Learn to Needle Felt a Whimsical Pumpkin

Val Hebert is teaching a needle-felting workshop at the San Diego Craft Collective on Sunday, October 11, from 2 PM to 5 PM. The project is a whimsical 3D pumpkin, and you'll leave with one you made yourself.

If you've never needle-felted before, here's the gist: you work with a barbed needle and loose wool fiber, poking the wool repeatedly to tangle and compress the fibers into a solid shape. Over the course of the afternoon, you'll sculpt that wool into a soft, dimensional pumpkin. It's a tactile, slow process, and because you're building it from scratch, no two end up exactly the same. The class is open to beginners, so you don't need any prior experience to jump in.

The workshop is hosted by the San Diego Craft Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the Arts District that focuses on hands-on craft. While they specialize in woodworking, they run classes in sewing, ceramics, macrame, natural dye techniques, weaving, fused glass, mosaics, and papercraft. Their programming starts early—early childhood sessions inspired by Waldorf and Montessori methods for kids as young as three, and school-age programs from age six that draw on those approaches as well as the Sloyd method, with further classes for teens and adults.

This particular session is for ages 10 and up, and all materials are included in the price, so you just need to show up. The cost is $105, and there are discounts for military, first responders, and siblings, with scholarships available as well. You'll find the Collective at 2590 Truxtun Rd, Studio 106, in San Diego 92106.