Learn How to Needle Felt

Assorted needle-felted critters study the book _Little Needle Felt Animals_ by Gretel Parker. Clockwise from left, there's a bespectacled black-capped chickadee borb, a male Eastern bluebird borb wearing pipe cleaner glasses sitting on a stack of books, a male Northern cardinal borb also wearing pipe cleaner glasses, a blue little mouse sitting next to some leaning books, and a black little mouse. The stack of books in the background is: _Exploring Raspberry Pi_ by Derek Molloy, _Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science 2nd Edition_by Zelle, _Becoming Steve Jobs_ by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, and _JavaScript: The Good Parts_ by Crockwell. The leaning books from left to right are _Birding for a Better World_ by Feminist Bird Club, _Don't Make Art, Just Make Something_ by Miranda Aisling, _Essential Writings_ by Thich Nhat Hanh, _The Art of Communication_ by Thich Nhat Hanh, and _Nature's Best Hope_ by Douglass Tallamy.

Basic & Bite-size Tutorials

Decorative screen capture of Borb Base tutorial video.

Borb Base

Whether you bought one of our felting kits or just want to start dreaming up your own borbs, you'll want to start here to make a borb base. It's one wool ball with a slightly smaller ball attached on top. If you can make a snowman, you can make a borb.

Decorative screen capture of How to handle wool for needle felting tutorial video.

How to handle wool for needle felting

If you've never worked with felting wool before, get comfortable with this short intro.

Decorative screen capture of How to felt shapes: Part 1 of 2 tutorial video.

How to felt shapes: Part 1 of 2

Learn to add details to borbs (and other felt pieces) with some basic shapes: ball, circle, rectangle.

Decorative screen capture of How to (safely) use a felting needle tutorial video.

How to (safely) use a felting needle

Don't hurt yourself! Felting needles are sharp and fragile (but it sure feels good to stab, doesn't it?) Review best practices on handling felting needles.

Decorative screen capture of How to use a felting surface tutorial video.

How to use a felting surface

Prepare details and protect your surfaces and yourself with the felting pad.

Decorative screen capture of How to felt shapes: Part 2 of 2 tutorial video.

How to felt shapes: Part 2 of 2

Learn to add details to borbs (and other felt pieces) with some basic shapes: cone, triangle, heart.

Decorative screen capture of How to create borb eyes from fiber tutorial video.

How to create borb eyes from fiber

Roll up some soft wool eyes from a pinch of fiber in a jiffy.

Decorative screen capture of How to create borb feets from wire tutorial video.

How to create borb feets from wire

Bend wire into a little V to make cute little feets for the borb's flat underside. (Here borbs don't have feet, they have FEETS!)

What is Needle Felting, anyway?

Needle felting is the craft of sculpting or painting wool using a special barbed needle. Felting needles feature tiny, microscopic barbs that catch the fibers and cause the fibers to tangle together with each poke. The more you poke a felting needle into wool, the more matted and denser it becomes. It's like the opposite of combing your hair.

Wool fiber is soft, flexible, and layerable. As a crafting material, felting wool fiber is both forgiving and obedient. It's perfect for beginners, relaxing and meditative.

Anything you can daydream, you can needle felt.