Elephant Air Plant Pot

Gather Supplies

Wool – I used roughly 20 grams of fine merino wool in Ash color.
Needles – Size 32 for bulk felting, Size 38 for fine felting
Gripper – Your preferred needle gripper either hard or soft

-Links to Products Below –

MAKE LEGS

Make two equal piles of wool. You can see in the image that the finished rectangle legs are roughly 1.5 x 1 inches.
** TIP ** If you have a kitchen scale, you can make sure each leg is exactly the same. Just weigh the finished leg, then weigh a new pile of wool to match.
When felting shapes, I like to tie my roving in a knot and fold the loose wool over. This gives the needle something to felt into.
Continue felting until smooth and shaped.

MAKE FLAT FELT FOR THE BODY

Steam iron a pile of wool flat. You can also needle felt a pile of wool flat, but this process of steaming is much easier and quicker. You will still need to needle felt this piece, but the iron gets you started.
You can see by the picture below that my pile was roughly 5 inches in diameter. It started out as a loose pile at least 5 inches high as well.
For help steam felting, see the video below.

ATTACH THE LEGS TO BODY

Start by placing the legs where you’ll want them. Mine are about an inch apart. Make sure they’re centered on the flat body piece.
Felt through the top of the flat body piece into the leg. ** TIP ** Make sure to felt across the top and over the lip of the edg slightly. This way when you flip it over, you can felt around the leg where it meets the body and get a really smooth seamless look.

BEGIN TO FELT AND SHAPE THE BODY

There’s no pretty way to do this… I thought it was a mess all the way until it wasn’t. ** TIP ** Use the corner of your foam to felt curved objects.

Just keep going… and going… and going…

OUTSIDE

Don’t add felt to the outside, just keep poking to get the smooth look.

** TIP ** Once the body is as tall as you want it, make a pleat or fold at the rim and felt it flat. This wil give your elephant a nice rounded shape.

INSIDE

This is where you’ll add felt to make the walls even. You’ll notice as you feel them that there a lots of thin spots. Just add wool where needed and continue felting.

Top Edge

When the walls are even and as tall as you want. It’s time to “hem” the edge. I do this by holding it and felting vertically along the edge. This gives it a really finished look. Careful though!! It’s easy to poke your fingers doing this.

Make head

This is just a half sphere.
Felt until firm, but not finished. You’ll finish smoothing after attaching it to the body.

MAKE TRUNK

Measure from the feet to the top of the head.
This is how long you want to make the trunk.
Twist or fold roving to proper length and felt in a circular fashion making a straw stape. Leave one end wispy for applying it to the head. Felt the other end flat.

Attach and Shape head

Attach the head to the body. Notice that the top of my head is higher than the lip of the body.
Add extra fiber to the outside of the head where needed to blend the seams and get the desired shape you want.

attach trunk

Use the loose wool to add to the head.
Apply more wool if needed to give it a good shape.
Now’s a good time, before attaching ears, to smooth and finish the elephant. Be patient and take your time.