Needle felted owl tutorial

You can have fun with these owls, create as many as you want! display them differently as ornaments, sew a little ribbon onto the head for hanging ornaments or do what I did, needle felt a log and put as many as you want to display!
This is a beginner felting tutorial. I do not claim to know all, but just wish to share my knowledge and passion. Please let me know if you found this tutorial helpful
comments are read with pleasure. Show me your own owls when finished and I'll feature them on my blog email bluebellbunny at yahoo.com.au


Welcome to my owl tutorial.
You will need a handful of brown wool
small amounts of yellow wool
small amounts of black wool
small omounts of white wool
wooden skewer
feltng needle
felting pad

Wrap brown wool around the skewer, so it looks like a fat sausge.
Needle it carefully to secure any whispy bits but do be careful to
not hit the skewer with the needle and mind your fingers.


Take the rolled sausage off the skewer and needle it into an egg shape
by starting at the ends. make one end rounder than the other, leave one
end a little elongated and fluffy for the tail.


Take the egg and bend it slightly with your hands so its a slightly concave
shape or semi circle shape. Needle a dent in the back of the neck area to give
defintion to the head.




take two similar sized tufts of wool and hold one in your fingers, or on the pad
if your a beginner. I like to needle felt holding in my hands, I've learned quickly
not to poke myself too many times. But when you shake the wings you muss up
the wool so you can shape it into a half circle, imagine a birds wing as you make this and felt the shape so its firm. You can basically shape and felt on the pad its just like drawing or carving out a shape in clay in a sense.

Needle the shape at the end first so you create a point, remember to keep the wings flat so they don't bulk out too much.


Finish shaping the wing so it looks something similar to this





Find where the would fit the neck of the bird and hold the wing against it and needle gently checking to make sure it looks right for position. Do the same for the other wing.


This is what it should look like when you've attached both wings



This is what it should look like when the accent color has been needled flat



Take some eye accent color and needle a small disc. Do the same for the other side of the face.


Take a smaller bit of yellow and needle it inside the white of the eye so it resembles a fried egg a little. Continue to do the same to the other side.




Needle a dot of black in the center of the eye for the pupil and copy for the other side.

Needle a triangle shape and curve it a little to fit the beak area of the face and needle it to attach onto the face in between the eyes.



Take two similar lines of brown tuffy bits of wool to create the "horns" of the owl
roll it in your fingers to firm it a little but make sure they stay as lines.
Needle it on top of the eyes, like eye brows sticking up a little. Repeat for the other side.


Take your other accent color for the belly, and make a small dot, I prefer doing lines of three dots
then two, then one. Needle so its flat against the belly accent color in a triangle shape.




You are now finished congrats on following this tutorial!