What is Little Blue Artworks
Little Blue Artworks is a needle felting workshop, kit and craft design company owned and operated by award-winning fibre artist Nicky Cairney. Nicky offers a choice of one-off needle felting project boxes, monthly needle felting mystery boxes and needle felting workshops, currently hosted online where crafters come together to work on one of Nicky's needle felting project.
Little Blue Artworks typical craft projects
This craft subscription box project is always a needle felting project. Past projects have included animal needle felting sculptures and sweet circular animal forms. Some are more realistic than others, but they are always very cute. Sometimes the projects take more sculptural forms where you are building a needle felting form around a wire frame for structure. Sometimes you get more than one make included in a monthly subscription box. We tested the December 2021 subscription box that was for five Christmas tree baubles – 4 sweet animals and a Christmas pudding
How much is a Little Blue Artworks subscription box?
Monthly boxes cost £20 each with an automatic monthly payment, or you can get a discount of 5, 10 or 20 percent if you pay upfront for a 3, 6 or 12-month subscription respectively. These costs include free UK delivery.
Is Little Blue Artworks good value for money?
These boxes offer excellent value for money based on the quality and quantity of the materials and the level of detail given in the instructional tutorial. Instructions are only available as a video online, there are no written instructions, so this box is only suitable for crafters with an internet connection and device for viewing video content.
What are the subscription terms?
If you opt for monthly payments of £20 per box, you can cancel the auto payment at any time before the next box is sent – subscription cut out is on the 20th of the month, with boxes sent out to arrive on the 1st of the following month. If you pay for 3, 6 or 12 months upfront, your purchase is for that subscription period. You get a discounted rate but are then committed to your subscription period.
Little Blue Artworks What’s in the box
Your box contains the core wool you need to make your project, as well as all the different bundles of coloured roving yarn you need to needle felt your creation. You also get any additions you need to embellish or form the project, such as core wire, or pipe cleaner to make antler embossments. A hand-made pad and needles are sent with first box, with new needles supplied every 6 months your subscription runs.
Are the projects supplies good quality?
Roving yarn was clean and well ordered in our box, with more than enough colour for the makes, as well as some bonus colours included to give a choice of scarf colour for our characters. Core wool had some debris in it – but this is very typical of core wool for needle felting and is easily removed. The overall impression was that Nicky, as a crafter wants to help other crafters enjoy their hobby so is not skimping on quantity or quality of the materials that her company provides.
What are the delivery options? If you weren’t in during time of delivery, was it left in a safe place?
The box is letterbox sized so it should not matter if you’re out! But there are no choices on delivery options, the monthly box is posted out to arrive on the 1st of each month.
Are the boxes available nationwide in the UK?
You can purchase subscription boxes with delivery included in the cost from the website, for delivery by post across the UK. International monthly boxes are also available, but at a higher costs of £30 per month. International subscriptions get a discount of 5, 10 or 20 percent if you pay upfront for a 3, 6 or 12-month subscription respectively
How much packaging is there?
All packaging is recyclable and the box is sturdy and could easily be reused. No plastic is included in the plastic packaging, the roving yarns and additions come wrapped together in a sheet of tissue paper inside the cardboard box to protect them during transport.
How easy are the projects to make?
As an experienced crafter who had never tried needle felting before, I found this an incredibly rewarding and engaging project box to take on. The repeated stabbing of the fluff with barbed needle to sculpt it into different felted shapes is almost mystical. But it is quite violent and I would not recommend this for a child or for a crafter whose attention is likely to wander. Detailed instructions were giving for making the different shapes and building up the different details. They were not easy makes, but broken down in this way made them very achievable.
Are the instructions clear?
The video tutorial is very detailed, with guidance on folding fluff and stabbing technique to get the shapes right demonstrated and described in the video. There are no written instructions included for these projects, which I think may be an issue for some crafters, but the video worked very well for me.
What are the finished projects like?
As my first needle felting creations, they look very professional and I am really pleased I could achieve these results without any previous knowledge of the technique.
What other craft stash did you need to make the project?
My box was not part of a monthly subscription so I needed to buy felting needles – but if you are on a subscription you will receive them with your first pack. I broke two needles within 10 minutes of starting while I was getting to grips with the technique, but my third needle lasted me throughout the rest of the 5 makes. But new crafters may find they need to replace needle before their 6 months is up. The only other materials I used were scissors and a circular sewing needle, though the instructions did give a non-sewing needle method to attaching the hanging cords if crafters did not have the right needle at home.
Who would these subs boxes be most useful for?
These are perfect and so much fun for crafters looking to try a new technique, or for existing needle felters wanting guidance on a make and to be part of a craft community. I would not recommend the Little Blue Artworks boxes as your first ever craft project or for children.
What’s your favourite thing about this product?
Needle felting is an amazing technique and almost like alchemy, turning loose fluffy into solid shapes – and with Nicky's guidance, the shapes look more or less like they are intended to!
Discover how to sign up for Little Blue Artworks here
This review was last updated in December 2021. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at gathered@immediate.co.uk.
