Beginner Needle Felting: Felted Acorns

This morning I tried needle felting for the first time and made this lovely acorn! If you are not familiar with needle felting it is the process of pushing layers of wool together with a spiky long needle that is ultra sharp, resulting in the layers sticking together.  You don't need many materials and it is very simple, but you do need to be super careful as to not poke yourself!

To get started, gather these items:

- wool roving

I bought mine at JoAnn's which didn't have a large selection of colors, but something to start out with.  If you don't mind waiting a few days for it to ship and want more variety, search Etsy.  If you aren't sure what wool roving is or want to know more about it, this link will be helpful:  explanation of wool fibers.

- a felting needle

The link above also provides info on different needles.

- a piece of thick foam or a pillow

This is for your work surface.  I used a pillow and it worked just great!

- acorn caps

If you don't have an oak tree nearby, just purchase some caps.  I paid a whopping $2.00 for 50 at Snorkelbuzz. 

- a glue gun

Once you've got your supplies, get poking!  Pull a small piece of roving apart, roll it into a ball and start poking.  Poke and poke some more until you like how it looks and it is the shape you want.  For a good visual, watch this video tutorial for felted acorns.  Once you get it to the size and shape you want, hot glue it to an acorn cap and it is ready to be used for anything you can imagine up.  I am thinking a garland or wreath or even just in a bowl as some autumn eye candy.  Only time will tell, I've got 49 more caps to fill!