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Below are the tools you will need for making any needle felting project. There are three sizes of needles (these are a bit jagged or barbed and very sharp. Basicly you will start any work with the largest needle and work your way down to the smaller needle as the work becomes finer and more detail is needed. The needles are barbed which will cause the matt the wool, thus felting it together. Important is to always insert the needle vertically into the wool to avoid bending the needle. The wooden holder can be quite helpful if you are working on larger items. The top cap can be unscrewed and the needles are then insertet into the holes. Then the cap will be screwed back on. It is also comfortable to work with. Otherwise you will need your felting wool and a foam surface mat (which is about 2 inches or 5 cm high). The mat can be bought where you purchase your crafting supplies. This is to mainly protect your workspace. If you do not have such a mat, you can substitute a thick sponge or a styrofoam block instead.
For the styrofoam shapes, you will not necessarily need the mat since the shapes are thick themselves.
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This is a close up of the needle. You can see how the edges are jagged.
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1. The first step is to place your shape onto your working space.
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2. Wrap a thin, yet covering layer over a section of your shape. You can use pins to hold the woll in place if if you like.
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3. Start jabbing your thicker needle into selected areas of the shape just enough to hold the wool in place. Add the remaining wool to cover any open space so that the styrofoam figure is completely covered. What really looks great is to combine two colors of wool to create a marble look. Here a medium red and a dark red were used to decorate the heart shape.
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4. After a while of jabbing, your object will start to take shape. You will be actually jabbing hundreds of times, if not thousands of times until the consistence of the wool is uniform and even around the shape.
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5. You will notice how the fuzzy ends are eventually disappearing and the object is looking softer. You will continue until your shape looks like the project here.
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