Moxie - I Felt Awesome: Tips and Tricks for 35+ Needle-Poked Projects

You picked up this book just a moment ago, but you are teetering on the brink of a serious needle felting addiction. You think you're casually browsing a craft book, receiving an apology from an author you've only just met, but this is how it starts. Pretty soon, you're going to flip through the pages of this book. Just browsing, you'll call it. You're going to see how fuzzy and colorful the wool looks, and how intriguing the felting needles are. Your heart's gonna start beating a little faster and your throat will get a little dry.

Flip a few more pages and you'll see how simple the concept of needle felting is and how many amazing things you can learn to make. Next thing you know, you'll be at home with this book and your supplies, ready to begin. This, my poor dear friend, is the point of no return. Once you poke the needle into the fiber and feel the satisfaction of turning wool into flat and 3D accessories, toys and sculptures, you'll never be able to stop. I know because, my name is Moxie, and I'm a felt-aholic. Needle felting is a fun, creative and simple craft with unequaled versatility.

Because the materials are relatively clean and completely portable, needle felting is a great lap activity that you can take pretty much anywhere you feel like making stuff. The materials won't bust your crafting budget and the tools can be re-used for dozens of projects. Made without sewing or weaving, felt is a matted fabric and is the oldest textile known to humankind. The first felt was created by agitating natural wool fiber using soapy water, causing the individual fibers to interlock. Needle, or dry felting, is the process of turning wool fiber into felt using sharp, barbed needles that make the wool fibers attach to each other. (Hundreds of these needles in machines make the felt you buy at the craft store.) Basically, these special needles do the same job the water and soap can do.

If you've seen or tried needle felting before, you'll probably notice that the instructions in this book are a little different. That's because I'm a self-taught felter, a teacher of felting and a believer in open-ended learning; the techniques and tricks in this book are the product of all my hands-on investigation. I encourage you to mix and match techniques that you learn here and experiment with moves of your own. That's the best part about needle felting: I never stop learning new things about what it can do. That's probably why it never gets boring, I never want to put it down, and I'm now spreading the addiction on to you.

TOOLS

One of the great things about felting is that you don't have to buy lots of expensive and confusing equipment.

TOOLS

One of the great things about felting is that you don't have to buy lots of expensive and confusing equipment.

Here are the essentials you'll need to complete the projects in this book and beyond.

FELTING NEEDLES

So simple, so elegant, so sharp; felting needles are where the magic comes from. You can find them in lots of sizes and several variations, but you can always count on the 38-gauge star needle to see you through your projects. If you absolutely crave diversity, I recommend the 40-gauge triangle needle for help with finer details.

MULTI-NEEDLE TOOLS

When you make flat felt or large sculptures, multineedle tools will help you cover more surface area as you poke. A tool with four needles is great for beginners, but you can find tools with more needles, too.