this is far from being the case. Each of the needles has its purpose, and using the wrong one will only waste time and resources.

Triangle felting needles

These needles are the most popular. They are most often found in sets. Triangular needles have, respectively, three faces, which contain special roughness andteeth.

If you pay attention, the needles have their own number, which corresponds to the size of the tool itself. Felting needles are both large and small. They are designed for various products - smooth and fluffy. The larger the number on the tool, the thinner it is, which means that the holes in the product will be smaller, and the finished craft will be smooth and hard.

The most popular triangular needles are 36, 38 and 40.

Needle 40

This needle is used to work out small details that require increased accuracy and caution. It leaves almost imperceptible holes in the product. Most often it is used in the manufacture of small crafts or as the final step in processing. If you create dolls, then it is better to take a needle with the fortieth number to work out the plasticity of the face. Then the doll will look more believable.

The felting technique itself involves the use of several needles, so you definitely won’t get by with one. Only a skilled craftsman can knit wool with one needle. If you want to spend as little money as possible and save money, then buy sets. For a beginner wool felter, three to five needles will be more than enough.

If there is no specialized store in your city and you do not know where to buy felting needles, then contact online stores. Most often, there you can also pick up wool for felting, and special literature with lessons for beginners.

Needle 38

It will come in handy as your main needle. Since it is universal and can be used both in small areas and during the primary processing of wool.

This needle for felting wool is also useful for joining blanks into a single composition. When creating simple products, it will be enough to use only it.

Needle 36

When you have just torn off a piece of wool and you need to form it into some shape, then feel free to take a needle with that number. It is ideal for quickly felting a large piece of wool and will do a good job with such a job. But you will not succeed in making a smooth product with this needle alone. For coarse wool, such a needle for felting is great. With your own hands, you can create a small dense blank from a large piece of wool in a matter of minutes.

Star needles

Due to the large number of teeth on this needle, the wool falls off much faster than on a triangular one. But star-shaped needles will not work on smooth areas. When creating soft, fluffy toys, such as animals, these tools are often used, as they well draw out the necessary wool for splendor.

Dry wool felting technique

Making toys with your own hands is a very exciting and interesting activity, the result of which must please the diligent master. It is enough to try at least once to dump some figure, and you will certainly fall in love with this activity.

Everyone who likes to create something with their own hands, invent and create, this activity will appeal to you. After all, for a finished toy, you can also come up with an image, clothes, accessories, which is also very exciting.

Felting dry wool is easier to learn, so it is with this technique that beginners are advised to start. This technique involves felting raw dry wool, which has not yet been processed. Needles for dry felting are no different from needles for wet felting. Therefore, you can stock up on the above-mentioned tools and work with them in several techniques at once.

How to use needles

1. The needle should be held just below where it bends.
2. We do not advise you to be distracted during the felting process, as there is a risk of injury, because the needles are very sharp. To avoid this, you can use a special substrate, on which you should put the product and roll the wool right there.
3. Keep the needle only vertical to your work. If you do not follow this rule, then you can break it when the workpiece is dense.
4. If it seems to you that the product is not yet well knitted, but the needle enters the work hard, then be sure to replace it with a thinner one. So you will avoid its breakage, and the finished composition will be neat.
5. If you are going to felt not only dry, but also wet wool, then give preference to needles made of stainless steel or with a special coating that will prevent the development of corrosion. These needles are more expensive than usual, but then you do not have tobuy new tools once again.

Creating a simple needle felting toy

Take unspun wool in any color you like, felting needles, pastel crayons or acrylics for detailing. You can also take the substrate on which the product is fixed.

Draw on paper how you see the future toy. Tear off a piece of wool and take the coarsest needle. Start with an effort to quickly stick it into the wool and at the same time form the body of the toy. When the workpiece has become dense and hard enough to the touch, it can hold its shape, you can take a thinner needle and process uneven areas.

Create all parts separately. In the place where you are going to connect them, you should not roll wool. If you do this, then in the future it will be difficult for you to connect all the blanks.

When the parts are ready, you can connect them. Take a coarse needle and work the pieces together. Decorate the finished toy with paints or pastel crayons. You can also sew or knit clothes for toys, make jewelry from beads. Everything that your imagination is capable of can be used in creating such crafts from dry wool.

About wet felting

Wet felting takes place in an alkaline environment, that is, in soapy water. Wet wool felting technique is used to create flat products. If you want to create full-fledged compositions, then you will need to learn both techniques. But this is not at all as difficult as it might seem at first glance.