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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Holiday crafts are everywhere during this festive season. Ornament making, cookie baking, and gift wrapping are among the popular. However, the Medfield Public Library offered a twist on the traditional craft by offering needle felting. This past Thursday was the fourth time the library has offered this activity, led by Pam Gardner, who is charge of Adult Services and a Technology Librarian. “One of my coworkers had done it and I was like, ‘Oh I’ve done that a couple times!’ And it’s a really good option because you get the needles, you get the sponges, and every time you just buy more wool,” she explained. “We try to do it seasonally.”
This past evening’s creation was a penguin. Previously, Pam has led the creation of a pumpkin for fall, a snowman for winter, and a leaf for last fall. “We actually made the mold for that with our 3-D printer, so it was kind of like a cross-promotion of all of our resources,” she said. This particular shape, the penguin, took about an hour to complete. “We’re making the body. And then the tricky part is going to be right the top of the head to make that shape, so that’s next.”
Pam explained how exactly the finished product comes together. “The needle is sharp on the end and barbed on the side. The fibers have scales, which when run together, create this material called felt,” she explained. “It’s the same principle as industrial felt; they’re made with a bunch of these needles all packed into a machine and then they pound the wool. So if you actually look at the piece of felt from a craft store, you see little indentations, which is what that’s about. So it’s the same, but on a smaller scale and more intricate.”
While other forms of crafting with wool - such as knitting - have a long history, needle felting is relatively new. “It’s kind of up-and-coming, because crafters just took the industrial needles and starting making stuff with them. I think it’s within the past 30 or 40 years,” Pam said. “It has a pretty low barrier of entry, you just need to be able to poke at the wool.”
The most important part? “And we do provide finger guards, because you are working with a needle for the first time.”
