25 Jun How to Create a Needle-Felted Piglet

Oh my goodness! You can’t get any cuter than this needle-felted piglet! I think that as we get further and further into the handicraft of needle felting, our projects get more and more enjoyable, and more and more adorable. We’re learning a lot as we go, including how to use the different tools, wool, and techniques. And as we learn, the results improve significantly. It’s going to be fun, when we’re done, to look back at our humble beginnings to see our improvements!

Materials Needed

If you’ve been following along with us in this needle felting series, you will already have all of the supplies needed for this project. If not, I will link to the ones we’ve used below. (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.):

• A ball of undyed or white wool roving
• A small amount of wool roving in the following colors: red, orange, black, light pink (optional)
• A needle-felting kit
• A needle-felting mat

HAPPY HANDICRAFTS VIDEO: HOW TO NEEDLE FELT A PIGLET

I absolutely loved making this needle felted piglet! As with some of our previous projects (our baby chicks, in particular), I found myself making more than one because they are just fun to make. And it’s even more exciting and challenging to see how you can improve on the first.

You can see in the next two images how we improved. Our first little piglet was quite simple. In the second one, we added a brighter pink snout, some color variation in the ears, and some rosy cheeks – all of which really improved our end result. We found that smaller eyes added personality, and we also like the needle felted nostrils rather than the black variation.

A Foundational Shape and Process

We chose this little needle felted piglet to make because it has many of the foundational shapes and processes to make many different small animals. You’ll often start with an oval-shaped body, to which you will add different shapes (often more ovals or circles) to create the animal you would like. The ears are a good example of how to create a flat surface, and how to shape that flat surface into any shape you like. If you have trouble needle felting these shapes, you always have the option to cut the shape out once you’re done felting. This handicraft allows for so much variation – and I say variation because there is just no errors here. If you don’t like the ear, for example, you can actually pull it off and make another one. Or even reshape the one you pulled off!

Help with Handicrafts

If you are a homeschooling family who is wanting to make handicrafts a part of your weekly curriculum, you’ve found your place. I know from experience how handicrafts can slip to the bottom of your list, as your homeschooling day comes to an end. It’s very easy to prioritize math, reading, science, etc. over the arts, and other riches. It may be because we have an underlying belief that the former are more important. It can also be because we feel like we do not have the ability to teach handicrafts. Or maybe it just feels like an overwhelming task, and no one wants to deal with that – especially at the end of the day.

Se this is where we come in. We’ve created Happy Handicrafts, to document and share our handicraft adventures. It hasn’t always been easy for us, but when we learned that creativity is just as important as any other part of learning, things changed. The benefits of learning a handicraft are so wide and extensive, I feel like I could have an entire blog just on this. But rather than talking about it, let do it! Come and follow along with us as we learn one handicraft after the other. We’re certainly not experts, but we do love learning and we love to share it with you!