Christmas Shopping Mouse Decoration

This Christmas shopping mouse decoration is needle-felted from wool in Kathmandu and comes as either a girl or a boy mouse, each well wrapped up for a winter errand, in lace-up boots and carrying shopping bags. One of the two wears a small pair of spectacles, and both hang from red-and-white candy-striped threads.

Needle felting builds a shape by working loose wool over and over with a barbed needle, which tangles the fibres together until they firm up into a solid form. It is slow, careful work, and it lets the maker sculpt small details such as the ears and the boots by hand. Every mouse is made individually, so faces, colours and proportions vary a little from one to the next.

The felt is made from New Zealand wool by a workshop in Kathmandu where many of the makers are women who work from home, which lets them fit the work around their families. We source these from a supplier who describes the workshop as a member of the World Fair Trade Organization.

Caring for Your Felt Mouse

Surface clean only, with a soft, damp cloth, as soaking would loosen the felted wool and change its shape. Wool can attract moths, so pack the mice away in a sealed box with a cedar block or a sprig of lavender at the end of the season.

• Material: wool felt
• Size: approx. 14 x 8cm
• Hanging: candy-striped thread
• Made in: Nepal
• Decoration only, not a toy