Needle Felted Garden Birds, . . 'The Robin' with Helen Hammond     (see 'The Wren' and 'The Blue Tit'  under a separate heading)

Another exciting and inspiring workshop from Helen Hammond in her needle-felted Birds series .... creating one of our bird tables' most frequent visitors - the 'joyful' Robin!

Join Helen for a lovely day being guided through how to make this beautifully detailed garden friend using the needle felting process. Once again, your piece will have a slightly sculpted low relief appearance, subtly enhancing the natural features of this characterful little bird. 

Whatever your ability, Helen will provide you with tools, materials, knowledge and guidance to create your own delightful bird over the day, before applying the legs & fixing it to the 'branch'. The birds will then be mounted in a special box frame, for a really professional finish.

You will be using a variety of natural wool fibres and Helen will teach you all about needle felting and how to blend your fibre colours. You will be using specialist needle felting needles (not sewing needles) for this purpose. These specialist tools/ needles are designed to entangle, compact, control and shape the soft carded wool fibres into firm felted pieces. It is a slow and very therapeutic process.

All reference images will be provided and will form an important part of your working process.  This course is suitable for all abilities including beginners. This is a dry felted process and a 'clean' method of working. No aprons or gloves are required.  However, please bring plasters! 

9.30am – 4.30pm ish

£80 inc. inc a tasty Lunch & home baking.
Material Charges: £25

Dates for this course - see the table below to book:

Wed 13 March 2024

Note: Typically this course runs with around 8 students.  Suitable for Beginners & intermediates.

Please bring: A supply of plasters  (needle felting can often result in several tiny nicks) and also your £25 materials money for Helen on the day.  This covers the various dyed wool fibres, needles & stabbing cushion, along with your box frame etc. and you'll be able to take all these home at the end. Thus, you'll be able to continue with your needle felting beyond the workshop, and embellish your piece further if you wish once you get home.

About the Artist- With a degree in Fine Art and a lifetime of teaching in mainstream education, aswell as charities and the Youth sector, Helen is bursting with creative skills,  alongside an ability to share them. She discovered Needle Felting only 4 years ago here at Quirky Workshops, when she attended Annis' Needle Felted Hares course, and was totally inspired! Since, she is entirely self taught and has done private commission and is currently a sponsored artist for a needle felting company.