Top 14 Needle Felting Artists To Be Inspired By

Discover the work of these top needle felting artists using wool in inventive ways

Needle felting, a technique that involves compacting a ball of wool to create different shapes using a spiky needle, is growing increasingly popular.

This is largely thanks to social media, which provides artists with a platform to share and sell their adorable needle felted art toys and other creations.

In this blog post, three Domestika teachers share a list of needle felting artists whose work will inspire you to pick up a needle.

Artists selected by Caro Indy (@caroindy):

Wes Anderson – The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox

Let’s start by talking about Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-motion animation film starring some very charismatic needle-felted animals who stole the hearts of indie film lovers. This film made needle felting very popular, even though Wes didn’t actually make the animals with his own hands. Carolina Alles recommends the book, The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The film is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's classic, a story that Anderson reimagined in 2009 for the enjoyment of a new generation of cinema-goers. The book offers a vast amount of material, such as storyboards and behind-the-scenes photos.

Jenn Docherty

Docherty has been creating beautiful bears for over 15 years. She authored a book that shares 25 designs so that readers can create their own felt animals at home.

TADA'S Revolution

After 12 years as an engineer, the founder of this project left her job to devote herself to creating adorable creatures and photographing them in different settings filled with detail.

Maggie Rudy

Many people consider rodents to be their worst nightmare, but Maggie Rudy creates anthropomorphic mice filled with charm. She constructs them out of felt and presents them in human-like scenarios.

Feltmates

This Flickr profile presents a wide range of animals created using needle felting techniques. It is a great source of inspiration!

Artists selected by droolwool (@droolwool):

Felt Mistress

The mysterious Felt Mistress creates funny felt monsters, as well as experimenting with other materials, such as wood.

Paolo Puk

Fluff Faun's detailed and experimental work, which is both beautiful and disturbing, has amassed tens of thousands of followers.

Hine Mizushima

This Canadian artist is intrigued by human anatomy and sculpts detailed body parts out of felt. On Instagram, she shares photos of their adorable kitten alongside their work.

Ed Mironiuk

Mironiuk’s page is filled with their collection of strange and smiling felt creatures.

Sandra Arteaga

Catalan artist, Arteaga, has a style that manages to be strange, antique-looking, and childish all at the same time!

Artists selected by Juanamatú (@juanamatu)

Gladys Paulus

This textile artist mixes different materials to create their sculptures, which include some very sinister masks!

Kristy Kun

This textile artist uses felt in an innovative way to create abstract sculptures with repeating patterns.

Ata Felting

This is a Colombian brand that uses felt to create warm winter clothing.

Tejidos Rebancá

This Colombian clothing brand embraces traditions from the highlands of Cundinamarca-Boyacá, in the eastern cordillera of the Andes, and produces pieces for communities in Iza Boyacá. They mix fabric with felt to create their clothes and use 100% sheep's wool.

Feeling inspired? Reach for your needle and start felting your own art toys!

English version by @eloise_edgington.

You may also like:

–Basic Materials for Textile Painting
–How to Make a Droplet with Needle Felting
–What Is Embroidery and What Are the Main Types of Embroidery?