I often get asked “How easy is needle felting?” and “How young can you start needle felting?”so I asked Marie Spalding (US based Felting Artist) and Barbara Allen (New Zealand based needle felting author) their opinions…

Barbara says:

My granddaughter, aged 2, sat beside me and tried needle felting, with supervision, and she managed to poke the wool on the foam.

I have seen 4 year olds needlefelting, and they love it, they can poke a blob of this and a blob of that wool on to a felt base.

By 8 years old they will be able to make 3-D shapes and flat pictures.I am sure an 8 year old would be fine with my book, although Mum may need to help guide them through the instructions, depending on their reading level too. Lovely to see young children keen to learn needle felting, it is a craft that will ‘bend’ to each person’s level of ability, and give lots of pleasure and sense of achievement.

Marie says:

I usually recommend age 12, still with supervision, as those felting needles are so very sharp. But with proper education (and bright, responsible kids) our customers have used our felting kits with children as young as 8.

Here is a group of home-school kids in Germany having a blast with our felt supplies making ladybugs 🙂

Well, that has certainly given me a better picture of needle felting with children, and I hope it has given you some idea of how young one can begin needlefelting….

I feel it is important to say though, that EACH child is different and you will most likely have some idea of your child’s ability level compared to children of their own age, so use that as a guide too. Often if a child is keen to try something they will do better than a child of an older age that is not interested!

: ) Happy needle felting!
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bye for now,
Pauline