Student Sculpts Successful Needle Felting Business

Megan Nedds works on one of her needle felted creations

The Woolen Wagon is a felting business that UF student Megan Nedds started as a hobby. Her business creates needle-felted animals for commissions to clients all over the country. It started as a way to make a few extra dollars while in college but it recently took over as her main source of income.
Needle felting started as her hobby in December of 2012, but Nedds quickly turned it into a successful business in January of 2013. She started her business by posting a few animals she had created on Etsy, a site that allows homemade crafters, artists and many more to sell their creations online.
Once she sold the animals she had created, she received requests from clients for commissioned work. Now her business is strictly commissioned-based and she obtains orders mostly through The Woolen Wagon’s Facebook page.
The creation of these needle-felted sculptures takes a lot of dedication and time. The average-sized animal is eight inches long and takes Nedds two to three days to complete, which equates to approximately 15-25 hours total. Her biggest sculpture was an 18-inch giraffe.
There are multiple steps to create these lively animals. First, Nedds visually researches the animal by looking at pictures of it and of its skeleton. She recreates the skeleton with an aluminum wire and then wraps the armature with lower quality wool to form the shape. Finer quality wool is used for the topcoat.
Nedds buys her supplies from online felting suppliers. She also supports some local farmers in Marion, Ohio, her hometown, by buying some of their alpaca and sheep wool. She has also started selling her own supplies on her Etsy page.
In October, Nedds will travel to North Carolina to teach a needle felting class. Her students will create a deer from a kit that she will provide. When April rolls around, she will travel to Texas to teach another class where students will create an animal of their choosing. Nedds said she would consider creating a class or potentially a private lesson for people around the Findlay area if there was interest.
Currently Nedds is a senior graphic design and children’s book illustration major. Her career goal is to illustrate children’s books, but because of this field being extremely difficult to get into she has chosen graphic design as her career path.
Besides her needle-felted sculptures, Nedds enjoys creating many different types of art with different mediums. She paints with watercolors and oil; and draws with graphite, charcoal and sometimes pastels.
To purchase a needle-felted sculpture or to learn more about The Woolen Wagon, contact Megan Nedds at megan10-2@hotmail.com. Also look for The Woolen Wagon on Facebook, Pinterest and Etsy.