The Amazings Review - Needle felt a furry friend

If you haven't heard of The Amazing's before make sure you head over to their website after reading this post. I love the idea behind this website. I think they say it best on their about page...


Learning to knit with your grandma. Baking cakes with a favourite aunt. Spending long afternoon's swapping stories and dropping stitches. Years of experience passed down from one generation to the next. Many of us have learnt to make, mend and master from our elders. The Amazings are here to keep this tradition going. - The Amazings

All of The Amazing's classes are taught by their "Elders". This amazing bunch of women are all masters of their crafts and have many years of experience. There really is something so lovely about sitting down with your Nan and having her teach you something. This video really does give you that same feeling.

The video I'm reviewing today is Needle Felt a Furry Friend.
I chose this one because I could look at it with beginners eyes. Felt is one of my favourite mediums to work with but I always just use the sheets of felt you buy from a craft store. I've never tried needle felting before and I've always wanted to know more about it.

In this review I'm going to highlight the reasons why it's worth paying a for a tutorial from The Amazings rather than simply watching free ones on youtube.

Teacher and student back and forth convocation.
One of the things that I think makes this video stand out from other video tutorials is the interaction between the elder, Sue and the student, Lorna. Most video tutorials generally only have a teacher. Someone demonstrating a craft that they know how to do very well and may not be able to predict the kind of issues a beginner following along might have. There are a few spots through the videos where Lorna struggles and Sue is able to slow down and help her. I think this is wonderful! If Lorna is stuck or needs a bit of help on a step it is highly likely those watching the class will need those extra tips and advice too.

More detail
There is over 90 minutes of footage available in this class. They go through where needle felting started, different kinds of wool and needles as well as the basics of how to needle felt all before you start the project.

Several videos
The footage is broken down into separate videos making it SUPER easy to go back and watch a section again. I LOVED this feature because it also meant if you didn't have time to watch the whole thing you could watch a video at a time and not worry about loosing your place in the video.

Ask Sue
If you have any questions about the class you can actually talk to the teacher! There is a little section on the left side bar where you can type a message to the teacher and they reply to you by email. Such a good little feature.

I would really recommend watching the videos BEFORE you go any get your supplies. When I read over the supplies list before watching the videos I felt like maybe I was getting into something that would just go straight over my head (I'm still struggling with knitting and crochet...) However after watching the class I now understand what these supplies and materials looks like and it will now be much easier for me to go and find what I needed. You can of course then go back and watch the videos again and work along with them. :)

I learnt so much from these videos. I am just itching to get to a craft store to grab some needle felting stuff! I wouldn't be surprised if you see a needle felting project pop up on Crafted some time soon... ;)

WIN A SEWING MACHINE!!
The Amazing's are currently holding a BRILLIANT competition that I know ALL of you will want to enter. Who doesn't want to win a sewing machine!? If you really don't want one please feel free to enter, win and send me the machine, I will do that for you because I'm just that nice... ;)

Here's how to enter. If you join the Machine embroider a textile necklace class and send The Amazing's a photo of the necklace/accessory you have created from the class they will choose their favourite and the winner gets a machine up to the value of £300. The comp runs until the 15th of September so hop to it! ;)
Have you done a class with The Amazings? Would you consider paying for a video class?

I was not given any money in exchange for this post. I was given free access to the class to write an honest review. Everything in this post is my honest opinion. :)