
Simply put,
needle felting is the process of taking raw wool roving and
using a special barbed needle to sculpt it into shape. The
sculpting is done by poking the wool fibers thousands of
times until they interlock and felt together. This process
is extremely time-consuming, and each dog normally takes 10
- 25 hours to create.
This is a brief demonstration
of the techniques I use to create my needle felted dogs. It
is not meant to be a tutorial, merely an example of my work
in progress. I will be showing examples from a recent
commission I did. This sculpture took 14 hours to create
from start to finish!


The first step for any
project of mine is to study the reference
photographs. I like to have as many photographs as possible
to work from - the more angles, the better. This cute little
Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix is named Dewey, and his owner has
ordered a sculpture of him.

I choose wool based on
colour and texture to match the breed I am creating. I blend
various colours of wool to mimic the dog's coat. I
create a wire armature to felt over. This provides extra
support for the sculpture and also gives it a bit of
flexibility.

I start by felting and shaping the torso
and neck. Then I felt the legs, head, and mouth. After that
I make the tail and feet. Everything is still pretty rough
at this stage, and I don't put most markings on until later.


Once I have the basic body shape done I will
finish the mouth, and add any markings I haven't done yet.
The ears are the last thing for me to needle felt. I sculpt
the eyes and nose from polymer clay, attach them, and apply
some glaze. Then I snap some photos and send them off to the
customer for approval!


© 2007 -
2008 K. Turple. All Rights Reserved.