Step 1- You are going to carefully pull off small chunks of felt, this is done by holding the large amount of felt in one hand, then with your other hand you will use your palm and fingers to lightly pull the felt away from the larger amount. You do not want it to rip or be difficult to pull, it should want to simply slide apart. Refer to photo 1.
You will then lay the chunks of felt in different directions working around in a circle. This is important because having the felt fibers going in different directions will allow for it to felt together more easily. Refer to photo 2, in the photo you can see how the fibers go in different directions this is what you want. I added a little silk fiber to make it more interesting and experiment. You can add different shades of green or different colors to give a different look. Once you’re happy with the amount of fiber you put down we are going to move onto the next step.

Step 2- Using your felting needle you are going to make an “X” through the fibers, this will be the outline for your clover leaves. Refer to photo 3

Step 3- At this point we’re going to add the top of a heart to each X this will give our clover it’s iconic heart shape. Refer to photo 4

At this point, I pulled up the project from off of the mat so that I can flip it over. We are now going to work on the backside of our clover. Refer to photo 5 and 6

Step 4- We are going to carefully fold over the extra fiber to the backside, by extra fiber, I mean everything that was outside of our outline of the clover. As we do this we are going to felt the fibers down. This will allow our clover to have a clean outline. Refer to photo 7 and 8.

At this point your going to notice that the shape got a little lost and it looks more like a circle, but that is OK. This is one of those things where you have to trust the process and as we do this, we’re going to explore and learn together.

Step 5- Go ahead and flip the clover back over, as I said it may look just like a circle. We are going to felt the X back in. Refer to photo 9 and 10

Step 6- We are going to be adding our heart shape back into the clover, so while holding your felting needle at an angle, you’re going to felt in towards the center of your clover and make the indentations for the heart. We are also going to make that same indentation in between each leaf to make the definition of the leaves. Refer to photo 11
While adding in our indentations you should also work on felting the leaves down to make them more stiff and flat. Refer to photo 12, here you will notice that the leaves with the indentations have also been felted down and are not as fluffy as the other half.
We are going to continue this process, going all the way around the clover felting the indentations and felting the clover so that it is more stiff and flat. Refer to photo 13

Yes this is a process and no it doesn’t have to be perfect, felt is a very forgiving material and it is so fun to work with, you will see in photo 13 my clover is lopsided and quite funny looking, but that’s ok.

Step 7- Here you are going to continue to felt and shape your clover, and this is where we are going to experiment a little. I did not like the way my clover was looking so I took scissors and cut in between the leaves. My intentions were to help show the definition of the leaves. Refer to photo 14 and 15.
Where ever you make a cut you then create a raw edge so you have to felt the cut edges. You do this by felting inward towards the leaf. Refer to photo 16

Step 8- At this point I put on my leather finger protectors and I held the clover and felted all around, making sure to felt all the edges. Refer to photo 17

Step 9- At this point I was not thrilled with the look of my clover so I got the scissors back out. I cut the clover apart and then felted all of the raw edges, I also took this time to try and make all of the leaves the same size. Refer to photo 18, 19, and 20

Step 10- Take all of the loose leaves and arrange them in the order that looks best to you. Photo 21

Step 11- Felt all of the leaves together. I want to make mine into a brooch, so I am going to add a little extra felt to the back in order to strengthen it. Refer to photo 22 and 23

You can keep working on it until it’s the way you want it to be. Remember felt is forgiving and fun to work with. I hope that you enjoy this project and felt a little good luck.