Needle felt makes a wonderful base upon which to do machine embellishment.
The needles are the actual needles used in factories to make commercial felt,
they are extremely sharp and microscopically barbed. We worked on platforms
of foam rubber, with colorful wool roving as the main material, and
experimented with adding bits of fabrics and yarns as well. Work can be flat
or multi-dimensional.

The roving is placed on the foam platform, then jabbed with the needle, which
causes the wool fibers to begin felting. The more you jab, the tighter the
felt becomes. Contouring is easy by controlling the amount of jabbing you do
in an area. More appendages or colors can be added as needed by simply
needling in the new pieces.

We got our needles and roving at Weaving Works. There is also a book
available there.