How has your week been? Have you managed to get creative. I still haven’t got around to sorting out my crochet disaster. If you want to check out previous posts you can do here. I managed a crafty exhibition and a little needle felting before being ill!
Creative Inspiration
Just over a week ago I enjoyed some wonderful inspiration from Stratford Contemporary Arts Festival. There were so many wonderful artists and such a buzz in the Town Hall. One artist that blew me away was Alix Almond.
Alix is a linocut printmaking and drawing artist. Do go and check out her stunning work on her website here. I picked up this superb blue tit for my blue tit obsessed daughter for Christmas.
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Needle Felted Robin
Needle Felting Robins
Last week I loved sharing with our community arts and crafts group how to make a 2D needle felted robin. I called mine Rodney Robin.
This project is designed for anyone and can certainly be a first project for complete beginners.
The great thing about learning how to needle felt the robin is that once you’ve learnt to, after that, if you can draw it you can needle felt it. You can get various needle felting kits here to get you started.
You Need:
- Needle felting needle – these are specific needles
- Needle felting base
- Water soluble paper
- Template
- Pencil
- Felt/ roving (I get roving from various places. One of my favourite places for mixed fibers is Marie Redding on Etsy. You can find her gorgeous fibres here)
Robin Template
I drew my own robin template but you can easily print one off the internet to use as your template. My template you can download below.
Robin Instructions
Here’s my instructions on how to needle felt your robin. You can download the instructions below.
Before you start you will need to trace around your template onto water soluble paper.
You can then needle felt directly onto your water soluble paper.
Needle Felting Colour Blending
Use small amounts of fibre and gradually build up your robin. To give your robin more tones use several different shades of brown together. To mix fibres pull small sections from each of the colours you want to use and place all the colours between your thumb and fingers. Gently pull the fibres apart and then bring them back together again and repeat. This will help you blend your colours together.
Trim Your Robin
Once you have finished – trim your water soluble paper closely before then dipping in warmish water.
Robin Brooch or Decoration
Once your robin has dried – mine took around 24 hours to be completely dry – I attached a no coil safety pin to turn my robin into a brooch to wear. You could also add some thread to turn your robin into a decoration to adorn your Christmas tree or elsewhere in your home.
Crafty Finds
Cross Stitch Acronyms
I stumbled across a brilliant blog post while stuck in hospital this week. It’s a cross stitch acronym post. So if you don’t know what ‘frogging’ is or what OAP means – this is the post for you. You can find the post here.
Lego DOTS
If you’re looking for a crafty gift or something to keep the kids entertained while you’re cooking then I’d highly recommend Lego DOTS. We only discovered them recently when our daughter Floss was given a set for her sixth birthday. They are perfect for creative kids.
Crafty To Do List
Since the robin needle felting I’ve been poorly and spent a couple of days at the hospital. I’m beginning to get back on my feet but it means I’ve got some crafty things still on my to do list that I really want to get started on.
Firstly, my Mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday. Very excited to get started. It apparently threads your needle for you – sounds too technical for me. I’ll let you know how I get on.
I also got a couple of Artful boxes while they were on sale. They’re sat on my window sill teasing me to open them!
Oh, Mom was on holiday last week so there’s no crafty update from her this week. However, for her birthday we’re doing a lino cutting workshop this weekend so hopefully I’ll have a lino project to show you soon.
Very much looking forward to being healthier and getting more creative time.
Creative wishes, Lisa xx