Fiber Types, Colors, & Blending
Both natural and synthetic fibers can be used in needle felting. Wool is the most common, but cotton, silk, bamboo, camel, alpaca, and viscose are also available, each adding unique aspects. Abundant color tints, shades, and tones create endless options.
Corriedale and Merino are the most abundant wool felting fibers on the market. Corriedale sheep’s wool is coarse with a texture easily caught by felting needles. It quickly felts and is helpful for broad applications with less detail. Wool from Merino sheep is much finer, aligned in one direction during processing, and softer to the touch, making it ideal for detailed work. Merino is easily blended, enabling endless color variations and gradations.
For one of my exhibits, I created an instructional display comparing 17 different types, textures, and thicknesses (measured in Microns) of commercially available white fiber.
Color blending Merino fibers is one of my favorite aspects of needle felting. All my pieces utilize some amount of blending to create unique colors and gradual hue changes, especially when felting skies and water. I blend using a pair of large hand carders and a custom formulaic process I developed to achieve the desired outcome for each piece.
Another one of my instructional displays includes a color-blending example that began with five dark-to-light blue tones of Merino hand-carded into 17 and needle-felted in layers for a gradual color change effect. I blended each pairing using ratios of 1:3, 2:2, and 3:1, resulting in 12 blends to add to the initial 5 colors.
I create the blends using hand carders, which are wooden paddles covered in wire teeth used for fiber preparation. When carding Merino wool, the long, delicate fibers are aligned and mixed as they are brushed and transferred from one card to another. Air and loft are introduced, and the fibers begin to adhere lightly, creating a soft, subtle blend of color.
(1) Tuarag—Feltrite Fibers; 19M (Microns)
(2) Dark Cyan—Sue’s Country Creations; 23M
(3) September—Sarafina Fine Arts; 19M
(4) Sunrise—Sarafina Fine Arts; 19M
(5) Baby Blue—Living Felt; 16M
