felted butterflies from scraps of wool!

These colourful needle felted butterflies are crafted from the tiniest bits of wool scraps I had collected, leftover from previous projects.

Like many creative people, I struggle to throw away anything that may be 'useful' one day. Im sure there are many of us out there that have cupboards full to the brim with just said items... the 'cupboard of doom'!

I was determined to use every bit of wool scrap in the bag, blending colours together. The first thing to do was to group the colours to see what I had, and whether it was possible to create at least one set of wings. Once the colour match was decided I needle felted the wool to create the wings for each butterfly....

...then using more scraps of contrasting wool I made the head, thorax and abdomen of the butterfly. For the detail and to create pattern on the wings I used some embroidery thread that I had received years ago from a kind old lady, yes a full shoebox of them hidden in the 'cupboard of doom'! Each coloured thread had been individually wound around a piece of scrap card with colour and reference numbers hand written on each side, probably many moons ago. 

As time went on, one e butterfly became many...

I was so pleased, over twelve butterflies made from scraps of wool destined for the bin, each one totally unique ready to be worn as beautiful brooches, was there any wool left ......just a small handful!

I reckon I could get at least two more butterflies out of that small stash...what do you think?

Anyhow, I am delighted to now offer these butterflies up for sale in the INSECT section of my Etsy shop, so head over and let these beauties flutter into your life and add a bit of colour to that summery outfit!