The cuts or barbs on the shaft of the felting needle are what makes the felting process happen. When the needle is pushed into the mass of wool fibers, the barbs pull fibers from the upper layers down into the inner layers and lock them there. Like I mentioned before, the barbs are cut in one direction so the fibers are pulled down but not back up again when the needle is pulled out.
Felting needles come in several different shapes. The most common shapes in hand needle felting are the triangle and star. The star shape is used for finer work since it leaves less of a hole in your sculpture. The barbs on the triangle needle are only on 3 corners of the needle. The barbs on the star needle are on 4 corners.
Needles also come in many different gauges. The gauge of the needle is simply how fat the needle is. The larger the number, the finer the needle and smaller the barbs. The fatter the needle, the faster it felts, but the bigger the hole it leaves in the project. Generally you begin with a low gauge (fatter 32 or 36 gauge) needle and work up to the higer gauge (thinner 38 or 40 gauge) needles for the finer detail work. We carry 4 of the most common and most effective for hand felting. Our largest needle is a 32 gauge and our finest gauge is 40.
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Felting Needles Links
• The Basic Idea
• Felting Needles
• Stage of Wool Fiber
• Dyed Wool Fiber
• About your working surface
• Getting Started
• Felting Accessories
• Buy Felting Products
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