The Magic of Fairylights - winter time needle felting

1. The Magic of Fairylights - intro: Hi there You up for some more needle counting. I had an idea and I decided to build upon my first Skillshare class here, which was about needle frailty. And we made a rather cute wintery scene in a cup, which you can see right there. And so I decided I wanted to have fairy lights on it. Because in these long winter nights, anything with sparkle brings more magic into my life. And I suppose I'm not the only one who feels this way. So what are we making? This thing? I find it really cute. And I just feel my film, myself doing this and decided to make a class out of it. So it's not a beginners class at all. But you will be able to make it. Probably even if you don't watch the first one. But I recommend watching the first one because I really tell much more there. Then all will do here. But in any case, I hope I will inspire you to go for something like this and make your life and the life of those around you magical, right? So see you in the first lesson. 2. The idea: Alright, let me explain what my vision is and what I'm trying to do. Make a little hill. Just like with it here. In my first Skillshare class, which I definitely recommend to watch because I go much more in-depth there. And I talk about war and different needles and stuff like that, which I won't do here. So yeah, if you're very new to needle filtering them, I suggest you pause here, go there, watch it, and then return. But if you don't, you'll still be able to follow me. I think what I want is to basically do a hill again. And then I'll do another tree bigger this time. I would like to put the fairy lights on it. So that in the end, I end up with the fairy lights around my tree like so. And because they are obviously battery fueled, be able to line them on and have this little wintery scene, but with a twist, with a bit more magical twist. So that's the plan. 3. Supplies: Hi there. Let's go over the supplies for this adventure. I have here a little container to put my scene. I have fairy lights battery operated. And the most important thing with the container is it needs to be big enough so that you can fit these things in and that you don't see them afterwards. That's all you need to pay attention to. I have here a sketchbook because I'll be doing some sketching. I have cinnamon rolls here. I mean, this is bark, cinnamon bark, whatever sentence thick, sorry. We'll just be needing one, but we'll have to find the correct one. I have florist wire here because it's nice, sturdy, and holds its shape really well. It's also quite cheap and you can get it in pretty much every craft store. I have wire cutter to cut the wire. Then I have felt in land which is basically just a big foam okay. To fail on. Needle fell. That is. And then I have only two needles here. One is a fine one or small. Sometimes they called column frying or small. And then a medium one. All we need. And of course, I have here white core rule, which is the easiest to needle felt. And I also have some carded wool. This was calmed. That's why all the fibers are nicely in one direction. I haven't just in case I will want to make my scene even whiter because I'm not sure if you can see it, but this one is much wider than this one. But in any case, whatever you have will do. Yeah, but we're making a wintery scene, so we kinda need white wall. And that's it. So go grab your stuff and meet me in the next lesson. 4. Sketching fun: If we sketch it out, let's say in the one-to-one, I have my batteries. They will be something like this. The battery. Then I'll have my luck. I'll be able to use this one. So my stick will go from here to here. Probably misspelled that I have. Let's see. Some wire. Fairy lights go up to here. And then I, um, I have them coming out of here and then there's really the fairy lights and so on. But I don't want to have my tree starting here because it needs to go around the trunk for extra stability. So it will be it'll go up like this. Quite a big one, I think. C. We can see when we start working how we like it. But that's the idea. And then there will be the wire, this wire also here inside two strands. Because I want them to go when they come out from here. One will go on that side of the battery pack and one will go on to this side and we will just wrap them around so that they hold the battery. And here is where our well-being. So that's the plan. Okay. We have our basket, bit of a trunk. Let's say tree goes up like this. And then it's always good to sketch. The fairy lights will come from somewhere here and then we'll just start wrapping them around my tree when I have it. That's the plan. I hope I'm making myself clear. And let's get started. Let's do this. Some magic to our world. See you in the next lesson. When we'll just have a go with needle floating fear there. Let's go over the key takeaway of this lesson. And it's all about sketching, because it is always a good idea to sketch your project first. Really, no matter how your sketch looks like. Because this sketch helps you find flaws in your idea and gives you an opportunity to solve them before you start working. And if you can draw in real size to have better understanding of what you are going to do. If you can't because your project is way too big, then scale it down, but keep the sketch as big as possible. 5. Let's begin: Now the first thing I did was he kept the cinnamon stick that had the biggest holes on both sides so that I was able to insert both lights and the wire. I kept checking with my sketch to see if everything is as long as it should be and that everything will work out. Then I decided on the length of my wire. And I inserted that and also Figured out how much I need at the bottom to be able to wrap around the battery pack. Bear in mind here that it's always good to have more than two little As you can't really add to it. And I did not have enough. Let's be honest. I could have had more. It's now time to pick up our wall and start rolling it around the wire and forming our tree shape. Keeping in mind that at the beginning, down where the fairy lights come out of your cinnamon stick. And where does cinnamon stick is itself? You need to pay a little bit more attention to how you wrap around so that you incorporate everything and hide it in war. As you can see. I also took my needle and felt it just a little bit. The wool that I already had. I felt it in place so that it stayed there and didn't just move away on its own. I kept rolling the wire until I was somewhat satisfied with the shape of the tree. It's not easy and it's really good to do it slow and mindfully and even to have quite attention on walls so that it's really rolled tightly. But either way we are going to fail it together. So no worry here. Just make your tree in a shape that you like. And if you spot places where you didn't, where you don't have enough wool or where you didn't add enough, you can always add to eat. Also, make sure your wire at the end is completely hidden. With war, that it doesn't extend beyond the two wire. As you can see in the video, I speed up this process quite a bit. In reality, it took me about 15 min to reach the tree that you see in the end. But no matter how long it takes, enjoy it. In the next lesson, we're going to start failing. So meet me there when you are satisfied with your tree shape. 6. Felting - sped up: Here's just a short demo. Sped up to 400% of me felt in the tree and turning everything around, holding wool together as I felt. Things you do when you felt this. In reality, this took almost an hour, I think. And really, if you didn't see my first Skillshare class, where I go really in depth about needle folding. And you haven't felt it before. Then please go and watch it because I cover everything there and I really didn't feel the need again here. So this really is an upgrade to my first needle failed in class. Anyways, this is how I went about it. And in the next video, I am going to explain a few things and have a bit of a talk with you. So hopefully you will take on this project and just for a pause, meet me there in the next video. See you. 7. Pep talk & troubleshooting: Hello. Welcome back. I just would like to talk to you a bit. I'm saying that it's okay to take a break while your needle fell thing and to leave it alone to sit for a while. And two, so that you have an opportunity to rest your fingers, right? Or do other stuff you have to do because no, they're not. Many people have 10 h in a row to finish a project. And it's, well, this one isn't exactly ten hour one, but, you know, lunches might have to be done or somebody calls you or whatever. I took this break, as you can see, because I'm wearing something else. Now as I returned to it, I would like to maybe address some a few things with my tree. You probably saw me. You noticed that I was having a bit of difficulties difficulties with my wire inserts, because firstly, it kept, it kept kinda going that way. So I had to make these two hooks here so that it stayed in place. And then the next thing was that my tree, the wall just expanded. So it was I think it was up to here at one stage. So that's why you saw me while I was faulting, push the wall together, hold it like this with my fingers and continue filtering because this actually does make it stick together. And I did this for a while. And I wanted to make sure that my wire is as close to the top of the tree as it can be. Um, so if I push a bit, it comes out. If I live it. Now I know it's right here because we didn't really go into I didn't make a whole lot of point about making it completely maybe invisible or how to go about it too, so that this thing cannot happen because this project doesn't really require it. It's really good to have the wire up to the point. But mostly what I'm trying to say is don't be alarmed or discouraged when things like this happen, like wool gets all over the place or it doesn't want to stay where you want it to. It just means you maybe need a bit of a pause, have coffee, tea, just slow down a bit, or maybe come back the next day. And this side, what you want to do with the war decided and really decide in your head what you want to do. Then. Pick up your project, manipulate your war in a way you want it to be in, start filtering again. And just be patient because things do fall into place when you really have that intention for them to do so. And of course, you go and make something about it. So that's all I wanted to say before jumping to the, I think the most fun part of this little class. Besides having the, the end result, of course. Um, so yeah. Just stay assured you're doing everything right. It's okay to pause. It's okay to come back. Just don't throw away your tree, okay, you just keep working on it. It'll come together as it, as it's supposed to. Okay, now, see me in the next lesson where we are going to make good little spiral thing and the end of it, which makes it so magical and whimsical. 8. Adding the lights: So after, let's say we decided we are satisfied with what we have. We don't want to add anything else. I can say stuff I could add to it, but I don't want to. Let's have some fun. We know wire inside because it allows us to bend the whole thing. Something like that. Right? I find this really cute. I believe is, or Tim Burton's fault. And because Nightmare Before Christmas is just my favorite, favorite thing to watch is so magical, whimsical. There are spirals everywhere and pumpkins. So probably will see me makeup pumpkin class one sooner or later. Um, so yeah, make your tree in your desired shape. Now here's an idea. If we make two of them will have a hard look good on a wedding thing for a wedding stuff. Oh yeah, here's an idea for you. Well, here's where the real magic happens is when we add lights. I believe we'll have to do a few tries here. See how it really goes. Because I want the last one to be in the end. My fairy lights are actually on our unknown y or two. That's why it's so easy to manipulate them to hold their shape is really works for me. Um, you might not have something similar. But here is where the war comes in handy. Because once you decide on where you want them, you can hold your fairy lights. The actual what do you call it? The my case, it's the wire but you might only have something that really doesn't hold shape, okay? In that case, you will use wool and stick it into place. So what am I talking about? Let me see first how this looks. That. So let's say this thing is really holding its shape just because I put it here, but if I pick it up, it'll fall off. In this case, what I'll use, what I'll do is I'll take a bit of war. Put it over. The fairy lights. Kinda felt them in. So now I cannot move them around. And let's say in my case, I haven't really decided yet what to do, whether to to hide this wire or not. But at least I have a choice okay. Because I can leave it like this or I can or I can go and felt all over the tree to hide all the wire and just leave the lights on. Because it does look different. And I think I'm going to do just that. I'll be going over the wire gently and carefully because we also have a wire inside our tree and we do not want to break our needle Dewey. So this is like a perfect afternoon project. When it's already dark out, maybe. And you have your own lights here in front of you and making something pretty magical out of them. And i'm, I'm not gonna do this throughout the whole lesson. I'll just come back and show you how it looks when it's done. And then we can move on to making our heel, squeezing everything inside our little basket. So see you then. Bye. 9. Adding the hill: Yeah. This is how it looks like when it's all know, wire is pretty much all hidden. There are spots where you can see it really, if you take a look, I'm keen on moving on to making the final scene in my basket. So I'll really I'll stop now. What's the confession? It's about that, that this class is different than my other classes because I came up with the idea and I didn't try it out first. I just started filming. Okay. Let's pick up the wall and wrap our bottom part of the tree. Pay attention here, please. No wall below the battery pack because we need to live it visible so that we will be able to take the batteries out later. I'm wrapping around the whole thing quite loosely here. And I'll just needle filled everything together. If you read more tightly, you should be faster with the failed thing. But it's really almost like a personal preference thing. And also it depends on the project you are doing. Do pay attention to the battery pack and all the wires while you are failed thing. As the case is hard and your needle can break if you hit on it. Now, this was one thing to bear in mind. The second thing are the wires which you can't really do anything about. But if you are gentle, you won't damage them. Then of course the third thing, or your fingers do keep your fingers away from the needle because that thing is sharp. Trust me. Here, I had a bit of a hole in my heel and everything was really wobbly. So I just made a bit of a swirl from wool and pushed it inside that hole and I just fill it in. That's how you work with wool in needle faculty in a new way. And it's always easier to add wall then to take it away. Also, after a while, you get the hang of it and you just take the right amount of wall. Here's another thing to keep in mind. The longer you felt, the smaller your object will be. Like if you take a little ball and you failed it for a minute, let's say it will be really solved. But if you would continue and felt it for another 5 min in order to shrink in size, then also be much harder. So simply put, the longer you felt, the thicker everything will be endless. Here I am hiding this weird-looking surface by adding more water on top and doing my best to fill it in and onto my base. Now, let's continue with needle faculty, or he'll taking it out of the basket every now and then to check how everything is holding together. And once you are satisfied with your heel and the overall look, meet me in the next video where I'll share my own final result and we will wrap everything up. Okay. 10. Thank you: Here we are. At the end of this class. I really hope you enjoyed it. That you enjoyed watching me make something magical. Why do I think it's magical? Because I think lights make all the difference. Especially in this long winter nights. When we crave for life, right? Everything gets so dark so soon. We end up lighting candles and fairy lights, at least I do. And I always wanted to incorporate lights into my needle fail thing. And this was just the perfect opportunity and of course I wanted to share it. Now, as you can see, this is my scene. Now. I added a new house made in the same way as we did it in the first-class. But you know, the scene from the first-class needs it house. It's house. So I had to make a new one. And also I added a bit of snow on top of it. But if you want to learn how to do it, just watch my first-class. Anyways, this is how this thing looks like. Now. It's working. I can take everything out, switch the batteries, the lights, put it back, place it somewhere, and enjoy it. They outside right now. So it's not the same, but it's still cute. And I'm really, I challenge you to make something like this for yourself or maybe as a gift for your loved ones, maybe for your grandma, she might like it. And generally, I think when we do something cute, we put ourselves in so much better mood. And if we are happy and content, then those around us get hairpin content too. Wouldn't you agree? Also, I would kindly ask you to leave me a review so that I know how you liked it and if I even go and do something else, and most of all, I would like you to make a project for yourself and share it with me. Okay? You can share it here on Skillshare, that would be fabulous because others will see two and you might inspire somebody to make something similar. If you posted on Instagram where I'm usually more active than just tag me or use the hashtag created. We need me. And that's it. That's it for this class. Thank you again for watching and see you in the next one.