Needle Felted Landscapes

In this 3 hour class, we’ll walk through step by step how to create an 8”x10” needle felted landscape ready to be framed- no experience necessary! From creating a compelling composition to “mixing” colors to creating different shapes & textures to execute your ideas, I’ll demonstrate general needle felting techniques to get started then we’ll experiment and play together!

Bring an image or two of a landscape that you’d like to create in wool or a sketch to work from.

I recommend having a couple to choose from, in case one ends up working better than the other. It works well to have the photo either printed or on an ipad or something. You can also have it on your phone. Another option is a sketch if you’d like to work from your imagination.

When selecting the reference photo, I’ve learned a couple of things:

-Keep the shapes simple. If the photo is too detailed, it’s difficult to execute efficiently in wool. I like sunsets, clouds, rolling hills, fields, lakes and photos with distinct horizons and big shapes. Trees are fun, but easy to get lost in, so it’s best to limit their quantity. Reflections on water can be challenging.

-Feel free to take elements from multiple photos: a sky from this photo, a lake scene from a different photo.

-A landscape painting, an image in your mind, a sketch or working abstractly also work great!

-For now, I recommend selecting a nature scene and leaving out an image with buildings, people, animals or similar.