I am involved in the ancient art of needle-felting.
All my items are made of pure wool. To make a necklace, I begin
with a small tuft of wool and begin to felt it on a foam pad with a
wooden handled needle. I keep poking the felt until I form a small
bead. I continue to felt the bead until it is dense. When the bead is finished, I then take
other pieces of colored wool, and needle into the bead a design.
Each bead is individually made and then designed. My necklaces
have as many as 11 beads, but I also make necklaces with a single wool
bead. I string my necklaces on sterling silver or round leather
cord. I use sterling silver or vermeil toggle clasps. My
purses and handbags are done the same way, except with large amounts of
wool layered 5 times to make the piece well-built and strong.
I also use felt punches which have 10-12 needles per punch to felt
the wool. After the piece is finished, I then needle-felt a design
into the finished product. I then "wet" felt the whole
piece to make the wool dense. All purses and handbags are lined
and have either a zipper or snap closure.
