Felti Assorted Animal Ornaments - Miniatures

 Unique Felti Ornaments in miniature size by Spectacled Bear Conservation, handmade by the women of indigenous communities from northern Peru. 

About 4cm tall

The Felti Process:

Feltis are dry-needle felted ornaments handcrafted by women from rural and indigenous communities in northern Peru.

Our Feltis are made of 100% sheep’s wool. We source most wool locally from farms high in the Andes mountains of northern Peru where women typically tend the fields and sheep, shearing their herd once or twice a year using a pair of scissors or a sharp knife.

At our Conservation Centre we wash and dye the wool, then prepare it for use by running it through a carding machine to brush the fibers into the same direction. 

Dry needle felting involves repeatedly poking a ball of carded wool, or roving, with a barbed felting needle. The wool becomes denser with each poke, allowing the creation of a firm shape that our Artisans model into charismatic animals by adding special details and different colors of wool.

Empowering women powers positive change:

The average rural Peruvian woman accounts for 80% of her family’s labor force, working in agriculture and traditional household care. Women’s unpaid labor allows men to search for temporary work often outside of the community. Peruvian women and girls often face domestic violence, higher illiteracy rates than males and limited access to reproductive healthcare.

Our Felti Artisans are women from rural and Indigenous communities in northern Peru, including the Cañaris Indigenous group in the Ferrañafe province of Lambayeque department. Cañaris is one of the twenty poorest districts in Peru. The Felti program helps alleviate poverty for the Artisans by providing them with a fair wage. With a steady income, women have better access to healthcare for themselves and their families and are able to send their children to school. They have more control of their time, lives, and bodies. The economic empowerment of women powers positive change.