NEEDLE FELTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALPACA

Follow these needle felting instructions for using alpaca wool and you can create unique three dimensional characters.

Alpaca VS Sheeps Wool

The instructions for using alpaca wool is only slightly different than using sheeps wool.

First, you must use more fleece. Because alpaca wool is much finer than sheep, it takes more to get the same volume. Second, you will have to needle it longer than sheeps wool...but not much. Third, you need to roll it really tight and remove the air from it or you will be needling a lot.

If you remember these three needle felting instructions, your characters will turn out great using alpaca fleece. They will be much softer than even merino wool.

Preparing the Alpaca wool for Needle Felting

It is preferable to wash the alpaca fleece if you are going to start from raw fiber. It's just nicer to work with and your characters will be clean. Then you must card it into batts to use.

Or you can purchase already cleaned and carded batts.

Needle Felted Art Dolls

Making needle felted art characters is a blast! Start by rolling your carded fleece tightly. Use a foam pad underneath your felting project.

The tighter you roll, the less needling you will have to do.

Use a 36 triangle barbed needle and jab the alpaca fleece over and over until it begins to felt and becomes firm but not too hard.

Below is a short video demo of needle felting. The wool is being held tentatively. Those fingers have been poked more than once.

That's really all there is to needle felting. You begin forming different shapes to make characters. Be careful of the needles. They are very sharp and hurt when you poke yourself.

We use a wire frame with a lot of our characters. Needle felting instructions for this are only slightly different. Instead of rolling a shape, you wrap the alpaca wool tightly around the wire frame and then needle it into place.

This nurse was created with a wire frame and we added pose-able hands. To learn how to make these hands, send for a free report by filling out the form below. Your information will not be given out or sold. We don't appreciate our information being sent to others without our permission and we figure you don't either.

Creating Pose-able Hands
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Creating hands can be seen in this three part needle felting hands video demonstration.

Stay tuned for more needle felting instructions as this site grows.

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