Book Review – Needle Felted Tapestries

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With my Felting / Fulling tutorial and Edgewater bag pattern, I’ve been in a bit of a felting phase recently. Needle felting is a whole different kind of felting. When done on a flat surface, I’ve heard it referred to as painting with wool. With this technique you can create stunning tapestry designs, like the one pictured on the cover of Needle Felted Tapestries by Neysa Russo.

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Needle felting?

If you’re new to this technique, this book will help you get started. Part one explains in detail how needle felting works, and what materials you will need. I particularly like the budget friendly ideas for using items you already have at home, and for making your own roller. Also included in this section are a discussion on creating your own designs for needle felting, and on caring for your finished pieces.

Wet felting too!

Wet felting is the technique I used for Edgewater. It involves wetting/washing a fabric to compress and felt the fibers. This book uses wet felting as well, as a finishing technique for the needle felted projects. It’s done in a different way though, taking much more care to preserve the shape and surface design.

But I can’t draw…

I’m right there with you. I can sometimes draw a straight line with a ruler, but that’s about where my drawing skills end. The book only contains a few templates, and they are mostly for cutting out shaped projects rather than for the felted designs. Rather, the author steps you through each design in such a way that, even without drawing skills, you can recreate them freehand.

With lots of clear images, you can see how the designs come together, piece by piece. The patterns progress from easy to harder, building confidence as you go.  After several flat designs, there are a few that incorporate 3-dimensional shapes. There is also a section on creating human faces. Rather than a step by step design, it discusses the general shapes and shading techniques needed to create any face you like.

A focus on techniques

Needle Felted Tapestries is not so much a specific book of patterns to recreate. It reads more like a study of needle felting, with a variety of gorgeous projects as practice exercises. Each project teaches specific techniques or concepts that can be applied to creating your own woolen masterpieces!

Enter to win

Ready to give it a try?  You can enter here to win your own copy of Needle Felted Tapestries! This prize is generously provided by the publisher, Stackpole Books. To be eligible, you must be 18 years of age or older, with a valid, US or Canadian shipping address. The winner will be contacted by email, and must reply to that email and provide the shipping address within 1 week in order to receive the prize. If the winner does not reply within 1 week, a new winner will be selected.

The giveaway ends on March 16th, 2018 (at 11:59pm, central time). Hurry and enter below! 

Disclaimer: A free review copy of Needle Felted Tapestries was provided by Stackpole Books. Although I accept free products for review, I do not guarantee a positive review. My reviews are based entirely on my honest opinions. All images of copyrighted material are used with permission.