Tag: felted mobile

felted mobile, needle felting, Uncategorized

A Bespoke Nursery Mobile

amandafelting

I love it when I get custom requests as it really grows me creatively. I have made a sheep mobile before (see earlier blog posts) but something so far has prevented me from offering it to the world. When asked if I made needle felted baby mobiles from someone who had seen my work at a craft fair, I jumped at the chance to make one. It is something that has been simmering at the back of my brain to do for a while now.

We messaged via Instagram direct messages to discuss a theme and colour scheme. I have quite a collection of British and merino wools and was able to show a few possible colour combinations before we arrived at a chosen colour palette.

My client wanted an underwater theme so we discussed her favourite creatures and then I started work on a few shapes to show her. I made a couple extra than I knew was going to fit on the mobile to provide choice, and because I was having so much fun making them!

some sea creatures in the making…

These shapes were felted using Shetland batt wool. Once I checked that my client was happy with the way things were going, I began to get creative with the finished designs, adding colour , pattern and features. I love watching their characters emerging!

Favourites were selected (which ones would you have chosen?)

Next step was to choose a mobile frame. For my sheep mobile I hand wove strips of willow. I wanted to turn to my fellow creatives for this one though and researched some frames from Etsy sellers. I showed my client some options and this gorgeous wooden handcrafted one was selected.

Stringing them up using the unbleached string provided with the mobile, was a lot easier than I anticipated and I soon had a complete mobile to show.

All done, photographs taken, videos made, it was time to box it up. And as the client was local, ready for collection!

Custom orders

If you would like me to work with you to make a cute and quirky, bespoke hand made and felted mobile, maybe you are expecting yourself or a grandparent-to-be, please get in touch. I would love to chat ideas with you! Please complete the contact form or find and message me on social media.

@feltfabulousgifts

felted mobile, needle felting

Getting there with my sheep mobile!

amandafelting

 It’s taking shape…

So I weaved some willow hoops, I used up all the sticks I’d soaked and ended up making three.

(Probably should have soaked the sticks for longer but I was soaking them in the bath and the youngest needed a shower!)

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It was time to start attaching the felted sheep and clouds.

Sheep and clouds went onto the larger hoop first.

Then I attached the two hoops together ( this was the tricky part- balanced and level being hard to achieve) .

The stars threaded easily onto the invisible thread. In the last post I wrote about being unable to thread them with the ribbon, must have been the finer needle I was able to use, and attached two to the upper, smaller hoop.

The sheep, clouds and stars are now on three levels. Not my original intention but it makes sense right?

I’d made three stars but I think it will have to be two or four now to achieve balance…?

It’s something I’ll come back to, sometimes you need to step away from a project and come back with fresh eyes.

I also need to obviously trim the ribbons and neaten it up that way, in case your thinking  “she’s left it a bit messy looking”.. but will leave that to the very end.

Anyone else out there making a mobile? How’s it going for you?

I’ll keep you posted guys…

Thanks for reading! x

needle felting

Making a felted sheep mobile

amandafelting

Making progress…

So I needle felted the parts of the mobile a while ago. I love making Herdwick sheep using Herdwick wool and I thought that some mini ones would be just right for a mobile. Counting sheep to get to sleep and all that.

I also made some clouds and added mohair fleece to make the texture curly and fluffy.

Stars were the final felted item, I actually used soya bean top which I’d bought in my exploration of vegan alternatives to wool. I found this really tricky to needle felt with but really love the finished result. All golden and super soft.

I left this project for a while, unsure of what to thread them onto the mobile with and mulling over the general structure. As you can see from the cloud picture, I went with white ribbon in the end. This threaded through my felted makes surprisingly easily , until I got to my soya bean stars!

No way would that needle and ribbon get through. I’m trying invisible thread next I think.

I also need to get up into that loft to get some willow sticks down to weave some hoops.

I’ll hopefully post soon with an update.

Thanks for reading!