Needle Felting

Needle felting, also known as dry felting, is a method of transforming wool into felt using specially designed needles instead of water. These needles are thin and sharp with angled notches along their body that catch fibers and tangle them together to form a matted fabric. 

So, a needle felting technique involves repeatedly stabbing small amounts of raw wool with a special felting needle to make desired shapes and designs. Poking the serrated needle in and out of the raw wool binds the wool fibers together, causing the undefined wad of raw wool to take a definite shape.

The picture above is a close-up of the special felting needles. As you can see, the needles have angled notches along their body. When these needles are continuously poked into a ball of wool, the notches catch fibers and interlock them together to produce felt. 

The needle felting technique is often used to create arts and crafts projects because the soft wool can be sculpted into any solid shape, offering unlimited possibilities for artists to express their creativity. You can find the needle felting technique being employed to create dolls, figurines, soft sculptures, decor objects, jewelry, and 2-dimensional wool paintings.