Assignment 20- Bhoomi Shah

I have loved creating things for a very long time now, even so far as constructing an "art station" in my room when I was younger where I would labor endlessly to make little trinkets and toys. During that period of my life, I worked with a wide range of materials from polymer clay to plaster to casting resin. One of the more challenging materials I have ever worked with is felt. Well, the felt was easy to work with, being soft and fuzzy and all, but shaping it into a dog or a penguin called for a lot of patience and some pain tolerance. Today I'll write about how to needle felt a penguin.

1. Gather some materials. You will need a felting mat (a styrofoam board can work but be warned it will weaken over time and may only last for one project), felt of course (comes in a wide variety of colors- for this project you need black and white only), needles (star tip needle is what I prefer but really there is no difference), a thumb guard (I never used one but I highly recommend it), and a nice long movie.

2. Gather some white felt into a small ball and start poking at it like crazy from all angles to create a rudimentary sphere shape. Takes ten minutes. Then take a multi-needle tool if you have one and start to form the penguin's head. You will stab your fingers multiple times, just accept it.

3. Next, take a larger piece of felt and repeat step 2 but in an oblong shape to make the penguin's body.

4. Take black felt in sparse quantities and slowly wrap some over the penguin's head, creating a wispy pattern at the forehead area. Do not cover the entire head just the back and top portion.

5. Take two long pieces of black felt and for each piece and stab the felt till it lays flat and then takes scissors and cut it into a wing shape. Stab the ends to make the edge look seamless.

6. Take two smaller balls of black felt to create three lines or perforations in the felt to create the appearance of three toes.

7. Finally, take all of the pieces you have made and 'stitch' them together by combining the loose felt strands with your needle. Gather little black pieces of felt for the eyes and attach them to the front portion of the head to complete the penguin. The process may be long but in the end, you have a cute little penguin to place on your bookshelf.