Needle Felting

BearWitched

Article by Bobbie Ripperger

Restrained: She Who Must Be Obeyed by Bobbie Ripperger

All of Bobbie's creations are 3 inches tall

Needle Felting is basically a Needle, some Fiber and Imagination! One either feels the artistic experience or not; it cannot be forced.

Hi all; my name is Bobbie Ripperger and I’d like to step in here occasionally and write about my favorite Fiber experiences – Needle Felting! That’s a very strong first statement I just made – let me explain.

Needle Felting has been called everything from the latest craze in bear making to a centuries old pastime just recently rediscovered. Here are the facts. The barbed needle that is used came out of industrial development for the textile trade, 40 - 50 years ago.

In 1980 the Stanwoods in Massachusetts put a needle into the hands of Ayala Talpai and said “See what you can do with this.” As Ayala was a (wet) felter she first used the single needle to embellish her flat worked felt.

Gradually the needles spread through the fiber communities; a doll maker gave me my first needles in 2000. Within a year I noted fellow miniature teddy bear makers adding details like needle-felted muzzles and hair to their 3” creations. I’d put mine away when family responsibilities took my time but dug them out again in 2001.

At the time I had just white and brown wool – hmmm….. what to make?? A replica of an award winning polar cub would be a good place to start. The result is laughable! I was even going to armature it! It began to look more like a lady; first an Amish style doll, no…Wait! I think I’m getting facial features needled in! A Navajo Lady. Ah, forget it… it will never become a Cubblet as I’d made for the award winning Polar bear set.

I was using the wrong fiber, the wrong needles, the wrong process and just plain didn’t know how to go about creating a 3-D sculpture. But my first Valuable Lesson was learned: the combination of wool and felting needles sometimes have a mind of their own – you’ll start out with one design in mind and it may become an entirely different species! Very serendipitous!

Back to the Drawing Board! I pulled out the brown wool and put the individually shaped ‘parts’ of one of my successful fabric kits into my mind’s eye and replicated it. The kit rabbit’s name was Debonare Hare and I found to my surprise that not only could I replicate his shape and size, but I could continue to evolve his shaping with more motion in his stance than the original, right as I needled him! Hey!! That’s all this fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants artist needed – a way to make it up as I worked!

The third and fourth pieces were polar bears and I knew – after 15 years of bear making - I’d finally found my niche. In some yet-unexplainable manner, I’ve found an unconscious link between my brain and my hands, bypassing all known thought processes. Now those 2 body parts ‘understand’ what I want to create and how to get there. It’s spooky!

In going on to writing and teaching, I maintain that there are 3 main principles/advantages that Needle Felted sculptures have over fabric creations:

Everything is changeable.

Everything is ‘fixable’.

And, there is no waste.

Lady by Bobbie Ripperger

Changeable – Start with a basic idea and needle it in any direction to change the pose, the expression or the species!

Fixable – Limbs too long? Don’t match? Muzzle too fat? Too babyish-looking? More wool is added, taken away or more time spent needling and you have a brand-new creation.

Wasted – I’ve always pondered about the value of fabric: when on the bolt, every square inch has the same price value. As soon as the pattern pieces are cut out, the ‘scrap’ is virtually ‘worthless’.

In Needle Felting, all fiber trimmed off goes right into the very firmly needled core of the next piece. Color & fiber breed make no difference as you begin to build upon this solid base.

In other words, this is The Perfect Skill and craft medium!!

In future newsletters I’ll introduce you to many more possibilities.

And the opening statement? That’s where this is a One Skill Fits All.

Are you a knitter/crocheter? A ‘scrapper’? A weaver? Doll maker? Bear maker? Teacher - Librarian – Homeschooler? Building a home?

There are ways to adapt this to everyone’s field of expertise.

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Roberta Kasnick Ripperger, or Bobbie as she is called, made her first miniature teddy bear in January 1990 and in September 1991 gave up her custom knitting business to make only miniature teddy bears.

Bobbie began knitting when she was 5 years old. She has been a teacher of Knitting, Crocheting, Tatting, Bobbin Lace making and now miniature teddy bears and other animals. She has written a book on Designing Miniature Teddy Bears (now out of print), written columns in 2 Teddy Bear Clubs' newsletters and is hard at work collating materials for the next book, a comprehensive book on Needle Felting.

Until last year, Bobbie exhibits at approximately 6 - 10 Teddy Bear shows each year in the U.S.A. and at the Teddybar Total Show in Munster, Germany, where she sells kits and patterns, tool and notions as well as her bears.

She has been nominated for Teddy Bear & Friends magazine's TOBYsm Awards and Teddy Bear Review's Golden Teddytm Awards and has won the TOBYsm - Teddy Bear of the Year - in 1998, 1999 and 2000 in the Miniature, 3" and under, Undressed category.

Bobbie's miniature bears are in many museums around the world, from Switzerland to Korea to the United States.

Bobbie finds her designs from watching people and animals, reading stories and history. The bears receive 'titles' rather than names, which are often found on maps and in dictionaries.

Her favorite bear is the last one she has just made, but she does not keep them for herself - she collects Sheep, not Teddies! Bobbie's web site is Beyond Basic Bears.