Wool Pets - Book Review
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This post was last edited/updated in March 2021.
I've been writing guides and tutorials for the past several months, and I realized that I hadn't provided any book reviews for you yet! Which is a bit silly since I have at least quite a few of them now and could definitely help to point you in the right direction depending on your needs. Today's book review is for Wool Pets by Laurie Sharp (ISBN-13: 978-1-58923-385-0, ISBN-10: 1-58923-385-9). I thought that for my first book review I'd start with a beginner book. In fact, if you have been felting for a while now, this book will likely not add anything to what you already know; however, if you have a friend you've been wanting to get hooked on felting, this book would make a great gift. Yes, I know we're done with the gift-giving celebrations, but there's always birthdays and just-because-you're-awesome-gifts and I'm-being-selfish-because-I-desperately-need-a-felting-buddy-gifts, right? If this is for a beginner needle felter, be sure to pair it with one of my recommended needle felting kits. In fact, if you're already on Amazon, while I absolutely do not recommend 95% of the kits on that site, this is a really good one. It might be more than the "cheap" kits, but you get a proper wool felting pad instead of packing foam from a dumpster, a lot of wool (1/2 oz of 12 colors carded Maori wool - good quality and far more than any of the other kits available on the site, 1/4 oz of 5 merino combed top, 2oz of core wool), leather finger guards, and 15 quality color-coded needles in three sizes in a carrying tin. Now that is what I call a starter kit! You do get what you pay for. You can do the math, but with this you get 9.25oz of wool total, more than 1/2lb of wool, and far more than most kits available on the market. For comparison, most cheap kits on Amazon provide 3-4 oz total, and at .1oz per color with no core, it's useless for anything but embellishing things, and barely at that.
So let's get to the bones of the book. When picking out a book with felting projects, it's good to consider the author's style, and if that's a style that you want to emulate to some degree. Laurie's woolies appear to use a fairly coarse wool and are definitely on the fuzzy side. I think this is actually a benefit since if you have projects that look perfectly smooth and so tightly felted you know the author spent quite a bit of time stabbing at it, it can be a bit overwhelming to someone new who is still trying to get the basic shapes down and is really just focused on it looking like the intended subject. And honestly, not everything that's felted has to be totally smooth! We all have our own styles. The focus isn't on the finished piece as much as it is on learning the process - especially when you’re just starting out. Refining your process and finished item is something that will come with practice. While needle felting is absolutely an easy craft to pick up and make something the first time you try it, you absolutely should expect your work to reflect your skill level - two artists with varying skill levels working off the same kit will still produce two very different items. Expect it to be the beginner-knitter-potholder, not finished-fair-isle-sweater in the first try. That’s normal.
And by process I really mean that. Because this is a project book (much like the project books you’d find in other fiber crafts), the amount of information that she provides on the tools and materials is really bare-bones, four pages total at best, before it jumps into the projects. That is not an issue, since there's plenty of information available to supplement that online (including my felt & fiber guides for example), though I can understand that being a bit frustrating if you want everything in a book form. If you're looking for a thorough guide on all that there is to know about felting, I’ve written a review on one I highly recommend. I did find it odd that she included wool combs in her picture for felting tools, since I can't say that I've met any felters who have used one, let alone ever seen them in stock in the shops here. Update 2021: I’m 7 years in on the craft, and that’s one fiber tool I have yet to get. Definitely doesn’t need to be in a beginner project book. Also, the pointers she provides in the book are not completely true, or rather deserve an asterisk with a footnote. For example "Merino is not recommended for needle felting. The fibers are too fine and slippery." Generally… yeah, sure, for a beginner who is doing 3D work I don’t recommend merino, because it’s a bit challenging for those reasons. You definitely don't want to use merino for your core wool. Ever. Unless you really like taking your time and spending more money than you need to since it's expensive. However, when it comes to adding color to your finished project, or 2d needle felting, merino is perfectly fine. Not only that, the best designed-for-needle-felting wool blends out there include a fine fiber in the blend like merino (for example, Living Felt’s MC-1 batts). She also mentions you can use upholstery foam, which is not true. Never use upholstery foam that has been treated with fire retardants, which most upholstery foam sold in the US is treated with since it’s so incredibly flammable, I wouldn’t risk it. Unless you're absolutely positive that the upholstery foam you purchased is free of these toxic chemicals, please avoid felting on it - good needle felting foam isn’t that expensive.
Let's get on with the bulk of the book.
Right before you get into the projects, Laurie provides some information on the basic techniques of needle felting, or really how to make the basic shapes that you'll need for the majority of the projects. If you've never tried needle felting, this is where you'll want to start. Grab some core wool and practice making the basic shapes. This way you'll be less frustrated when you're trying to follow along with your first project. She does introduce other techniques (such as wrapping around a wire armature for bird feet or around a skewer for small, thin shapes) once you get to the more difficult projects.
The book has 20 projects in total, starting with the easiest and progressing towards more difficult: Bug magnets (bumble bee and ladybug), penguin and chick (featured on the cover), butterfly pin, bunny, owl, goldfinch (and variations), turtle, bat, chicken and chick, hummingbird, clownfish, chipmunk, border collie, cat, frog, sheep, pink pig, giraffe, mermaid and gnome girl. Other than making the claws for the owl, none of these use an internal armature and are made purely from wool. Each project has a section at the top listing all the materials you'll need to finish that particular project, and the instructions are quite detailed with lots of photos to show every step of the way.
There is a tiny two-page gallery of some of the other things she's made, so other than that and the occasional variations included with the projects, I wouldn't say that this has a ton of inspiration beyond the projects themselves. There is a page at the end with a few resources for supplies, mostly in the states except for one located in Denmark.
I personally didn't find the instructions confusing, and readers on Amazon gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. While I think that intermediate-to-advanced needle felters might find this book to be too simple, even if they enjoy following some of the projects for fun (so borrow not buy if you’ve been felting a while), I do think it's a great book for beginners.
