felt candy cane tutorial

this is an easy and fast way to make felt candy canes, felting around pipe cleaners to create the shape. i first posted this tutorial on my blog, felt cafe; thanks gina for inviting me share it here!

no previous felting experience is necessary; this would be a lot of fun for older kids. for younger children, you could wrap the wool around the pipe cleaners and/or get them started, and have the kids do the last steps (roll them in soapy water).

this tutorial is a sneak preview of part of a holiday felt making kit that i will have in my etsy shop after thanksgiving. UPDATE 11/25: thanks to everyone who has commented, in response to popular demand, you can now purchase these felt candy canes from my etsy shop as a custom order. feel free to share this tutorial, i would like to please just ask that you credit me and the felt cafe blog, thank you!~

you will need some pipe cleaners (cut in half) and some wool roving. the amount pictured is about 1/8 of an ounce, which is enough to make at least 2 candy canes. you also need dish soap, hot water, a shallow waterproof dish, and a towel on hand.

take a strip of white wool. starting at one end, wrap the wool tightly around the pipe cleaner.

overlapping the wool, wrap the wool diagonally along the pipe cleaner, working your way to the other end.
make sure to completely cover the end.
wrap back in the other direction, making 2 layers. when you reach the first end, turn around and wrap a final 3rd layer of wool
completed 3 layers of white wool wrapped around half a piper cleaner. if you've wrapped it tightly, it will be easier to felt in the following steps. some unevenness in the layers of wool at this point will not be a problem.
take one strip of red wool roving, about 1 and a half times longer than the white wool wrapped pipe cleaner.
wrap the red wool once or twice around one end.

and then wrap the red strip diagonally along the length of the pipe cleaner, leaving white spaces that are the same width as the red spaces.
wrap the red wool one or two times around the end.
wool wrapping completed.

put a little hot soapy water in a dish, and roll the wool in it. using your fingertips or palms, roll the wool back and forth, as if you were making a clay snake.
the fibers will begin to join together. continue to roll the wool.
you can continue to work the wool: hold the stick in one hand as shown, and close your other hand around it. keeping your hands flat, rub it between your palms. you can keep working the wool as you gradually rinse out the soap.

your felt candy cane will probably have stretched a little past the wire and become longer. if you want flat ends, you can trip them off with a scissors, being careful to cut beyond the end of the wire.
bend to make a candy cane shape.

you can use the same process to make larger or smaller candy canes, or peppermint sticks (just don't bend them), or twist them into a circle for napkin rings or tiny decorative wreaths.

have fun, and i would love to hear any feedback!

Needle Felt Team Challenge Collage - Halloween Theme - August 2008

Here's a compilation of all entries in the NFEST August Needle Felting Challenge. (Click on the image to see it in Large View). Please search for the "NFEST" tag at http://www.etsy.com to view more great creations by other talented members of the Needle Felters Etsy Street Team!

Featured Artists:
Ben McFuzzylugs, Candid Studios, Glass Dragon Bears Etc, Gypsy Harte, Handwork Naturals, Karen Krafts, Knits and Notions, Orit Dotan Dolls, Pit Bull Lady Designs, Shisie, Squeezles Galore, Tecopia, Tizib, Violet Moon Fairy

Check out our July Felting Challenge entries!

Check out our June Felting Challenge entries!

Check out our May Felting Challenge entries!

Mini Monday: Mary Jane's Attic

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Maryjanesattic.etsy.com

Enjoy beautiful fiber and needlefelting supplies from Mary Jane's Attic!

Mini Monday: RoseThistleArtworks

Etsy Buy Handmade RoseThistleArtworks

Welcome to our new feature--Mini Monday! Every Monday we will feature one shop owner from the NFEST Team on Etsy. Today it's our fearless leader, the founder of the Needlefelters on Etsy Team, Gina of RoseThistleArtworks!

Check out our April Felting Challenge entries!

Needlefelting to Treasure

Enjoy this terrific treasury of needlefelted goodies, curated by our own Thinkoutsidethebox.

Check out our March Felting Challenge entries!

Neat new stuff

A quick perusal of the NFEST tag at Etsy found...

A very cool needlefelted griffin by Blackberry Downs


Julie Persons' fabulous teal needlefelted flower pin



Lady Spring needlefelted sculpture by FaerieRebecca (hey, that's me!)



Rose Thistle Artworks' lovely custom horse woolitures, made just for you



A spooky needlefelted white pumpkin with a skull face by DraigAthar

There are many more talented fiber artists selling on Etsy--do be sure to check them out!

FREE Needle Felting Tutorial

Welcome Needle Felters,
FaerieRebecca of http://faerierebecca.etsy.com/ has invited me to write some posts for the NFEST blog. Thank-you Rebecca!

Allow me to begin by introducing myself: My name is Linda Utz. My Etsy shop is http://needlefeltingfans.etsy.com/ I have been felting for about 6 months now and having a ball with it. It is so much fun to see a clump of fluffy Wool become a felted work of artistic creation. So much can be created with Wool as our medium.

I am a member of the Wonderful Google group called 'Needlefelters'. You can visit the group here: 'Needlefelters Group'

OK enough introductions. On to the good stuff... :-)

I was visiting a lot of our members websites and blogs yesterday and found some wonderful goodies for us needle felters.

Today I would like to share a Wonderful tutorial I found on Charlotte's Creative Web . It is called 'Needle Felted Mystery Critter with Wire Armature Tutorial'.

I don't know about the rest of you but I have never felted over a wire armature before. Charlotte's instructions and pictures are very easy to follow and make it look so easy. I will have to give it a go and see how mine turns out. :-)

Just a couple pictures to wet your appetite :-)



Charlotte says this basic wire armature can be used to create a wide assortment of critters.

Thank-you Charlotte for this Grrrreat Tutorial.

Charlotte has other wonderful tutorials and goodies on her blog. You can visit her blog here:

Charlotte's Creative Web

Charlotte also has an Etsy shop:

http://charlottesweb.etsy.com/

Shop Etsy shops for all your felting and crafty needs.

It's good etsy karma!

Have fun felting!

Till next time,

Etsy One Million Picture Challenge

We all know that there are thousands of talented artists on Etsy with millions of gorgeous things for sale. Now there's a challenge to get us all to showcase our beautiful items through the Etsy One Million Pictures challenge on Flickr. The challenge is to see how many pictures each Street Team can upload to the pool. So, get your photos up on the NFEST Flickr site, then tag them with NFEST and share them with the Million Photo Challenge group. Let's get NFEST artisans the attention we deserve!

Welcome to Stab-a-Lot Lane!

You've found us--the home for needlefelting artisans selling our creations on Etsy! This blog is just getting up and running, so come back often to learn more about our members, participate in NFEST contests, and discover the joy of needlefelting.