What is needle felting?

I usually visually demonstrate when I am asked what needle felt is.  Being more than a little adverse to cameras or any image taking devise focused on me, I am not going to post a video.  I am sure there are probably videos on the inter-web to demonstrate, knowing there are others out there that don’t mind being in front of a camera.  So if my words don’t make any sense there is visual back up for my words somewhere.

My needle felting is created by the application of coloured roving (basically un-spun wool) onto wool felt by repeatedly stabbing through it with a barbed needle.  I pull and shape the roving and place it into position on the surface of the felt.  The felt is pinned to a piece of foam insulation.  Once the roving is placed, I stab into it with a barbed needle. The stabbing action causes the fibres of the roving to interlace and lock with the fibres of the wool felt.

Why?

My family and I were travelling to see my cousin in Nova Scotia.  We are car journey people.  The route you use to get to a destination is just as important as the destination itself.  Part of our journey brought us to a sheep farm near-ish (my mental maps are not always clear) the Eastern shore in Nova Scotia.  There they had a tiny demonstration table set up showing the materials and how needle felting works.  Instantly, I could visualize things and images made using this technique. It also solved some mental wars I had been having with myself for many years.  I studied visual art in university.  My focus being mostly figurative sculpture in clay and bronze.  Sculpture takes up a lot of room, it is messy, and some of the materials are toxic.  I hadn’t made art for many years because I didn’t have the space available to me and I wasn’t inclined to possibly poison my children. I could see, with the needle felting, something that was more manageable mess-wise and spacially, plus it wasn’t toxic.  On top of that, there is almost no waste and I can source most of my materials locally.  Well, more local to me than New Zealand.  Conundrum over.  I can be visually creative without having to move or accidentally poison my children.  Because I am shaping the roving then applying it into the surface the technique feels sculptural to me.  There are artists and crafters that do make sculpture using this technique.  There are images out in cyber space of these works.