Needle Felting – Wildlife

Sign-up by May 14

Materials Fee: $25 paid to instructor

Materials List: Please bring one or more photographs of wildlife that inspires you.

Create your favorite animal using wool that is beautiful, colorful, and organic. Learn the art of needle felting in this class with felting artist Barbara Attwell from Austin Texas. Needle felting is a process where strong and solid shapes are created by repeatedly plunging a barbed needle into a ball of wool. As the wool also has microscopically tiny hooks, this dry process allows for a great amount of detail. We will also learn how to start with a wire armature, create realistic looking eyes from plastic clay, and ways to mount the animal in a natural setting. Felting is the same process that has been used to make yurts, hats, and shoes for over a thousand years. Best of all there is no harm done to the animal – their part is getting an occasional haircut.

Attwell is an award-winning artist who started her career with a sculpture degree in foundry work. Nature is her inspiration, and wool has become her favorite sculpting material with its impressive amount of strength, flexibility, and longevity. For her, it conjures up a most rich primordial-soup kind of experience – one gets wet, gets soapy, and gets to indulge in a totally organic process.

Her work can be seen at: http://www.barbaraattwell.net