Each of the image galleries in the Felting Lesson: Mother Winter includes pictures that walk you through various stages of needle felting a large female figure with a detailed face and curly hair, accentuated with motion lines of wind blowing across the sky and storm clouds releasing snow to the World below. The illustration I am working on in this lesson was submitted to a juried exhibit. The prompt for the show was “Winter Stories” and the project sparked an idea for another book.  More to come on that. Unfortunately, this piece was not selected for inclusion in the exhibit, but I am grateful for the prompt sparking an idea for a children’s book about the mothers in our world. The title of this piece is Mother Winter. Some of the lighting in this lesson jumps around a bit. I took this piece on the road for our annual Thanksgiving visit with family in my hometown of Kingfield, Maine. This lesson was created in November 2023.

Base Layer & Wool Armature

Before we dive too deep into the felting lesson: Mother Winter, development of the base layer, and placement of the armature come first!

Dressing Mother Winter in a Wet Felted Dress

Shoulders, Face, Features

Felting Curly Hair

The lighting in these pictures varies a lot because I was felting on my lap as we drove to Kingfield to celebrate Thanksgiving. I begin with dark curly locks to create shadows and depth and then layer in small sections of curly locks in a variety of colors.

Felting Hands

I find faces and hands to be the trickiest of all. Her first hand came together easily and quickly, one day after work as Adam and I sat and watched the news. The second hand was done over the holiday weekend and I had to work at it quite a bit to get the size more aligned with the other hand and have the fingers come together in the correct positions. I still need to adjust the bends in her joints, but I’ll do that closer to the tail end.

Correcting & Finishing the Second Eye

Fluffy Snow Clouds

For the fluffy, silky storm clouds I built the shape with core wool and then covered them with beautiful white wool tops.

Felting Wind Lines, Adding Movement

Keep Felting!

I hope these images have been a source of inspiration and that you’ve also picked up a couple of new technique ideas for your next felting project! Have fun, fellow fiber artist!

Meet Your Instructor

Hi, my name is Hillary Dow. A few of my many hats include mother, author, artist, booker (leave the vacation booking to me, I’ve got this), family chef, marketing manager, felting artist in Maine, and oh so many more. I write children’s books illustrated with my wool creations. It is such a thrill to be a part of helping someone develop their skills and CREATE artwork. Thank you for joining me!

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*For optimal viewing, click on the first image in each gallery to open the full view and then scroll through. If you view the images in the preview galleries only your view will be a cropped version of each image and you will miss out on the descriptive captions I have added to each picture. Enjoy!

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