Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Fuzzy Felted Friends [Paperback]

Saori Yamazaki (Author)

Book Description

Series: Crafts | Publication Date: April 2, 2008

Say hello to your new best pals. These felted friends hail from Japanhomeland of all things cute. Inside this book, you'll find over 25 translated patterns that combine the appeal of authentic Japanese content with the ease of English instruction. Cheerful photographs, step-by-step directions, and helpful how-to illustrations make it easy to whip up both water- and needle-felted projects. There's no knitting involved; simply treat raw wool fibers with either a felting needle or water and detergent to create these little creatures. Cute and cuddly, they're also useful! An elephant cozy warms a teakettle; a whimsical bird mobile adorns a nursery; wee mouse pincushions hold your needles; while piglets, giraffes, zebras, or sheep carry all your gear in handy totes and pouches. Practice with these projects and then adapt the techniques to design your own personal stable of felted friends.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811860663
• ISBN-13: 978-0811860666
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lot of felting without needles, July 20, 2008

By 

Elizabeth Ray (Stockton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Fuzzy Felted Friends (Paperback)

I was excited to purchase this book, since I recently invested in the supplies necessary for needle felting. The cover of the book suggested that the projects inside would appeal to me. The book was ultimately disappointing, because other than the dogs on the cover and a few other projects most of the content requires wet felting rather than needle felting. Although some of the projects such as the bird coin purse look great, I don't have the materials necessary for wet felting.

This book would not be good for beginners because the instructions are vague, and consist mostly of patterns and dimensions. Little guidance is given on how to construct and attach basic shapes.

If you enjoy both needle and wet felting this would be a good choice for you. If you are only interested in needle felting then do not buy this book - choose one that is devoted solely to needle felting.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice Pictures-Weak Instructions, May 22, 2008

By 

Denise "online shopper" (Long beach, ca) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Fuzzy Felted Friends (Paperback)

I was drawn in to buying this book based off of the cover photo which was exactly the type of work I wanted to learn to make. The description states, "step-by-step directions, and helpful how-to illustrations make it easy". However the instructions for most of these creations only had four steps and a few illustrations. The illustrations would tell you what size diameter you should make the body and head, but gives you no idea about what quantity of wool to start with or what specific techniques to use. The photos are adorable to look at, but as a "how to book" falls extremely short.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Remember it *is* from a Japanese book, July 2, 2009

By 

Francie Horton (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Fuzzy Felted Friends (Paperback)

The next two books are courtesy of the Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts book series by Chronicle Books. The series includes four books: Amigurumi, Fuzzy Felted Friends, Lacy Crochet and Woolly Embroidery. Since I don't crochet I only have the embroidery and felting books.

The books were originally published in Japanese and have been translated into English. We've all run into badly translated foreign movies, instructions, and websites. These are nothing like that. They have been remarkably well done. The only thing that gives away their foreign nature is the naivete of the text.

Woolly Embroidery begins with 33 pages of color photos of the motifs and projects. This is followed by a guide to wool embroidery, useful tools and materials and thread color charts. There are also clear illustrations for 30 different decorative stitches. I find that particularly useful. The patterns are adorable, some even having a touch of that 1970's crewelwork look that's so popular.

Fuzzy Felted Friends is laid out in the same manner, with about half the book being full color photos of the projects. Several pages of step-by-step photos of the different techniques follow. The instructions for the projects are next and, fortunately, have both metric and standard measurements. It includes projects for wet and dry felting, for both felted animals and pouches/bags, for useful items and purely decorative cuteness.

I would say these books are suited to the crafter who has had some experience.However, they do have projects that are do-able by the beginner with a little bit of patience. I do wish there was a little bit more substance to each of them but $15 for an 80 page softcover book is still fairly reasonable.