Although I haven’t learned to needle-felt yet, I’m told that Babydoll Southdown wool is ideally suited for it. I thought you might like to see some of the wonderful creations being made with the wool from My Little Sheep by needle-felting artists, along with their comments:
Barbara is a very talented needle-felting artist. It’s so much fun for me to see her latest creations, since realistic animals are always a favorite of mine!
About using this fiber for her work, Barbara writes:
“Babydolls have always been a favorite breed of mine. Their cute and unique faces can make anyone smile! Their wool is amazing! It’s soft and lofty properties are just a joy to work with. I have only been felting for a short number of years. In the beginning, I felted with whatever the local store sold (who knows what kind of wool it was). However, I then began to experiment with the different wools from different breeds. I would order a bit of this and a bit of that. It is so interesting to see how each breed of sheep is unique. Each breed offers a different trait, and different character, and even a different color to a felted creation! When I first tried babydoll wool, it was so soft…I wanted to spin it and make a sweater or a pair of socks from it!! Perhaps one day…but back to felting… I have found that it allows me to do the most detail. A feature that I have noticed about babydoll wool is that it holds its form very very well. It can be used to create the finest details when felting. I will use babydoll for my core and detail work. The wool, because of its lofty and spongy properties, seems to also hold the other types of wool in and allow a more detailed surface to be felted. I guess, for lack of a better explanation, it’s a very ‘responsive’ wool. Another feature I love about this wool is its lack of ‘fuzz’. Babydoll does not seem to have the ‘bloom’ or halo that other wools can have. It gives the felting a very clean look. I felt wildlife. My favorite feltings are birds. It is always fun to try and recreate a bird’s feather pattern and display. No matter, if Our Good Lord ever did create a soft, cute, cuddly, and useful sheep, it is the little babydoll! — God bless you all! In the Immaculate, Barbara Springer.”
You can see more of Barbara’s talent by visiting her Feathers In Paint shop.
Keiko wrote:
“I’ve always adored babydoll sheep 🙂 Your babydolls are the cutest with the most wonderful fiber. I just absolutely love working with this fiber–super clean and needle felts extremely well. I’ve worked with other fibers and could never quite get the results I was looking for. I can get so much more detail work done with this fiber 🙂 It’s really extra fun and more exciting when the wool cooperates! Thank you for sharing your amazingly cute and wonderful sheep fleeces!!!”
She sent a couple pictures of what she’d recently played with:
If you’ve never tried needle felting, Keiko has a very helpful fiber tutorial section on her website Needle Felting Tutorials and she plans to add more videos in the future. Keiko raises Suri Alpacas and I found her whole website very enjoyable and interesting to explore.
Angie wrote to say:
“I am SO happy with this wool, and thought I would share a few of the many things I have been working on in this busy holiday season, featuring your beautiful wool. Mostly, it has been a core wool for me so far (as in most of these photos), but makes a great outer wool for the right pieces too (like the white on the deer and on the super tiny dogs in my pictures). I also use Shetland wool all the time, and tried some of the gorgeous samples you sent on these itty bitty dogs, and loved it!”
You can see more of Angie’s artistry at Little Bea Studio
Gina says she doesn’t consider herself an “accomplished” needle-felting artist….but hey, let’s let some of her creations do the speaking for her:
I’d say she’s VERY accomplished, wouldn’t you? Also amazing to me is that these were made with the wool from My Little Sheep! I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that!
Gina explained her process:
“I only added body accents of baby camel fibre in tan and llama fibre for the eyes on those dogs and then the black wool is also your flock’s wool dyed black. So, it’s not only the core, it’s the whole sculpture on those. It is very unique wool and WONDERFUL for needle felting! The extra care you put into carding/cleaning makes it perfect to go right from roving to core to top coat on the wool sculptures. Thank you so much for sharing your flock’s wool! 😀 I love it!”
Gina can be found various places on the internet as RoseThistleArtworks. Thanks so much, Gina!
Kate is both a writer and an artist. As an artist, she draws and then sculpts. I think she has a wonderful ability to convey a fascinating world…just a step beyond reality. What do you think?
Kate’s lion started out with a core of Babydoll wool, then added dyed locks, dyed wool for color, wire armature, and handspun yarn for legs.
Her dragon was made with a core of Babydoll wool, overlaid by dyed wool, felt wings, wool felt, and wire armature.
Kate commented:
“The Babydoll wool has enabled me to create finer features in my sculptures. It felts quickly and holds the shape, requiring less wool overall to create the sculpture. Give it a try and see if Babydoll works for your style of felting. These sculptures match my sketches more closely than ever.”