Needle and Wet Felting Inspiration from Nature! – Felting

I just love getting outside! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a ‘bake all day in the sun’ kind of person, I’m more like the burn in 10 minutes kind! But spending time outside is so good for us mentally and of course we need some Vitamin D each day too!

So why not take inspiration from nature and bring it into your felting work?! I’m sure that wherever in the world you live there are so many things outside that will inspire you to create if you take the time to seek them out and really see them as the beautiful works in nature that they already are!

Take leaves for example, have you really looked at the copious amounts of shapes, patterns and colours that are all around you? If you ever create animals, or wreaths, branches or scenes I’m sure that leaves taken from nature will really elevate your work! Here’s a great tutorial from Fit To Be Loved for making leaves with a fabric base! I’m sure if you are inspired by this you will find plenty of tutorials and videos with other ideas on how to make leaves.

You can also do wet felted leaves, so click here for a quick tutorial from Living Felt (Pictured below), they also have a video taking you through this step by step so if you prefer the video here is the link to that.

How about your every day daisy? I’m sure you have spotted a few of these around your neighbourhood, even the little lawn ones are super cute but you can have larger ones in the gardens! I’m partial to the ones with the blue/black centres and there are plenty of other colours you might like to try.

Here’s a great little ‘felt along’ video where you will learn how to make a daisy style flower with a nice chunky centre and a wire stem which makes them great for posing and bunching! This one is from Mums Makery and I’m sure you have seen a number of their smashing videos by now!

Of course no walk outside would be complete without a few birds flitting along and while they can be one of the harder things to needle felt I’ve found a great tutorial for you! I’m quite partial to sparrows, we get a lot of them in New Zealand and I so enjoy watching them in my birdbath! Of course we have many amazing natives too but I would dream of trying to needle felt something off the cuff from a nature photo without first trying my hand at something more familiar. If your local sparrows look a little different it’s easy to adjust their colouring, then once you are happy with these little guys you can branch out into tropicals or other natives if you like!

I found this great tutorial over at Joe and Cheryl which I hadn’t come across before so double bonus for finding something new! lol She has a great step by step for you to follow along with and come up with a pair of total sweeties! I like her idea for the feet too which are usually the reason I avoid making birds so I hope it helps you out too! Click here to find the bird tutorial.

I’m going out on a limb here….Oh nice pun! We don’t get squirrels here in New Zealand but I so love wee animals I feel like I would be super excited to come across these guys in my wanderings! I have heard that many don’t like them and perhaps in some places they rival rats in popularity but how cute is that face?

What I like about this tutorial/time lapse is that the maker shows you how to blend fibres to make a realistic coat and also keeps it simple by not spending too much time perfecting the base before adding the long coat. Honestly, it’s all going to be covered so as long as your shapes are good and it’s firm enough you’re ready to go! This might be more suited for someone with a knowledge of creating long coats as it isn’t a very close up video and doesn’t have voice over. This was also the first time I’ve seen anyone sew a head on rather than thread joint or felting it on! Love learning new things and I hope you do too!

How about another kind of flower? This one you can wet felt, and tp make many different flowers you can also use this technique as the petals can be thinner and more delicate!

If you’ve been felting for more than 5 minutes you will have heard of Living Felt and it’s awesome creator Marie Spaulding! In this video she shows you how to create delicate ruffled petals and great stems and centres! You will love having a play with this project and perhaps trying different kinds of flowers as well. Of course poppies come in many colours so you will have a great range to choose from!

One last fun item for you, if you live anywhere rural you might come across one of these on your travels! ? I actually never pass any on my walks even though our country apparently has more sheep than humans! lol

He’s pretty gorgeous though! And there are so many sheep tutorials including blog posts and tutorials on YouTube. I think the queen of the all things cattle though is Philippa from Felts by Philippa so here is one of her many tutorials which you will get so much knowledge and fun from!

You will find a number of sheep, different breeds and sizes for you to enjoy as well. But if her gorgeous highland cattle ring your bell do have a try at one of those, they are so fabulous!

Last but not least, how about some scenery? You can’t really do wrong with a fun wall hanging like this very simple one I found for you. If you have never made one before this is a good place to start. After that the sky is the limit as they are heaps of ideas floating about for your next one!