How to make a small needle felted bear (although directions can be altered to make most any animal, even alpacas)

1. You will need the following: carded fiber, a piece of foam, a felting needle, and a band-aid (if it is your first attempt, you will probably poke yourself at least once).

2. I begin by thinking about the creation I want to make and mentally breaking it down into shapes. For my bear, I need a sphere for the head, an egg shape for the body, 2 small balls for ears, and cylindrical shapes for the arms and legs.

3. I begin by felting a sphere for the head. I roll the carded fiber into a ball and lay it on the foam. I begin stabbing the fiber with my felting needle to help the fibers tangle and knot together. The needle does not need to go all the way through the fiber and into the foam. The foam is simply there to protect you and keep the needle from breaking. Once I have the fibers fairly stable in in the shape I want, I will set that body part aside. I do not completely felt each part seperately. I will do that after I have felted the parts together.

4. I continue to partially felt all the seperate pieces (head, body, arms, legs, ears)

5. I then place the body parts together. I put the head on the body and will use my needle to felt the 2 parts together and to finish felting the pieces. I continue with this process for the legs, arms, and ears.

6. At this point I have the shape of the bear, but no details. I can now add a different color fiber to the feet, add an extra ball shaped piece of fiber to give my bear a raised nose, and add small black balls for eyes.