day 18: needle felting

I keep not blogging about what I am actually working on. Mostly there isn't anything to show. At Imagine I've been working on bug fixes or game art. I don't think it's appropriate to show my in-progress freelance work until after it's published. And I've been too busy with that to do any personal work. I do have a little snippet of something I will show in a couple days, but in the meantime, more random things from me!

A favorite TV show: That's Clever. Not on anymore which makes me sad. Each episode shows three craftspeople making a project. They show the gamut from glass blowers, metal workers, ceramic artists, scrapbookers, to woodworkers, bookbinders, soap makers, etc, and etc. (This is where I discovered encaustic painting.) I love watching people be skilled at their craft. I learned about needle felting from this show and had to give it a try. So I made some Christmas gifts a couple years back.

A deer for Jim, an avid bow hunter:

Kringer for Nate, fan of fans of He-Man*:

And an "envelope" to hold a gift card for my mom to get herself a new coat:

It's a pretty fun craft. The instructions are essentially: take a loose wad of wool and keep poking at it with a needle until it turns into something cute! 

 Here are some beautiful skeins of natural wool roving.

Brightly dyed wool.

 Felting needles. The little barbs catch the the wool fibers and lock them together.

So the more you jab at it with the needle, the denser the wool becomes and it holds its shape. Look! I've made a Kringer hairball!

Thanks for joining me for Maryn's Crafty-times!

*PS - Nate posted some epic news for himself yesterday. Congrats Nate, the ol' castle never looked better!