Felting birds

For Christmas i got the Kirsty Allsop Craft book and a clover tool and mat as i saw some really cute robins on Kirsty's show and really wanted to try the craft for myself.

I have never done felting before but it looked like fun and wanted a stab at it (lol felting joke). Felting is done by layering small pieces Marino wool tops and then stabbing through the fibres of the wool into the felt to bind the two elements together using your felting tool and matt.

After cutting out a bird shape i got to work building up my robin with my different colours of wool, after a while you will have your robin covered, but it will need a trim as the wool fibres will be spread out beyond the shape of the robin. As this was a simple shape and colour i just used one piece of felt and punched either side of the robin making sure that the colour bleed was the same each side so they matched when i was punching through the bird.  On my later birds the colours were a bit more difficult to match through so i made two identical bird but mirror images of themselves, then used the felting tool to punch through the two birds and fuse these together.

Next was to make two wings and a beak then punch these into the bird after i had covered these in wool too, the Kirsty's Robin was finished off with a feather in its tail and a bead for an eye which were the only 2 things sew into the bird.

I found the robin simple to do and wondered if i could do better and while working in the kitchen i was admiring a blue tit and chaffinch that was visiting our new bird feeder and thought they looked a little more interesting than a simple robin and got my tool and matt out and tried making them.  Here's my results i don't think they look to bad and i think i have the felting bug now.