Improve Your Needle Felting Effectiveness & Efficiency: Understanding Your Tools with Stephanie Metz

Learn how to use felting needles for better results. Join me for a tools tutorial and multi-tool review from my Sculptural Needle Felting Workshop. I introduce my 'Circle of Tangling' concept to help you choose the size, gauge, shape, and position of your felting needles using illustrated examples. Start to transform your needle felting today by increasing your effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, and enjoyment through better understanding of your tools.
The full workshop is NOW available; find it at www.courses.stephaniemetz.com.
This is NOT a paid endorsement of any particular tool, I simply share what I've been using and why.
This video aims to answer common questions about needle felting:
-What is needle felting?
-How does needle felting work?
-How does needle felting compare to wet felting?
-What is pressed felt vs industrial felt?
-What size felting needle should I use?
-What different sizes of felting needle are there?
-Why does felting needle size matter?
-What does gauge mean in needle felting?
-What are the different shapes of felting needles?
-Should I use a triangle, star, or spiral felting needle?
-Do I need a multi-needle holder?
-What kind of needle holders work well?
-When should I use multiple felting needles?
-How many felting needles should I use?
-How close together should felting needles be?
-Why does it seem like my felting needles aren't working?
-Why do my felting needles keep breaking?
-How do I keep felting needles from breaking?
-How can I needle felt faster?
-How can I needle felt better?
-What work surface is best in needle felting?
-Should I use a foam pad or brush mat in needle felting?
-How is flat needle felting different than sculptural needle felting?
-Where can I get needle felting tools?
-What is the Circle of Tangling?
-How can I needle felt more efficiently?
-How can I needle felt more effectively?
-Where can I learn more about needle felting?
-Where can I find a Sculptural Needle Felting Workshop?
-Why learn needle felting from Stephanie Metz?
Subscribe for more needle felting goodness @Stephanie Metz ​
Here's a partial transcript:
Let’s get down to why I like these particular multi needle holders.
First is the Colonial Felting Tool 2, a simple wooden handle that screws together to insert and remove the needles, which are held in place by being pressed between the wood layers. This version 2 has 12 holes; there’s also a version 1 with 6 holes. I like this 12-hole version because it means I have a lot of options of where to put my needles and how big or small of a footprint I can have. I don’t think I’ve ever used it with 12 needles since I don’t tend to work on thin, flat objects.
There are a few downsides to this tool: as you can see from these three different ones there’s
not a ton of consistency in the manufacture of these holders. That’s true in the pattern of the holes, but also in the drilling of the holes-- they’re not always parallel. That can be a problem if you DO want to use a lot of the holes at the same time since you definitely want your needles to be parallel. This tool is lightweight, especially compared to metal versions I’ve seen, and the size of the knob is big and kind of flat, which means it fits in my palm well in different grips. ​I try to preserve my hand, wrist, and arm health by using large muscle groups more than small, and I can shift my grip on this to use more wrist action for careful control or have it more in the palm of my hand to use my whole arm more.
It takes time to open and switch around needles, which is why I keep several ready at once, but if I had just one tool, this would be it for the variety of uses I can get out of it.
Next is the Clover Pen-Style needle tool; it's great for small and detailed work. It’s shaped like a pen, which is a pretty familiar and comfortable shape to hold and manipulate when I’m going for detail. This tool comes with three fine needles, which can be inserted and removed by untwisting this part from the handle, and then the needles neatly slot into place. You can also remove this front piece if you need the needles to penetrate more deeply into your project. This is a good tool if you’ll be working pretty small, but it may be useful to also buy some 38 gauge needles to use in it sometimes, since it’s difficult and slow to really move a lot of wool with fine needles.
This is the Ashford Student Felting needle punch -- it has a plastic, lightweight body, it comes with 3 needles, and you can store the needles inside the tool by unscrewing the top, taking out the nickel-sized metal disc and fitting it under the screw-on lid. You can also use this tool with just one or two needles in it, although you can’t store spare needles inside the handle and use it at the same time. It also has a very limited footprint, but it’s not very different from the way I usually arrange needles in my wooden tool.

[@valerie-og4ui]

This was by far the most informative workshop regarding Knowing Your Needle -felting Tools. You presented this information with useful information, enthusiasm and experience. You covered very basics , which In my experience have been left for the felted to discover only to feel unsatisfied and frustrated with the finished project. Excellent presentation ! I thank you and look forward to applying these much needed tools to the craft.

[@shelleyatwood]

I fell down the rabbit hole this morning when I found one of your wool "paintings" on Instagram. That let me to your website which led me to your KZbin channel. I tried needle felting a decade ago and loved it. But, I was thoroughly engrossed in polymer clay at the time. However, I kept thinking about how to combine the two in jewelry. This morning, I watched your In Touch video which was completely enchanting. I'm afraid you are forcing me to go back to trying needle felting again. I've got a little kit that someone gave me which I'll try before figuring out what else I want. Your online class sounds intriguing too. I should also say how much I enjoyed looking at your paintings and sculpture. Their organic nature is right up my alley. Thanks for all the great info, inspiration and temptation!

[@Dollectable_Dreams]

Wonderful through information very useful for anyone!!!

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Thank you again!

[@ellee4598]

This is so helpful!!!

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

I'm glad, happy felting!

[@GuyG.KTalesOfAnimals]

Holy crap your work is CRAZY incredible

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Thank you!

[@antoniahubancheva7907]

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain the basics in such detail. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of any process is critical for further improvement. It might look boring to some people but if you don't get it now, later you anyway have to come back and spend even more time. :)

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Thanks for your message, I appreciate it! I think this info is probably useful to a fairly small subset of people, but heck, those are MY people! 😊

[@nafisha1694]

thankyou sooo much for the workshop, it helps my final campus project, looking forward for ur next video

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

You're welcome, glad it helped!

[@silverstar603]

Thank you for posting this ♥

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

You're welcome, I hope it made some things clear for you!

[@MsColleenMiller]

Brilliant Tutorial. Thanks Stephanie

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Thanks, I hope it's been helpful to you!

[@sonyamacdonald7917]

What a wonderful video! Thank you for putting this together and sharing your knowledge. Many of my questions were answered in one spot. ♥

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Yay, I'm so glad to hear that. 😁

[@michaelleaver9625]

I have been looking for your next video but cant find it. I do love the tool review and wonder what you think of the hand held electric felting tools

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Hi Michael, I'm glad you're interested in learning more. This video is a free excerpt from my online video-based master class in sculptural needle felting to give potential students a taste of my teaching content and style. For the full workshop you can go to courses.stephaniemetz.com . The full class is not free-- it's over 24 hours of content, about half of which is taking the student through techniques, and the other half is following along as I make particular sculptures. And I'm not a huge fan of the hand-held electric tools; I find that I need to feel the resistance as I work, and I don't think it saves a lot of time... but I reserve the right to change my mind some day.

[@JustJaeda]

I'm so glad I came across this video when I did! Thank you for making this video. It sort of reminds me of something that would have been broadcasted on PBS in the earlier 2000s. I do have a question. I have seen a lot of felting needles with terms like "heavy". From what I gather, that means it has a higher gauge? Have you ever come across poor quality needles that just don't pierce through the wool? If so, how can you tell the difference between a "good" and "bad" needle? Thanks!

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Hi Jaeda, thanks for your comment and question! I think the term 'heavy' must refer to coarse, low-gauge needles, meaning bigger thickness and bigger notches, meant for more coarse fiber. I imagine if a needle isn't piercing through the wool that means it's too coarse for the fineness of the fiber, snagging so many of the fine fibers on the big notches that it can't really go through. The same kind of thing happens when you try to felt through a woven textile that's has a fairly tight weave-- the needle just snags. I would try a medium or fine gauge needle. I haven't come across poor quality needles as far as I can tell, it seems more like a mismatch between size of needle and fiber. If anyone else wants to chime in, I'm curious to hear others' experience.

[@JustJaeda]

@@StephanieMetzSculpture Wow! I will look into the gauge as the issue rather than the brand! Thank you so much for the response!

[@bernardoalvarez4650]

😍😍😍

[@StephanieMetzSculpture]

Thank you!