Rustic Fiber Academy

Rustic Fiber Academy Learn how to needle felt with Rustic Fiber Academy. An online community, dedicated to teaching needle felting to anyone who wants to learn.

Courses for all skill levels and so much more. Rustic Fiber Academy is a learning platform for needle felting artists of all levels. With over 100 in-depth tutorials, we teach the fundamentals of wool sculpting—covering techniques like armature building, realistic detailing, and working with natural fibers. Whether you're just starting or refining your skills, our courses are designed to guide you step-by-step and help you grow with confidence as a fiber artist.

08/24/2026

Sometimes the best way to get creative again is to make something small.

This stump has been perfect for that this summer. It’s a big project, but most of the things I’m adding to it aren’t. I can make a tiny mole, a mushroom, a feather, a moth, whatever I feel like working on that day.

It’s become a place for me to just play. I don’t have to sit down and commit to hours of work or even have much of a plan. I can make one little thing and usually, somewhere in the middle of making it, I’m already thinking about what I want to make next.

Creative begets creativity.

Now that I’m back in the studio full time, I can definitely feel that momentum building again. And I’m ready to see where it goes.

If you could make anything just for yourself, what would you make?Take away the practical stuff for a minute. You have t...
08/21/2026

If you could make anything just for yourself, what would you make?

Take away the practical stuff for a minute. You have the space. You have the funds. You have all the materials you need. And let's give you all the time you need too.

You don't have to think about whether it will sell, whether it will do well on social media, whether it fits with what you normally make, or whether anyone else will even understand why you want to make it.

It can be huge. Tiny. Completely impractical. Something you've had in the back of your mind for years. Or something you just thought of right now.

What would you make simply because you want to make it?

I'll put mine in the comments. I really want to hear yours too.

08/20/2026

I’ve been cleaning the studio this week and making a few changes before I really get back to work out here.

This is one of my little splurges.

I spend SO much time leaning over my felting projects, and my back is not a fan. I’ve tried a few different setups over the years, but somehow I’m always still hunched over something.

So I decided to try a watercolor easel as my felting surface.

I can move it up, change the angle, bring my work closer to me and hopefully spend a lot less time folded over my table.

I’ve only just started using it, so we’ll see how it goes, but so far I really like it.

If you want to know which easel I got, just ask. I’m not making anything from sharing it. I just know I can’t be the only one whose back is getting tired of needle felting. 😂

08/19/2026

I’ve been thinking a lot about where inspiration comes from.

We have SO much inspiration right in front of us now. You can open Instagram or Pinterest and find a thousand things you want to make in about five minutes.

But I think sometimes that can backfire.

Because now you’ve seen what someone else made. You have that image in your head. And when you try it and yours doesn’t look like theirs, suddenly you’re comparing. Something that was supposed to inspire you is now making you question what you made.

But it’s also scary NOT to look.

It’s hard to start making something when you don’t have a picture in front of you showing you where you’re going.

I think that’s why I like to start small. Really small. Make one little thing. Try something. See what happens.

Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I never finish it. But while I’m making it, I might notice something that makes me think of something else.

And then I follow that.

I absolutely still use reference photos. A lot of them. But sometimes I want the idea to come first. Then I can go find the references I need to figure out how to make it work.

I think we spend so much time looking for things to inspire us that we forget to see what our own work is already giving us.

I’m curious how this works for you. Where do your ideas come from when you’re not looking for them?

08/17/2026

I really do try to have a plan. 😂

Mountain goats were supposed to be next for the Academy. Then I started thinking about the cows at the end of our road, and that was pretty much the end of that plan.

So we got a cow instead.

Right now I’m working on the calf in the lavender field course to go along with her, and yes, the mountain goats are still coming! They’ve just been bumped to September.

This is pretty much how I work. I make plans, but when an idea takes over, I usually follow it.

Are you good at sticking to the plan, or does the new idea usually win?

I used to make needle felting a lot more complicated than it needed to be.I worried about whether I was using the “right...
08/14/2026

I used to make needle felting a lot more complicated than it needed to be.

I worried about whether I was using the “right” needle for a certain job. But play around with them long enough and you’ll discover your favorite needles, and they probably won’t be what they were intended for.

I thought some tools weren’t really needle felting. I spent way too much time looking for specialized supplies when sometimes the answer was sitting in my kid’s craft bin.

The glue one still makes me laugh. I tried all sorts of glues looking for the perfect one to use with wool. Turns out, a plain old glue stick works better for me than anything else I tried.

Over time, I’ve gotten a lot less fussy about all of it.

Learn the techniques. Learn how to use your tools safely. Then experiment. Create how you want to create. Add paint, wire, wood, clay, resin, glue, or whatever else helps you make what you have in your head. Or be a purist and just use wool if that’s where you feel led. There isn’t one right way to do this.

And if you’re looking at needle felting thinking you aren’t crafty or artistic enough to try it, you don’t need those skills before you begin. Those skills grow as you go.

There’s a lot more room to play with needle felting than I realized when I started. And I think it’s a whole lot more fun that way.

08/13/2026

Are you a minimalist artist or a collecting artist?

I am definitely a collecting artist.

And I'm not talking about art supplies. I collect feathers, pine cones, rocks, driftwood, little antiques, trinkets, and all sorts of things I find interesting.

My collection is pretty extensive at this point, and it's tucked into drawers, boxes, and random nooks and crannies all over the place.

Some things I keep simply because they inspire me. Some become references when I'm working on a piece. And some eventually find their way into the artwork itself.

I don't always know what I'm going to do with something when I bring it home. I just know it might come in handy someday.

Please tell me I'm not the only artist with little collections hiding everywhere. 😂

08/12/2026

My needle felting projects move a little slower in the summer.

My son is home from school, and a lot more of my time and attention goes to him. So instead of long stretches of felting, I'm usually fitting it in here and there when I can.

I have several pieces moving along this way right now, and this stump is one of them.

With a piece like this, though, slow isn't necessarily a bad thing. Every time I come back to it, I seem to see another little place where I could add something or another story I could tuck in.

There are still mice, moths, flies, bees, ferns, moss, flowers and plenty of other tiny details to come.

It's slow going, but then again, there really isn't anything fast about needle felting.

08/11/2026

Breaking a felting needle every once in a while happens. Breaking them constantly is a sign that something might be off.

Technique is usually the first thing I would check, especially whether you're changing the angle of the needle while it's still in the wool.

But the quality of your needles matters too. Not all felting needles are made the same, and sometimes the needles included in beginner kits aren't the best quality. If you're confident in your technique and still breaking needles regularly, try switching needles and see if that makes a difference.

A few of my favorite places to get good felting needles are:

HeidiFeathers




A good needle really does make a difference.

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