The best thing about making custom toppers is that each project allows me to try something new or different. That means there is a lot trial and error, doing research and generally just learning and testing throughout. I would not consider myself a needle-felting expert yet and I know that I still have a lot more to learn. So I'm grateful for the wealth of knowledge, expertise and tutorials on the interweb. Many of my techniques are hybrids of other tutorials that fit my expertise and my purpose. So what may work for me may not work for someone else.
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| Gwyn and Danny |
For Gwyn and Danny's topper, Gwyn's hairstyle was a romantic half up-half down with curls. I was very experienced with felting updos but not with "down dos". Down dos, that's a word, right?? For updos, I had previously cut thin strips from a flat felt sheet and then felted them to the back in little curls. But I found that this method didn't really look realistic. Since a felt sheet is only one thickness, the curls didn't quite have that dimension and they looked, well, flat. Also, flat felt sheets are very limited in colour choices and therefore sometimes makes it impossible to colour match with my wool roving.
So I played around with wet felting each strand to give them more dimension. Since I didn't have a teeny little curling iron lying around, I had to "set" the strands in a miniature form of "rollers" and let them dry into shape. So I did what I normally do, find something I already have lying around. In this case, it was wooden BBQ skewers and chopsticks. Check out my tutorial!
