1. I am blessed to live on a farm surrounded by inspiration for my needle felting projects.  A walk around the farm, a day of working cattle, visiting the new lambs in the barn or playing with the barn cats can usually stir up some needle felting inspiration on what I would like to felt next.  I have needle felted 100s of animal sculptures and I am continually on the lookout for a new animal with a unique personality to create.

I have made several cows in the past and they usually come about after a day of working with our small herd of cows.  I will notice a certain look, color pattern or personality that just begs to be felted.  We have often thought we should have an entire shelf of our felted herd, but we always find that we can’t afford to keep them, and I end up selling them.  We have to take care of the real herd somehow.  🙂  I was inspired to make my son’s 4H steer a couple years ago, his name was pudge.  When needed my son would lead him up by the house so that I could see what my sculpture was missing.

I will often take my camera with when walking around the farm and take pictures, I am sure you have seen most of them if you follow me on facebook or instagram.  These pictures come in handy later when I am needing some closeup pictures for my projects.

2. I like to photograph wildlife and have been anxious to get home and start felting after trips to national parks where I was able to view and photograph wildlife.  

3. When I haven’t been able to go to a national park or I would like to felt something other than what we raise here on the farm I look on the internet.  I have found thousands of pictures that inspire me on Pinterest.  I have dedicated an entire board to “Needle Felting Inspiration” and go there often when needing something new to inspire me.  Some animals are easy to find with pictures from every angle, but others are not.  It is extremely helpful to have pictures from all sides when felting a sculpture.  This takes a lot of time when researching a new project and I am thankful to be able to go back to this board often to find the pictures I have saved.

4.  I love felting realistic sculptures, but sometimes like to felt whimsical sculptures as well.   Most of these ideas come from my imagination, but others come from looking at children’s book illustrations.  I will find a cute smile, the way their eyes are situated or how they sit and this will inspire a whimsical felted character.  I have always enjoyed cute illustrations like this, and now that my children are too old for picture books I rely on Pinterest to find these adorable illustrations.  I have the cutest “illustrations board” on Pinterest.  I have always wished I could draw and so these artists are amazing to me and I love to look at their beautiful work for inspiration.

5.  I do not have any zoo’s close by, but I truly enjoy a trip to the zoo for inspiration.  I recently found 2 badgers at a zoo that were completely adorable.  I had never had the experience of viewing them so close and for so long.  I had always thought they were fierce and mean and found them to be as cute as little puppies.  You will find bunches of pictures of badgers on my Pinterest board because of this trip.