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Monday, August 06, 2007

Totoro gets Needle Felted


Well here it is, my first needle felting project after Howard the Hedgehog's eyes...Totoro pincushion.
A while back I was obsessed with pincushions. In Hawaii, the humidity causes pins to rust so what to stuff them with was an issue. I heard of using human hair and actually got one in pincushion exchange. I ended up using a lot of fiberfill which actually works okay. I read it dulled the pins, though. Then my sister sent me a bunch of cleaned, carded wool and that was my favorite. She also sent me a kit where the roving is lumped into balls and tied in a pantyhose, then felted in the machine. I made a bunch of these balls and used one of them for the base of my pincushion.
I covered the ball with some lovely wool/silk roving that Opal gave me, then used bits of yarn and roving to make the rest. I haven't found a piece of foam to try my hand at freeform, 3-D needel felting, but hope to work up to some like sildeth's little gems.
The little lacquer box held a pincushion that I sacrificed as it was not stuffed enough.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How cool is that? I wouldn't have even thought it was a pincushion, it looks like a wall hanging.

I've been having a lot of problems with rusty pins lately. It's so strange but they seem to rust only at the point where it pierces the pincushion. Not the part exposed to air and not the part that is actually in the cushion.

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize it was a pincushion right away! It's so cute Barb!

debbie said...

pretty and functional - how neat is that! i love it!

Anonymous said...

That's so cute! Man, I can't get enough of totoro, which I plan to work on this Fall. Definitely.

Anonymous said...

Its adorable!

Rachel said...

Oh, that's just too cute! What a great idea!

Opal said...

It came out beautifully! I love what you did with the roving.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I sure had to look twice - or more - to realize that this is a pincushion! How very, very cute it is, absolutely adorable in fact! What an awesome idea!

Aim said...

That is a very cute pincushion!!! How neat is that?! I love the whole wooly felty thing, and I love the owl :)

Anonymous said...

That is so cool! I love it.