Felted Votives with Woolly Branch

Design and hand-crafted by Kim Buchheit; © Kim Buchheit

Oh, I am just so happy to have finished this piece! I was experimenting with assemblage of the ropey branch... first sewing, then binding the pieces together with embroidery thread. Then, after deconstructing it all, I settled on needle-felting the pieces together after binding the joints with a bit of cormo wool. In the end, I just wanted to use only wool in the piece. But I do love mixing wool with other materials, too. Maybe next time :)

Felted Mirror with Owl Charm

Design and handcrafted by Kim Buchheit. © Kim Buchheit

I wanted to make a special gift for someone this holiday season, so I hand-felted a pocket mirror and attached a sweet little woolly-bee charm to its side. I thought it turned out so (ahem) charming, that I decided to make a few with owl charms for my Etsy shop. It's so fun to have new gifties in my shop all ready for the new year!

Felted Don't-Worry-Stones®

I'm so excited to be offering these hand-felted stones in my Etsy shop as of today! I owe a big thanks to my e-sista, Linda Lanese (thanks, Lin), for all her great input and support. Each unique "Don't Worry Stone"® is an actual stone nested snuggly in a colorful felted wool cozy. Each cozy is both needle- and wet-felted by hand with care.

Design and product name © Kim Buchheit

Felted Owl Brooch

Need a small gift under $25? Here's just the thing: Hand-felted owl brooches! These sweet little fellas are just 1 1/2" tall, and would look oh-so-cute pinned to your favorite cuddly sweater, scarf, or woolly hat this winter! I've needled-felted up just a few and they're sure to fly off the shelves... so grab yours today!

Designed and crafted by Kim Buchheit

Tiny Ollie Owlie in a Treasury

My tiny green felted owl made it into an Etsy Treasury this past week! Thank you, underoakstudios :) He is available for adoption here ($15).

Owl designed and handmade by Kim Buchheit

Etsy Front Page & Treasury

What a great week it's been, and it's only Tuesday! The reason for the excitement is that Ollie Owlie made it into Etsy's holiday Gift Guide, another Etsy Treasury (thank you, Ligia Rocha), and onto Etsy's home page of handpicked items... woot woot :D I'm very grateful to all who made this happen — thank you!

Felted Owl

Look who-who landed in my Etsy shop today: 1-inch teeny-tall Ollie Owlie! Available in a variety of heathered-spice colors, he comes in a custom designed pillow box with a tiny adoption certificate and hang tag. Ollie makes the perfect ready-to-give handmade gift (if you can possibly bear to part with him)! UPDATE: This little curry-colored owl has sold; but other colors are still available.

Felted sculpture © Kim Buchheit

Felted Stones with Tentacles

Felted stones © Kim Buchheit and Mother Nature

I recently finished needle felting some very large stones using Kool-Aid dyed roving. Dying the wool was lots of fun and the neon powder made my kitchen smell like summers from years gone by! Perhaps my next video tutorial should be on dying with Kool-Aid... would you like that?

Felted Stones

Felted stones © Kim Buchheit
I experimented with felting these smooth black stones today. When I went outside to photograph them, I literally tripped over a very large and glorious horned toad!

Felted Sculpture :: Chocolate Tentacled Pod

© Felted sculpture by Kim Buchheit (100% merino wool; 6" x 36")

Finished this tentacled pod today and hung it from a nearby Juniper tree to photograph, as thunder boomed all around. The tree's shaggy silver bark is so gorgeous, and the dark brown Welsh wool sculpture, with pink and orange shades of felted balls inside, delighted there. If the rain wasn't headed our way, I would have let it spend the afternoon outside. :) ~ Kim

Anchored Felt Sculpture

Felt Sculpture © Kim Buchheit

This felted piece is anchored on two ends to a juniper branch (torn from a felled tree) so that the branch is truly integrated with the work. I drilled a small hole in the branch and secured it to the wall with a nail. A crown of feathers lines the opening of this needle-felted pod. ~ Kim

Needle Felted Sculpture :: Nest

Felt sculpture © Kim Buchheit

This pod decided to transform itself completely into a nest — replete with a wet-felted blue egg on a nest of raffia, and a few decorative feathers for good measure. While generally preferring more abstract work, I was not unhappy with this piece. I loved working with the dirty pale green roving. It was a terrible wonderful mess to work with — full of vegetal matter and all — which just made me feel more connected to the source materials and the natural world during the process. ~ Kim