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Is needle felting easy? Is any wool perfect to use for needle felting? How much wool should I take to make a simple needle felted craft? These are some of the questions that you ask when getting started in needle felting.
Needle felting is one of the most easiest and affordable felting techniques, yet starting a new hobby can be scary. It's easy to make mistakes when you first start needle felting. And getting into needle felting without knowing the answers to the above-mentioned questions can be extremely difficult.
When needle felting, even the tiniest error may ruin an entire project, and there are several frequent errors that beginners make. Well, it is common for beginners to make mistakes. However, avoiding these common mistakes can make your needle felting journey much easier to begin.
Here are 6 of the common mistakes beginner do while getting into needle felting. Read this article to find out what they are and what not to do.
Choosing Wrong Wool
Wool, as we know, comes in varieties and most of us are unaware of it. Different types of wool come from different animals and they each have their distinct properties.
In felting too, different wool is used for different felting methods. And the most common mistake while starting on needle felting is to use whatever wool you have.
For needle felting crafts as a beginner, it is best to use wool that makes needling easy. Coarser wool such as Corriedale or shetland wools makes it easy for needle felting rather than soft, fine wool for a beginner. They are cheaper in comparison to other wool and the coarser texture makes it easy to work upon.
Learn more about different types of wool in our previous blog and understand which wool type is suitable for which felting process.
However, there aren't any hard and fast rules on what sort of wool to use for beginners. You can always experiment with different wool and find the one that works best for you. It is just that coarser wool makes needle felting relatively easy and cheap for beginners.
Using Too Much Or Too Less Wool
The felting process generally includes matting, condensing, and pressing the wool together to form a distinct shape. This means wool roving gets compressed while felting and so is the case with needle felting.
So, it is advised to use a high amount of wool, to begin with, while needle felting or any felting in general. However, the same case is not always the same. You as a beginner sometimes take too much wool at the beginning to make small crafts and you will end up with big crafts.
However, starting with very little wool too makes the needling process time-consuming and boring. But, it is always best to start with less so you can add wool gradually as per your requirement if necessary.
There is no specific rule on how much wool you should take. But you can always learn how much wool you should assume to make a craft by watching our skilled artisans teaching you needle felting for beginners on youtube videos.
Not Focusing On Safety
One of the most common mistakes beginners make is that they completely forget about safety. Needling is an easy felting method so beginners like you tend to compromise on safety while getting into this hobby.
Needle felting uses felting needles that have sharp points with a barbed end to felt the wool into a distinct shape. Experienced needle felters have good control over the needle so they needle felt with bare hands. But as a beginner, if you are not careful, you will eventually poke your finger with the needle. This can lead to bleeding and other severe problems.
You can easily avoid these problems with just a few steps and safety measures. Firstly, you must start slowly and carefully while needle felting. Using felting cushions or pads to work on makes it easier to needle felt.
For beginners, it is also advised to use a finger guide. It is a finger protector that is made of various materials and comes in different sizes that will help while needle felting as a beginner to protect your finger in case of any mishaps.
Safety is one thing that you mustn’t compromise on. Focusing on safety will also help you to get faster at needle felting as you won’t have to worry much about getting hurt while needling the wool.
Starting With Tough/Complex Project
For a novice or learner, the best way to start anything will be to start with simple projects. Starting with complex or difficult projects can be intimidating as the process is relatively hard and you won’t even know the basic way of doing things too.
It is the same with needle felting too. Starting with a complex needling project is hard as you won’t know the basic way to form a shape. So, It is better to start with simple basic shapes before moving on to complex needle felting projects. And the best part is that there are a lot of simple projects that you can start and make fantastic crafts out of such simple projects.
Not only is it easy to learn basic shapes than complex ones, but starting on a tough project might lower your morale to learn this amazing technique. It can be discouraging to you as the result might not be perfect.
It is always best to start from basic. From small balls to basic shapes like hearts and stars, there are many easy projects that you can start with. Learn more about this in our "Let's get crafty series" blog.
You can use these basic needle felted crafts to make other crafts like garland, earrings, etc. We have many tutorials for making such beautiful crafts from basic felt projects. Watch our youtube video to learn more here.
Using The Wrong Needling Technique
By this time you should have probably known that needling is one of the easiest felting techniques to learn. But there are certain techniques to perfect this art and if you don’t do it perfectly, you will encounter various problems.
From breaking your felting needles to imperfection in your felt craft, the wrong needling technique will land you into various problems. One such mistake is felting too deep.
Felting too deep is one of the wrong techniques that beginners do. As needles have barbs at the tip, short quick stabs will do the work. Stabbing too deep and needling sideways can break your felting needle. These needles are specially made for this specific purpose and once they are damaged, you can not reuse them.
Another wrong technique is to stab the felt sideways with a needle. If the needle bends while needling, it means that you are poking diagonally. This is the wrong way to needle-felt. Therefore, you should always needle-felt vertically.
More of such wrong needling technique includes not felting firmly enough. Needling firmly will make your craft look solid. However, not felting firmly makes your needle felted craft look fuzzy and unfinished.
Thus you need to have patience in the beginning. And once you learn to do it correctly, you will know how easy it is to make crafts using the needling technique.
Being Impatient
Being impatient is one of the basic mistakes that every beginner do while starting on anything. We get annoyed easily and tend to give up on things at the beginning. However, needle felting is a time-consuming process and it requires some of your patience.
It is the same with needle felting too. Starting with a complex needling project is hard as you won’t know the basic way to make a shape. So, It is better to start with simple basic shapes before making complex needle felting projects. You can later use these basic shapes to make other craft projects too. You can learn more about them here.
Being impatient also leads to most of the mistakes that we’ve mentioned above. From hurting yourself to breaking needles and having imperfect crafts, being impatient will lead you to multiple mistakes through this one mistake.
It is normal not to get your crafts perfect on the first try so you should start with simple crafts before starting on a complex project. And never compare your craft to other crafts made by people who have been needle felting for years. Also, check out our beginner's guide to how to felt where you will learn basic things about not just needle felting methods and techniques but their felting methods too.
So these are 6 of the rookie needle felting mistakes that you do while starting out learning the needle felting technique.
Needle felting is a fun activity to learn and to make different crafts using wool roving and a few needle felting kits. And if you can avoid the above-mentioned beginner's mistake, you can easily get into the needle felting.
So are you willing to get into needle felting? Or have you already started the needle felting journey? Comment us your experience while starting on learning needle felting. Also, make sure to check our website and Etsy shop to buy hundreds of needle felted crafts.