Welcome to my birding world of life-like wool-sculpted birds, where no detail is too small or feather too tiny for me to notice and recreate in fibre.

Hand-made using needlefelt techniques my bird feathers and the plants that the birds come posed on are all made by me using plant and sheared animal fibres, ethically sourced and sustainably used.

I have lots of exciting ideas for bird making this year which are setting my needles aquiver with anticipation.

To kick the year off, I am offering you, for the first time on Folksy, a chance to commission whichever Tiny Bird might make your heart thrill, mounted in an adorable dainty bell jar. I'll explain more in the listing itself, but do plan to purchse ahead of time if you have a tiny bird gift in mind for someone or at sometime special. Each one takes several hours to complete, longer if you want to add botanical elements into the design.

Right now, I am busy designing and making some very colourful tiny birds for Valentine's Day. One or two can try to guess who if you spot the little clue in this message.

Jacqui x

Hand-made realistic birds sculpted in wool.

Here are ten things you might not know about me, just in case you are feeling terribly curious:

+ I started making birds in wool after I had Covid-19 and didn’t fully recover my health
+ I hand-make birds using the needle-felt technique, which involves manipulating wool fibre using sharp, barbed needles
+ It took 20+ hours of work to make the smallest bird I have sculpted, the Goldcrest
+ Inspiration comes from watching birds on the beach and on bike rides, and when visiting RSPB reserves or local sanctuaries
+ I work on one bird at a time, concentrating on the details of plumage, colour and form to make them as life-like as I can
+ My work-room is a spare bedroom in my tiny Victorian terraced house at a very thin desk in Whitstable
+ Though I made different things whilst I was learning to felt, I now concentrate only on bird sculpture
+ My favourite bird is the sea-piercing, wind-riding, sharp-eyed Gannet
+ Beach-combing for wood along the Kent coast is a wonderful excuse to take a daily beach walk
+ I have a one-eared black and white cat called Puddington

Find Mindful Felting on social media

• Instagram
• Facebook