Make Your Own Felt Eyeballs

Eyeballs are my favourite things to make. They're fairly simple to make, they look awesome, and they're creepy.

I use them in many ways, wear them as brooches, wrap their stem around things or add them to plants. Some examples are shown in the photos.

They also make great Halloween toys and they're not made of plastic.

If you enjoy making these please consider buying me a ko-fi here, or if you can't afford that sharing this instructable on social media would be great too.

Red wool - I use this lovely bright poppy red from the Makerss you can find here

White wool - I use white corridale slivers from World of Wool found here

Coloured wool for the iris - pick what ever colour you fancy. I have several colours made up as brooches so I can wear eyeballs to complement my mood or coordinate with my clothing.

Black wool - it's important you buy a dyed black so it is all one colour, a natural black is often mixed with very dark brown.

Always buy wool specially marked as for 3D needlefelting Something with body, don't buy roving! The two online shops I have linked to both have very good needlefelting wool and they have always given me great service but there are plenty of others out there.

PVA glue

Wire 0.8 mm craft wire - I buy this online but if you are lucky your local art shop might have some.

Optional extras:

Straighteners (an iron might do if used carefully)

Hair spray

A brooch bin

1 mm Wire to make flying eyes

Plastic hair band

Green wool.

We start by making the eyeballs fleshy tail. To make this flexible I use a metal wire armature, 0.8 mm wire is ideal for this, it bends easily into what ever pose you require.

I used red wire in the photos because I had some, but any colour wire is fine, it will be covered in wool anyway.

Use a length of wire double the length you want the eyeball stalk to be. Eyeballs can be any size really, I make tiny ones up to golfball sized ones with 0.8mm wire.

Pull off a long wisp of red wool, coat a couple of centimetres at the end of the wire with a light covering of PVA glue and then wrap the wool round the wire wrapping it tightly over itself and the glue so it stays firmly in place.

Stab into the wool as you wrap, keeping the needle parallel with the wire so the needle and wire do not touch. Work down the wire, coating it in glue and then wrapping it in wool. Wrap tightly until you have covered the whole wire in a thin layer of red wool.

Bend the wool wrapped wire just off center to make the two different length fleshy parts.
Wrap some white wool around the red at the bend. Attach it firmly, by stabbing it with your felting needle to build up a white eyeball sized ball.

Next we will add a pupil. Pull off a small amount of black wool and shape it into a disc. Place it on the center of the eyeball opposite where the wire is attached and stab it gently to attach it on. Then pick a base colour for the iris and pull off a strand of that colour. Felt that colour in a circle around the pupil as a base, then we will add one ore more different shades to make the eye look more realistic. Flat colour is rarely seen in nature, take a look at your own irises, you will see they're not one shade but a mix of light and dark shades, or even a mix of a couple of colours. Eyes vary a lot. Have a look at your own eyes and other peoples, there are many ways to play around with irises. To mix the iris colour we pull off a really thin strand of a lighter colour and felt that on around the pupil loosely. You want it to gently blend into the outer darker blue so spread the wool out a little at the outer edge so the two colours mix.
Then we add the illusion of shine. Pull off a small piece of white wool and roll it into a really small sausage. Felt it on to the eyeball across the pupil and iris in a curve so it creates the illusion that the eyeball is glistening.

Now we add more flesh. Pull off a large length of red fluff and start felting it round the eyeball in a circle. Wrap it round and felt it on from the edge of the eyeball to the tail so it tapers smoothly. stab towards the tail so no red wool gets pushed into the white eyeball where it might show through. Make sure the needle stays in the wool as you felt, if it comes out of the wool it will push the wool out with it making a rough surface.

Add a brooch pin to your eyeball and wear it as a stylish brooch.

Use sharp scissors or shears to cut a gash in the bottom of your eyeball. Make it fairly deep.

Cut a length of wire a little bit longer than the height you want your eyeball to be from the plant, skull or vase you plan to display it on.

Coat the end of the wire in pva and wrap it with a thin strip of wool. Bend the wool wrapped end onto it's self, then bend the wool end so it's at a 90 degree angle to the wire length.

Place the wool wrapped end of the wire inside the cut hole. Carefully felt the wool on the wire to the eyeball and then felt the hole closed so the eyeball is firmly attached.

First make a flying eye. Then pull off a strip of green wool.
Wrap it around the eyeball above the wire and felt it on.
Leave some exposed red around the eyeball and leave the tail behind.

Coat the wire with glue and wrap it with wool. Then felt it along the wire, using the needle almost parallel with the wire rather than straight through at 90 degrees. or the wool will be pushed out through, also you do not want to hit the wire with the needle.
Once the wire is wrapped pull a second length of wool off and felt it along the length to cover any spiral marks left by the first wrapping. That gives us a neat top coat. Again stab parallel to the wire.
Leave an inch or two of clear wire at the bottom to put into soil or a vase.