Needle Felted Monster Cactus

A long, long, long time ago Lady M asked me how long it takes to make one of these felty things and I had no idea.  This is the one project where I actually paid attention to the time.   In total, it took three hours, that included snacks, drinks, chatting and moving the eyeballs three or four times.

All you see here took an hour and a half and most of that was spent on the details.  Making the flower took the rest of the time because I felted each petal individually and it's harder to needle felt thin flat objects.  Sometimes wet felting is a better option for thin pieces but you do have to wait for them to dry.

Size wise you can see what three hours got me.  There's a trade off with size, obviously the larger an object the more stabbing that's involved.  But it's easier to do the detail work, which gets fussier the smaller you go.

This is what he would look like with flaming red curly locks.

I should say for safety purposes you should never needle felt distracted, angry or under the influence.  The needles are very sharp.   That being said, we generally have cocktails on Stabby Nights and on this particular night we had Raspberry Mimosas which were quite yummy and as a bonus I now have this awesome bottle to use for potions.  

The inspiration for this cactus came from Woolbuddies.  I don't have any experience with the kits, but the book is awesome and I think the style is easy for beginners to pick up.  Many of my stabby friends started out making the simpler Woolbuddy creatures.  There are a few how-to videos that are worth checking out.  The frog and the penguin are favorite among my friends.