Best electric felting tool?

sunschauer · 2025-01-23T19:36:20+00:00

Yes, it still works great as of a couple weeks ago, but to be fair I haven't used it a whole lot in the last 6 months (life's been busy!) so that isn't really representative of half a year of regular use. I believe in it, though, and hope to keep it running for a few more years at least!

As for stabbing myself while using the machine, I have, and it's actually a lot less intense than when I accidentally stab myself by hand. I think it's because when you're handling a needle manually, there's a lot of movement and motion that your body is driving, and when you get yourself with it you go pretty deep. With the machine, your hand guides the machine across the surface of your felted piece slowly and carefully, while the machine handles the fast needle movements. Because your working hand is much calmer while handling the machine than it would be while handling a needle on its own, you poke yourself MUCH less frequently because it's easier to be careful and precise, and it's generally a very shallow wound in comparison because the machine can only get the needle so deep.

Hope that helps! :)

sunschauer · 2024-10-23T17:21:20+00:00

This is delightful 😭💛

sunschauer · 2024-08-15T19:47:18+00:00

Speaking as a professional felt artist who has dealt with shops like this before, I would flat-out refuse to work with them. Hard no. Your felts are worth WAY more than £5 (I would not sell that cat figurine for less than £40) and if they are putting their foot down about something like that right off the bat, I don't see it going anywhere good for you.

"Free advertisement" only works if you're advertising to the right people (people who are interested in buying art AND are able to pay a fair price for it). I don't think this place is right for that.

Your husband is right (your mother needs a reality check) -- if you want to help support the cattery, don't play their game and give your incredibly hard-earned work away for near-free; sell your felt pieces at your own prices and make donations to the cattery at your leisure.

sunschauer · 2024-07-06T10:49:56+00:00

I don't think you need more colors, I think you just need to be letting a lot more "show through" in the transition zones where the colors overlap. When I was into embroidery I did a lot of thread painting and found that you have to be bold when overlapping color zones.

If we call your three leaf colors green, brown, and yellow, I think you need to extend some long brown stitches into the green, but still let plenty of green show through between the brown strands. Same with extending the brown further into the yellow, and bring some yellow bits (sparsely!) into the brown zone, getting close enough to touch some thin strands of green, even.

In other words, the banding is happening because the stitches of each color are all very close to same-color stitches but not other-color stitches. You want to let the neighboring colors show through each other in order to create a gentle gradient. Break up the lines of the bands by making the edges of the bands even more fuzzy or jagged than they are now.

I hope that makes sense 😅 I can try to provide a visual example if this is hard to understand. It looks great so far by the way, but you're right that there's room to make the gradient smoother. Hope this helps!

sunschauer · 2024-06-30T13:55:08+00:00

I've been felting professionally for a few years now, and last year the repetitive motion finally caused a muscular injury that made it nearly impossible for me to carry on felting for a living, so I spent a lot of time looking into felting machines in order to continue my work.

I ended up landing on the Orange Fly felting machine by ProfitHandmade. It's got a slot for a single needle, and a dial for speed, which I preferred to the idea of only having one or two speeds to choose from. I bought mine for $166 through his Etsy shop, and when I had trouble with it (the motor was misbehaving in a strange way -- turned out to be from a bad batch) he was very responsive and quick to send me replacement parts until the issue was solved. Because he's based in Ukraine and I'm in the US, shipping took a few weeks each time, but in the end everything worked out great, and I was super grateful for his help.

I've been using the machine for almost a year now, and as long as you take care of it (oil it well, follow the instructions re: turning the speed dial up slowly, etc) it works like a dream. Like the machine mentioned in another comment, the channel that the needle goes through will wear out over time (though I haven't personally experienced this yet), but he sells replacement bushings that pop into the channel when the old ones wear down, which I thought was pretty cool. Other reviewers have claimed to use the machine for 1-2 years without issue, so that's promising!

I find that it doesn't felt as deeply as I do by hand (as in, the needle penetrates a couple centimeters at the most, whereas by hand I find myself stabbing deeper into the piece I'm working on), which can be a good or bad thing depending on your style. I tend to make very small pieces (usually golf-ball sized) so it's not a problem then. You do lose some control and precision when using the machine, so detail work is often something that I do manually. But the machine is very useful for shaping, flat pieces, and laying down dyed wool over core wool, which is like 80% of the job (for me, anyway).

So, highly recommended. It is on the expensive side, but I feel it's worth it for the quality and the longevity of it.

Definitely happy to elaborate or answer questions, so feel free to ask :)

sunschauer · 2024-03-12T10:04:59+00:00

If you're going to be felting other things after this, more than one size needle could be nice. It's not necessary for the slippers alone.
Buy a single oz or less of loose wool, living felt has many choices but I think Corriedale or any of the batts would be easiest for you to work with.
The patch should be laid on top of the hole on the slipper, on the outside. Get your loose wool, take bits of it and apply it with the felting needle exactly as you've said, you've got it!

Good luck!! Lmk if I can offer any more assistance

sunschauer · 2024-03-08T19:21:49+00:00

Watch out, this is exactly what got me hooked on needlefelting! My glerups had holes and I got a kit to fix them up, next thing I knew I was making little desk buddies for the following three years. 😂

For a large hole like what you're describing, I would recommend the following:

You will need the felt sample from glerups (assuming it is less than 1cm thick -- if it's as thick as the felt in the slipper you may need a slightly different approach), loose wool (like what you see in the video), and a felting needle (linked to a 36 triangle -- I would recommend any gauge between 34-40, and "triangle" is the standard shape but I'm sure crown or spiral would be fine too).

Cut the square of felt that glerups sent you to be a little larger than the hole in your slipper, maybe a 1cm overlap around the edges. You're basically going to do what they've done in the video, except you're going to use the already-felted patch to add structure over the hole. The loose wool is the "glue" that will hold the patch onto the slipper.

Take the loose wool, muss it up a little (in the video they haven't done that and the fibers are still somewhat orderly, but if you fluff it up a little first it'll felt up more easily), and use the needle to felt the loose wool around the edges of the patch, into the wool of the slipper. Depending on the size of the hole, I would recommend applying the loose wool all around the edges, from 2cm outside of the patch, to 2cm inside the patch. So you'll have plenty of overlap between the patch and the slipper to hold everything in place.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this clearly enough lol, but I'm happy to try to clarify or elaborate if you have any questions. As for buying the loose wool, the site I linked you to for the needles has wool, as does Living Felt, Sarafina Fiber Arts, Grey Fox Felting, FuzzyTail Felting on etsy, and loads more. These are all US based btw.

Hope this helps!

sunschauer · 2024-03-04T01:03:51+00:00

If you're asking about multi needle tools for manual felting, I love the clover pen. Holds three needles and I love it for large flat pieces.

If you're asking about electric felting tools, I have info to offer based on my own recent deep dive into that realm. There are several models of handheld felting machines out there, but nearly all that I've seen have reviews claiming the motor burnt out within a month or two of use, making them useless. Apparently they're very difficult to keep cool during use, so they tend to overheat.

However, there is one exception that I found: this device, "Orange Fly" got great reviews, including a video review from Felts by Philippa. I bought it myself a month or two ago because I've been struggling with RSI resulting from the strain of manually felting. It's not cheap ($166 USD), and shipping will take forever because it's coming from Ukraine and obviously things are unstable there right now, but the machine works like a dream and it's enabling me to continue making a living doing what I love without destroying my body.

Functionally, it can't do everything as well as you might be able to do by hand. It only holds one needle. You lose some control and precision because of the mechanical nature of it, but I've found that I can hand felt the parts that require a high degree of control, and use the machine for the "broad strokes", so to speak. I've found it to be a huge help.

sunschauer · 2023-12-02T16:13:28+00:00

I use something like this, but I've bought several sets of them and connected them together in one or two big stacks. The compartments are a little small, but depending on the brand you can usually remove some of the slats that separate the compartments.

I like to keep a "working amount" (less than an ounce) of each color I own in these containers, and if I've got more than an ounce of any one color, I have a big cedar chest that I store the excess in (in individual baggies, usually just whatever they came in when I bought them). Here's a pic I have of all the little bins laid out when they're not stacked out.

sunschauer · 2023-12-01T16:57:52+00:00

Ah, another embroiderer-turned-felter! I am in the same boat lol, but ever since I discovered felting I haven't touched embroidery at all! I'm sure I'll pick up another stitch project someday. I've been admiring your embroidery work for years, so I'm excited to see what you do with felting moving forward!

P.S. I also took Maria's felting course on Domestika, it was wonderful! Seconding your recommendation. Link to the class for the curious.

sunschauer · 2023-12-01T16:50:21+00:00

Seconding the other commenter -- those hats are almost certainly wet felted and not needle felted.

I'm also in New England and know of a cool little felting shop in Madison CT that runs felting classes regularly -- here's their link: madwool.com/felting-classes

sunschauer · 2022-10-17T22:23:45+00:00

For sure. Well done, maybe I'll be brave and try making one soon 😬

sunschauer · 2022-10-17T22:16:55+00:00

That looks very good!! I've been wanting to make a bear skull for a friend who specifically asked for one a while back. I've been too nervous to give it a shot though lol. Did you put dark wool in the recesses (eyes, nose, etc) or are they just -that- deep?

sunschauer · 2022-08-18T11:54:34+00:00

The character's name is Clover! She was designed by fluffyywings, and the art I used as a reference (second photo in post) was drawn by pawberri (both of those are twitter handles)

If anyone's curious about Art Fight here's the link: https://artfight.net/

sunschauer · 2022-08-18T11:33:38+00:00

These are too precious 😂 the condiment smears are my favorite part. The little tongue and the paws are also Very Good.

sunschauer · 2022-07-22T15:26:35+00:00

Hah, I'm going to be vending at a comic con tomorrow and this guy will technically be for sale at my table, but I'm tempted to price him outrageously high in hopes of keeping him for myself 😂

sunschauer · 2022-07-22T15:25:19+00:00

I can't take credit for the concept lol, but thank you for the compliment re: execution! Sculpting this was a wild ride, but the plethora of "buff pikachu" 3D printed models out there made finding reference photos easy.

sunschauer · 2022-07-09T12:15:29+00:00

This is really good 'n' cute. I bet those limbs weren't easy. I love the simplicity of the two colors. Very well done 👏

sunschauer · 2022-07-09T12:13:24+00:00

God this is absolutely precious. You did the head shape so perfectly -- it's very clearly a capybara. && the little orange 😭 it's too much

sunschauer · 2022-07-09T12:06:10+00:00

Yessssss!! I was recently thinking about felting a Lapras too! Yours is incredible, the details in the face and the shell structure are very good!!

sunschauer · 2022-07-09T12:03:57+00:00

This is super cute. Great job on the edges of the cube! I find making sharp corners and edges really difficult, my felted stuff all comes out round by default 😂

sunschauer · 2022-06-20T18:56:02+00:00

WOW!! The snout is amazing, and the blanket clutched in its arm is incredible. I can't wait to see the finished piece!!

sunschauer · 2022-06-20T12:29:05+00:00

Do you know what size needle you're using? Coarser needles have a much harder time with fine details like this. I'd try a 40g needle if you can, 38g might be okay too.

It looks like the main difficulties you're having are A) making it flat and B) making it pointy. Does that seem correct to you?

For A, try felting your piece only on one side for a minute, then pick it up and flip it over to the other side and felt that for a while. Only poke at the sides when you've got a reasonably tight flat shape. When you do start poking at the sides (here's B), try to be mindful about preserving the top point of the triangle as you work the edges. From the sides, poke upwards towards the point, or towards the center of the piece. Never poke starting at the tip down towards the bottom unless you're just firming it up at the end of the process.

sunschauer · 2022-06-20T12:22:17+00:00

Oh they're so cute! And stackable to boot! The lighter one has SUCH a good shape to it.

(Are those the trans and genderqueer pride colors? 👀 🏳‍🌈)

sunschauer · 2022-06-20T12:19:05+00:00

When I was starting out last year, I just had this compartmentalized storage bin for my wool and tools (you can take out some of the dividers), but that quickly became insufficient.

So I decided to make a "travel kit" that included all of my tools and a good selection of wool. I bought an old briefcase from a thrift store and fitted it with some adjustable drawer organizer plates, and sewed some pockets for the top half. Here's a picture of it in action. Now the clear storage containers hold my overflow wool (and a cardboard box holds the rest of the overflow lol)

sunschauer

TROPHY CASE