Posted on Leave a comment

Fundraiser: Peace Doves for Ukraine 🕊️ (Part 2).

The second round of donations, gathered from the needle felted peace doves, have been spent on medical supplies for the animals affected by the war in Ukraine.

This time, the budget was of 21,00€ (7 x peace doves sold) and, as the last time, I topped it up a bit myself, bringing it to a total of 30,00€. With this money, I was able to buy the following items:

– 25 syringes of 5ml (sterile)
– 25 syringes of 10ml (sterile)
– 50 syringes needles (sterile)
– 2 x 1l IV fluid (Kochsalz 0,9 % Isotonisch Ecoflac Infusionslösung)
– 3 x saline eye wash of 360 ml


Additionally (not bought), I was able to donate a transporter box and a leash.

All of these items have been dropped of on Sunday, the 16th of October at Petners.Berlin. They will then deliver all received donations to Ukraine at the end of October.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a peace dove and has, therefore, made this donation possible!

Help is important, no matter how small.

Posted on Leave a comment

Spendenaktion: Friedenstauben für die Ukraine 🕊️

Als Russland am frühen Morgen des 24. Februar 2022 in die Ukraine einmarschierte, fühlte ich mich, wie sicher die meisten von uns, schockiert, traurig, wütend und hilflos. Es ist herzzerreißend, vor dem Bildschirm zu sitzen und hilflos zuzusehen, wie es sich alles entwickelte.


Ich bin nicht reich, ich bin kein großes Unternehmen. Ich bin eine kleine, bemühte Künstlerin, und obwohl meine finanziellen Mittel begrenzt sind und ich es mir nicht leisten konnte, einfach Geld zu spenden, beschloss ich, zu versuchen, etwas Geld zu sammeln, indem ich meine Zeit und mein handwerkliches Geschick in den Dienst der guten Sache zustellen, denn ich denke, dass jedes kleine bisschen hilft!

Deshalb habe ich angefangen, diese kleinen Friedenstauben 🕊️ zu filzen, sie für 10 € pro Stück zu verkaufen und 30 % des Erlöses (3 €/Taube) an das Deutsche Rote Kreuz und seine Nothilfe für die Ukraine zu spenden.

Drei Wochen und 29 kleine Friedenstauben später haben wir insgesamt 87 € gesammelt! Ich habe noch etwas draufgelegt, auf 100€ aufgerundet und die Spende heute Morgen an das Deutsche Rote Kreuz/Nothilfe für die Ukraine überwiesen!
Den Zahlungsbeleg findet Ihr unten:

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

Last but not least möchte ich mich an alle wenden, die sich an dieser Aktion beteiligt und sie aktiv unterstützt haben! Wir haben dies gemeinsam getan, denn ohne Eure Einkäufe und Eure Unterstützung wäre diese Spende nicht möglich gewesen! Also, vielen Dank für Euer Vertrauen, Eure Unterstützung und Eure Freundlichkeit!

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

Hilfe wird auch noch lange nach dem Ende des Krieges benötigt werden. Deshalb habe ich vor, diese Friedenstauben weiter zu filzen und weiterhin Spenden zu sammeln, egal wie klein sie sind. Nochmals vielen Dank für Eure Hilfe und Unterstützung!

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

Posted on Leave a comment

Fundraiser: Peace Doves for Ukraine 🕊️

When Russia invaded Ukraine in the very early morning of February 24th 2022, I, as I’m sure a great majority of us, felt shocked, saddened, angry, helpless. It is heartbreaking to sit in front of the screen and watch helplessly as everything unfolds.
I am not rich, I am no big company. I am a small, struggling artist and while my financial means are limited and I could not afford to simply donate money, I decided to try and raise some money by putting my time and craftsmanship to good use, thinking that every little bit helps!

With that in mind, I started needle felting these little peace doves 🕊️, selling them for the price of 10€ each and donating 30% (3€/dove) of the income to the German Red Cross and its Emergency Relief for Ukraine.

Three weeks and 29 little peace doves later, we have raised a total of 87€! I chipped in a bit, rounded it up to 100€ and made the donation to the German Red Cross/ Emergency Relief for Ukraine this morning!
Please see the proof of payment below:


🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

Last but not least, I would like to address each and every one who has participated in this cause and has actively supported it! We have done this together because without your purchases and your support, this donation would not have been possible! So, thank you for your trust, support and kindness!

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️


P.s.: This donation was just the first one. I will continue creating peace doves as the war in Ukraine is sadly still going on. However, help will be needed also long after the war will be over. So, I intent to continue needle felting these peace doves and keep donations going, no matter how small. Again, thank you for your help and support!

🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

Posted on Leave a comment

Christmas goodies on the way! 🤶🎄✨

In exactly one month from now, on December 5th, I’ll be participating in my very first Christmas market with My Woolen Friends! So, I thought this is a good opportunity and time to write a little bit about my Christmas related woolen friends. 😊

Christmas is without a doubt the most loved and anticipated holiday season of the year, for which many prepare very intensely. You want to create the most beautiful experience for yourselves and your loved ones, which includes the best of everything: the best foods & drinks, the most beautiful Christmas trees and decorations, the best presents and most positive and lasting memories.
This is why, this winter, my main focus has been on Christmas decorations and ornaments for your Christmas tree! 🎄

Before going into all available decorations and their designs, I would like to tell you a few general facts/ information about the My Woolen Friends decorations:

  1. They are all made entirely and 100% out of wool!
    Now, some creators would use a styropor ball as a base for such ornaments, in order to save costs and time. All of the My Woolen Friends creations (not just the ornaments) are made entirely (inside-out) out of wool. The main reason as to why I create everything out of wool is because of one of my mission, that is to be as environmentally friendly as I can. Of course, this decision reflects in the (limited) number of decorations that I can create and their price, but that is worth it for me and for my customers as well.
  2. I create everything about the decorations myself, starting with the felting itself and finishing with the little hooks that the ornaments hang from.
  3. All ornaments are natural and biodegradable, except for the little hooks, which are made out of thin wire. The hanging thread I use, is also a natural hemp yarn.
  4. As with everything else My woolen Friends, the ornaments are all handmade, which is why they all vary from each other.
  5. All ornaments are sold in sets, whereas 1 set = 4 ornaments of the same design and various sizes.

Now, let me please present you the Christmas ornaments available this year:

1. “The Snowman”

“The Snowman” design is a clean, minimalistic portrayal of a snowman. The off-white color of the sphere will brighten up your Christmas tree and give it a lighter, airy vibe.

2. “Snowflake on Dark Red”

“Snowflake on Dark Red” is a simple, classic design. The colour of the sphere is of a beautiful deep, dark red that’s paired with a gentle, white snowflake pattern. This would be a special addition to a traditionally looking Christmas tree.

3. “Snowflake on Dark Blue”

“Snowflake on Dark Blue” is pretty much the same as the previous one (red), but with a little twist. The sphere is, this time around, of an elegant dark blue – think of the colour of a deep, deep sea…
This too would be a special addition to a traditionally looking Christmas tree.

4. “Candy”

“Candy” is a playful and joyful design suitable for those who maybe don’t take themselves very seriously, are a bit more bold and want their Christmas tree to stand out!

5. “Birdies”

“Birdies” were firstly thought of as Easter decorations but then I realized, that they can be used in more than just one setting: Easter, when welcoming autumn and as Christmas ornaments.

As Christmas ornaments, they would best be suitable for those less traditional and more inclined towards nature. This design would fit perfectly in a non traditional tree, maybe on something like a tree frame made out of sticks or wood.

So, these are the main 5 designs, that I have prepared for celebrating Christmas this year and I can only hope that you like them! 😊

Outside the Christmas tree ornaments, I have also looked into creating a winter decoration, that is just that. I wanted something that is not necessarily related to Christmas itself, but ti the winter holiday and that can be used however you see fit. That is why, I felted this adorable, little Snowman, named Frosty!

Outside the Christmas tree ornaments, I have also looked into creating a winter decoration, that is just that. I wanted something that is not necessarily related to Christmas itself, but ti the winter holiday and that can be used however you see fit. That is why, I felted this adorable, little Snowman, named Frosty! ⛄️❄️

Frosty has the power to melt your heart in an instance!
He will look adorable no matter where you place him, regardless if it’s on your desk, under the tree or on the window sill, looking outside and bringing joy to everyone that passes by!

For those of you who are still looking for something less traditional, you can choose a couple of these natural acorns as decorations for your Christmas trees. They come in various colours but I could imagine the white ones to offer the most contrast!
Also, I might be creating a few more other things but it’s not sure yet, it all depends on how much time I will have after creating all ornaments. But you can always get in touch directly about that or follow me on Instagram, where everything is always up to date! 🙂

You can find my in person on December 5th and December 12th at the Christmas market @Weddingmarkt (Art- & Designmarket in Berlin-Wedding, @Leopoldplatz) or you can always pruchase your next Woolen Friends online through the online shop. Please feel free to get in touch directly if you have any questions about any of the mentioned items or on any other related topic.


Please keep in mind that the stock of each item/ set is limited and ordering in advance is very much preferred, so that I can deliver to as many of you as possible.
Last orders before Christmas will be shipped around the 13th of December, in order to avoid overloading the people who deliver all of our care packages. I’ll make sure to write another post about it soon.
Everything can be also be purchased and packed as a present.

Thank you very much to everyone who has taken their time to read through this long but (hopefully) joyful blog entry and I look forward to seeing you out there or online! 🙂

Cheers,
Io from My Woolen Friends

Posted on Leave a comment

Price reductions in my store. Here’s why:

I recently took an important step and changed the pricing for most of My Woolen Friends! I did this after careful consideration and after “sleeping on it” for the past couple of weeks. The last two participations at a craft market have helped me tremendously in terms of feedback and understanding what I want from my small entrepreneurial adventure, where I want to go with it and what is important to me, within it.

I was pretty much living in my own bubble before having had these chances to interact with people face to face and see in real time how they react towards my work. At that point in time, what mattered to me the most was: 1. doing something that brought me joy; 2. have my work be valued through proper pay. I held on to the last one rather stubbornly, backed by some personal insecurity or frustration. Now, however, I feel like it’s the right time to let go of that and re-evaluate the entire picture.

Despite them being successfully different (yet successful!), each market participation was a very enlightening experience for me. Seeing people’s reaction towards my work in real time is such a precious source of information, that I would otherwise hardly have. Especially the last time, people were just so happy and overjoyed when they would come around my stand! I even had a few fellow sellers from other tables coming by just to get some joy from my little, woolen friends.

The pleasant chit-chat and smiles on people’s faces put it all in perspective for me, as many had to walk away without affording a woolen friend. Despite sales having been good for me that day, I was somewhat sad for not being able to bring more joy to more people and that got me thinking. I make a big point about joy, when it comes to My Woolen Friends and I want that to be a two way street/ feeling. So, I re-evaluated my reality and started thinking of a compromise in how I can make my work a bit more affordable, so that more people can enjoy it – because if my joy can bring them joy, that then brings me joy back, which I then put back into my work and so on…

So, I sat down and re-evaluated the designs and the time it nowadays takes me to create them and came up with some price changes, that still feel fair to me and hopefully will result in less people walking away without a woolen friend. This really just raised the question for me: “what’s more important? knowing that I can bring some joy to someone or rather just bring that/ those item/s back home instead?”. Fortunately, the answer wasn’t a hard one for me and I hope you can all understand where I’m coming from.

Of course, I won’t be able to make everyone happy, nor am I trying to do that. I just wanted to compromise where I felt like I could and so it ends.

Thank you everyone who took the time to read this.

Sending you all joy and good vibes only!

Posted on Leave a comment

Happy 1st Birthday – My Woolen Friends! 🎉🎈

Today is finally here – HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY to all My Woolen Friends! 🎉 🎈🤸🎁

Here’s a few firsts to match the thematic 1st anniversary:
• Exactly one year ago today, I received my very first needle felting kit and felted my first little woolen friend. Ever since, my life has been filled with loads of joy, smiles and little wool hairs ALL OVER (the floor, in the corners of the house, clothing, hair, plants and so on) 😆 !
• “Little Nature Spirit” is the very first creation I needle felted. I was planning on felting a racoon (fyi: I love racoons!) but little did I know (literally) and it ended up being a completely made up critter, now named “Little Nature Spirit”.
• The story above brings me to the next “first”, which is the first lesson that I have learned as a needle felting enthusiast: just go with it! Clearly, I did not succeed in doing what I initially set out to do, but, at the same time, it’s nice to be able to just let go and stop trying to control everything and just freaking enjoy the process and see where it takes you. I finally felt like I could to do that with needle felting, which,in my case, definitely was a personal milestone.
🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁


This anniversary is very important to me simply because my life and way of being has changed for the better, ever since picking up the artistry of needle felting. I have been happier and generally more positive than ever before, something for which I am profoundly grateful! Not only does it do me good creating my woolen friends but once I experienced what it feels like to be able to extend this joy further to other people, from that point on, there was no way back!
Anyway, I would very, very much like to celebrate this joyful moment with you and in doing so, I have prepared something very special and thoughtful for you:
🚨 for EVERY order placed between the 8th and 14th February, you will receive a surprise needle felted woolen friend!!!🥰 The surprise item is a brand new design, that I started doing entirely for this very special occasion.
🚨 Addintinally, every order containing a minimum of two items will receive free tracked shipping. 📦📬
Please feel free to reach out if you wish to place an order in person or have any questions. All items can be found in the shop and if the stock runs out, they all can be recreated.

As always, thank you for being here and please feel free to roam around the web page & shop!

My Woolen Friends

Posted on

Packaging & Recycling

This is by far the post I am the most excited about! I’ve been thinking and planning to write this little piece since before the shop and blog ever existed! So let’s dive straight into it!

In this blog entry I am going to talk a little bit about how I pack and prepare the orders for shipping.

1. Environmentally friendly packaging
First of all, all orders are being shipped in solid cardboard boxes. I care about the environment, so I’m trying to be as environmentally friendly as I can. I guess it would even be somewhat ridiculous if I would be selling 100% natural decorations wrapped in a mountain of plastic, wouldn’t it? So, my approach to being environmentally friendly and conscious is to focus on using either paper-based wrapping supplies OR to recycle wrappers that I, myself, got at some point with other orders that I’ve made online. I have a dedicated space in my deposit room where I like to stack up on the good wrappers that I’m getting with my personal online orders.

Sometimes, the goods inside the package will be wrapped in plastic air-packs or bubble wrapping and as long as they are re-usable, I will keep those as well. With that said, it is possible that some of my orders will be wrapped in plastic, especially if the ordered decoration is way too small for the box it’s going to be shipped in; then, it’s safer and easier to fill the leftover space with some soft bubble wrapping or air-packs. But it is very important to me to stress out the fact, that I, myself, am not actively and/or purposely buying any plastic packaging in order to get my My Woolen Friends decorations shipped. When possible and practical, I do prefer to use paper for the packaging, but sometimes it’s just safer to use use some of the plastic wrappers. But even then, I am going to re-use wrapping that I, myself, already received with previous packages.

2. Recycled and hand-made gift wrapping paper
Any purchased item can be wrapped in a gift wrapping paper. This paper is, again, good quality paper that I have previously received with other packages. So, instead of throwing it in the trash, I transform it into original, beautifully coloured gift paper through the process of paper marbling. You can see in the photo below the approximate process of how I’m doing this paper. Once it’s done, I’ll let it dry for a couple of days and then it’s ready to be used! 🙂 I think that’s a really nice and creative way of turning something average into something special. You can see in the photos below a very brief description of the paper marbling process.

P.S.: At the moment, I am wrapping every order in gift wrapping paper as a “thank you” for those who are placing the first orders through the online shop. However, this applies only to a limited number of orders.
I try to keep my posts short, so I hope you managed to get an idea of how I think in terms of packaging and shipping and that you enjoyed reading about it.
As always, thank you for being here and please feel free to roam around the web page & shop!

My Woolen Friends

Posted on

HOW TO ORDER on My Woolen Friends

I tried making the ordering process as easy and straight forward as I could, but, just to be on the safe side, I thought I can also briefly explain the main steps in a blog entry.

So, here it goes – How to order:

Step 1: Select the item(s) you would like to purchase & add the them your cart.
Step 2: click on “View Cart” & choose your shipping method.
Step 3: Proceed to check out and put down you billing & shipping address (naturally, you have the option to choose a different shipping address from your billing address).

Step 4: Select your payment methods: Direct Bank Transfer* or PayPal**.
*In case of the Direct Bank Transfer, you will receive the bank details automatically after you have placed your order.
**In case of PayPal, you will be able to see the PayPal account after you have placed your order. When choosing payment via PayPal, a 1 Euro transaction fee will automatically be added to the total amount.
Step 5: Transfer the due amount according to the payment method that you chose.
Step 6: Once the transfer has been successful received on the MyWoolenFriends bank account, your order will get ready for shipping.
Step 7: In case of shipping with a tracking number, you will receive an e-mail informing you of the tracking Id-number.

On an additional note, I would like to say that I am aware that the international shipping is a bit expensive due to the tracking number. Unfortunately, I cannot risk sending packages around in Europe and have them get lost. Needle felting is a very time consuming and meticulous craft and if a package were to get lost (especially in the chaos that we living in at the moment, with all this pandemic going on), that would reduce my work and my time to nothing but a waste. Having a package lost would create an unpleasant situation on both sides and I prefer doing what I can in order to try and avoid those situations by shipping internationally only with tracking number.

Thank you for being here and I hope you can find something that you like in the online shop! ❤

My Woolen Friends

Posted on

ONLINE SHOP OPENING – YAY!

Welcome to the My Woolen Friends shop, which has officially been opened for business!

Here you will be able to find adorable, hand- & wool-felted decorations made in Berlin, Germany.

So, I invite you to roam around in the My Woolen Friends universe: have a look at what’s available in the shop; read through the “About” section and get a better understanding about what My Woolen Friends is, how it came to be and what the goal is; follow me on social media or come back for the blog posts, where I will be sharing interesting things about what I’m up to or how I do this and that. For instance, in my next blog posts I will be: walking you through the ordering process; talk about packaging and recycling; talk about the wool that I’m using and the suppliers that I have decided on so far and why; keep you posted on what my next projects will be and so on.

I plan on keeping my posts sweet & short, so this has been it for now. Please go roam the web page and thank you for being here! ❤

My Woolen Friends