Alpaca fiber can be felted several different ways. Alpaca fleece works great for felting projects and is our favorite craft. Alpaca wool felts quickly and is very soft.
You can use some of your lesser quality fleece to felt depending on the project and the feel you want. That's whats so great about felting. You are in control of the look and feel of your final product.
You can make money at home with your alpaca fleece feltmaking projects. There are several ways to make money using alpaca fiber and simple craft skills. Read this page to find some money making felting projects that interest you and add another dimension to your alpaca business with alpaca fibre.
You can get some felting books to quickly learn felt making skills. Felting fibers is easy to learn and requires very little supplies. More needle felting books are becoming available, too. Felting is a very versatile craft that will provide you hours of a satisfying hobby.
Interested in starting a home business with your felting abilities? Have lots of fleece to make items with but not sure how to make a home business work? Click Here! to get a comprehensive guide to starting and marketing a craft business.
Now...hold on to your felt hat, 'cause you're in for some exciting felting ideas as you work your way down this page. Let's get felting!
Alpaca Fleece
We have read that alpaca felts slower than sheeps wool but we have found it to felt very fast. Because the fiber is partially hollow, it is lighter and has better insulating properties than sheeps wool.
Alpaca does not have the prickle factor of wool and so most people allergic to wool can wear alpaca.
Because of alpacas qualities, your project will turn out lighter, warmer, and softer than sheeps wool. Even if you use your poorer quality fleece.
Preparing Your Fleece
Hand felting alpaca fiber is very versatile and rewarding. In moments you go from fleece to felt. But first you must prepare the wool by handcarding it into batts.
No need to wash it first if you are going to wet felt it as you use soap during the process. We do
wash our alpaca fleece
if it is destined for dry felting....sometimes. If it will be combined with wet felting then sometimes we don't.
Natural alpaca colors are wonderful but there are no blue or green alpacas that we are aware of so we
hand dye
our alpaca fiber.
Types of Felting
After the fleece is prepared, you can choose to either
wet felt
or dry felt. Or you can combine wet and dry felting in a single project. We think you should check out our
felted rose
and give our free instructions a try. You'll create a beautiful rose using wet and dry felting that you can use to embellish other projects.
And here's a free felt craft project to make using alpaca fiber! An
eyeglass case!
This project is easy and quick to make. You will see how we put initials into felt.
Go to our
felting pattern
page for a free wet felted drawstring purse project from an alpacas wool.
Get our
baby moccasin pattern
to create soft booties for babys feet to sell or give as shower gifts.
A favorite form of felting for us is needle felting. We have sold felted characters on ebay and locally. We have earned enough from felting the fleece to feed and shear our animals for the year.
About half of our needle felted items are sold on ebay. Read our
ebay selling tips
to get your alpaca crafts selling.
But that's not why 3D felting is a favorite. It's just plain fun! This photo shows just some of the characters created with alpacas wool and needle felting.
Watch the following video to see what you need to create with needle felting and some samples of what you can make once you learn the technique.
Would you like to learn how to needle felt a simple head? Follow this
needle felting tutorial
and you will be able to make a head for a felted character.
The instructions on how the
alpaca
in the picture below was needle felted are now available.
Instructions for a needle felted bear was made in three parts. The finished bear is pictured below. Our cat Smokey was hamming it up with the bear for the photo...and so you have Smokey and The Bear!
Visit our "More Felting" page for instruction on needle felting a fawn if you would like to create another critter. Wings and another character are available, too.
We created a dragon and video taped the creation of this character. Visit our
dragon
page to get our DVD.
FELTING SUPPLIES
Now that you have seen some of the projects you can create with needle felting you'll need supplies to get started. Paradise fibers carries felting supplies and books. Click on felting supplies on the menu.
Crocheted or knitted felt has become popular lately. Use wool yarn, crochet or knit your project, then into the washing machine it goes to felt.
Alpaca fiber works fantastic for any type of felting project you choose. Visit my pages on the different types of felting for instructions and examples. Try a couple of felting projects and HAVE FUN!