Makeyourpresentsfelt

Hello, I'm Chrissie from makeyourpresentsfelt.

I first started to felt when I saw the work of some children with special educational needs at a school in UK where I was a volunteer mentor. I have always been a ‘crafter’ and really wanted to try felting for myself. One of the teachers showed me how to wet-felt over a pebble and then there was no stopping me!

These are some of my all-wool pebbles.

I’ll felt with just about anything, but it’s always nice to have some fine merino that felts really easily so that you can get quick results! Natural colours of the countryside always seem to be the ones that I return to, and grey. Though I do like to add more explosive and eye-catching shades for contrast.

I opened my Etsy shop over a year ago and I find the marketing and publicising aspect to be the biggest challenge. I am not really someone who finds it easy to draw attention to their work – I love doing it, and it’s such a lovely feeling when people admire it, but it’s always a surprise, too!

There are just so many wonderful talented people who sell through Etsy that it would be almost impossible to narrow it down, (I have about 68 pages of favourites!) but I particularly admire a lot of the European artists like lapomme, who tells magical stories to go with her items, hensteeth for the freedom of spirit in her mixed media collages using old letters and envelopes, and Sassalynne for the wonderful array of colours she dyes into her threads, yarns and textiles and for her boundless energy. Don’t get me started on the jewellery shops I adore!

Even if I never ever sell another felted thing, I will always be a felter – it’s such a versatile and magical process that you can experiment with in an infinite number of ways and is a constant delight. And I could always help FeltElf with her yurt!