Wednesday 11 January 2017

needle-felted bee

Towards the end of December, me and wonderful mum went to a new-to-us venue, Straight Curves in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.  They have some really interesting classes and judging by all the class samples displayed in the classroom, I think we might be going again!

We took the Needle-felted Bee class.  Looking at the website, it says Carol Wilson was the tutor, I hope that's right!  I really must try to be better at taking down tutor's names to credit them.

It was a really good workshop in a lovely venue and I even took some photos during the class!



I have needle-felted before.  I made a flat picture at home and we did needle-felted brooches at one of the Speed Craft sessions, which involved needle-felting into a biscuit cutter.  This was my first time 3d felting.  Above you can see my sponge, the bee shape I created using Jacob wool and the needle felting tool which is different to my Clover 3-needle tool.  We got to keep this one!



I have only felted with merino wool before, this was a lot fuzzier but just as good to work with.  Putting the stripes on took judgement about thickness and placement.  We had lots of pictures of different bees to work from, but I just went with a stereotypical bee.



Felting the wings was really hard!  I attacked them several times with scissors and had to start again!  I added a few embroidery stitches for the veins.



And here is my little bee all finished!  He's on a brooch back, but I won't wear him until the summer.  The tutor had hers mounted on a small piece of wet felted "landscape" in a wooden frame.  I quite like that idea and may, possibly, one day, get round to it!



This bee is very messy underneath, but hey, you shouldn't be looking at bee's undersides!



Doing the class gave me an urge to needle felt (though I wasn't well afterwards so didn't) and writing this post is making me want to needle felt...  I've got a couple of books and some merino at home!

8 comments:

Pamela said...

Very cute! It looks like the bee could fly away.

Kerryp77 said...

The stabbing is quite satisfying isn't it! Lovely bee. I've done 3D a couple of times - a pig and russian doll spring to mind.

Ellie Foster said...

Dear Wendy
Your bee is lovely. I have tried needle felting and came to the conclusion it is harder than people make it look (and it hurts when you stab yourself!) I made a rabbit with huge ears which looks like a donkey and an owl which looks a bit like a penguin.
I do like the animals that can be made though, so I bought a book and some Shetland wool, which is sitting there waiting for me to make something. As with everything, it is all about practise, isn't it?
Best wishes
Ellie

Rachel said...

It seems to be possible to needlefelt almost anything, so you have plenty of scope for experimentation!

Christine B said...

Your little needle-felted bee is so cute Wendy and will make a lovely brooch to wear in the Summer months! Christine x

Bethany said...

I received a needle felting kit last Christmas that I have yet to crack open. But this is so cute I might give it a try (to be honest--the looks of the needle scares me a little).

Anonymous said...

He's gorgeous! Give into the needlefelting urge and show us the results!!

Sarah in Stitches said...

Absolutely lovely! :D