Creating Handmade Felted Angels Started With My Little Angel
Creating handgefertigte Filzengel is how I stay connected to my daughter. I can feel the presence of my daughter while I’m making these handgefertigte Filzengel. She’s my little angel. And she’s here. That’s how it started.
People ask me why I create needle felted angels, and the truth is simple, it’s helping me to process things. When I work with the wool, when my felting needle moves through the soft fibers, Saoirse is with me. My daughter. And somehow, through making these handgefertigte Filzengel, I can hold both the grief and the love at the same time.
The First Angel Came to Me
It was July when I made my first felted guardian. My dear friend Brigitta had shared a dream with me, a dream about an inner garden. We do these emotional painting sessions together, and when she told me about her dream, it just came to me. I wanted to make something for her. A guardian of the inner garden.
First, I started painting angels. They looked so much like Saoirse. Then I made one with felt, and oh, it felt so good 🙂 There was this playfulness and joy in it that I didn’t expect. My lovely husband, who is such great support, he said, “Maybe do something with felt.” And felting is my thing. The textures, basically, that’s my thing. I love felting very, very much.
I had all this wool at home, bits and pieces I could add to the angels. And they just… they came to me. Each handmade felted angel different. Each one knowing exactly who they belonged to.
Why These Handmade Felted Angels Are Different
When you make a wool angel ornament by hand, it’s not like buying something from a shop. Every single needle poke is intention. Every color choice is feeling. The wool transforms under your hands, and somehow these little beings emerge with their own personalities.
I like to make individual things, personal things. I don’t like to repeat what I’m doing. With these handgefertigte Filzengel, every single one is different. They pick the personalities of the person they belong to. They have the power of support. They are guardians of certain things. In that way, yes, they become very personal.
The Softness Matters
This is what people don’t understand until they hold one, grief angels need to be soft. When you’re going through loss, everything feels so sharp. But wool? Wool is gentle. You can hold it in your pocket. You can touch it when you need to feel something warm and safe. It’s not cold like porcelain or hard like wood. It’s comfort you can carry with you.
Each Handmade Felted Angel Has Its Own Story
Some of my custom memorial angels are made for mothers who lost babies. I understand this grief in my bones. When I create a memorial angel for baby loss, I work with the softest wool, the most delicate colors. These angels are tiny guardians for the biggest grief.
Some handgefertigte Filzengel are for people who lost their mothers or fathers. Some are for friends going through difficult transitions. Some are guardian angel gifts for people who just need to know someone is watching over them.
The angels tell me what they need to be. I don’t decide, they do. One wants golden wings. Another needs a crown of tiny felt flowers. One angel insists on having the palest pink dress, another on deep purple robes. They know. I just listen.
The Healing in Making Handmade Felted Angels
Creating these needle felted guardians is my grief work. While my hands are busy with the felting needle, my heart can process things I can’t put into words. The repetitive motion—poke, poke, poke—it’s like meditation. Like prayer. Like saying, “I love you, I miss you, you’re still here” with every touch of the needle.
And when someone else receives one of these handgefertigte Filzengel, when they tell me it brings them comfort, that it sits on their shelf or travels in their bag, that they hold it when things are hard, then Saoirse’s presence extends even further. She becomes a guardian for others too.
This is what therapeutic grief gifts should be. Not something that tries to fix the pain, but something that sits with you in it. Something soft to hold when everything else feels impossible.
More Than Christmas Ornaments
Yes, many people find my handgefertigte Filzengel during Christmas season. They’re looking for needle felted angel ornaments for their trees, for meaningful decorations that aren’t mass-produced. And the angels do look beautiful hanging in a window, catching the light.
But these aren’t just Christmas angels. Grief doesn’t wait for holidays. Loss happens all year round. So the angels are here all year, as memorial angels, as comfort angels, as remembrance keepsakes that travel with you through all seasons.
Guardian Angel Day
Did you know October 2nd is Guardian Angel Day? It’s a Catholic feast day, especially celebrated in Germany, France, Italy, Spain. Very few people talk about it, but I think it’s beautiful. A whole day dedicated to the angels who watch over us. This year, I want to honor that day. To create special handgefertigte Filzengel for it. Because we all need guardians, don’t we?
Custom Angels: Made for You
When someone asks me for a custom felted angel, I always ask them to tell me about the person it’s for. Not just facts—I want to know their energy. Their favorite colors. What made them laugh. What they loved.
Then I gather my wool and I let the angel come. Sometimes I start with the wings. Sometimes with the face. The angel shows me what it wants to be. And when it’s finished, it’s never what I planned, it’s always better. It’s always right.
These personalized memorial angels take time because I don’t rush them. Each handmade felted angel needs the space to become itself. To choose its own personality. To prepare itself for the person it will protect.
For People in Grief
If you’re reading this because you’re grieving, I want you to know – I see you. I know how heavy it is. I know how some days you can’t believe you have to keep going.
The handgefertigte Filzengel won’t fix it. Nothing fixes it. But maybe having a small, soft guardian in your pocket helps. Maybe seeing it on your shelf reminds you that love doesn’t end. Maybe holding it while you cry gives you something gentle to hold onto.
I make these healing angels for us, for those of us who need beauty and softness while we walk through the hardest things. For more support on your grief journey, please visit Saoirse.online, where you’ll find compassionate resources and community.
The Joy Still Comes
Even in grief, there’s joy. The playfulness I feel when I’m making the angels, that’s real too. The delight when the perfect piece of wool becomes exactly the right wing. The smile when an angel’s face emerges looking slightly mischievous.
Grief and joy can live together. The handgefertigte Filzengel teach me this every time I make one.
Finding Your Angel
Some handgefertigte Filzengel are waiting for you already made at MariaElena.shop. You can see them, meet them, choose the one whose personality calls to you. Maybe it’s the one with the golden halo. Maybe it’s the tiny one with purple wings. They know who they belong to.
If you need a custom memorial angel made specially for you or someone you love, I welcome commissions. Just tell me your story. The angel will listen, and together we’ll create the guardian you need.
They Keep Coming
“The angels just came to me,” I said to someone recently. “And they keep coming.”
As long as there’s grief to process, as long as there are people who need gentle guardians, as long as Saoirse stays close while I work—the handgefertigte Filzengel will keep coming. Each one different. Each one choosing its person. Each one carrying love forward.
That’s why I create handgefertigte Filzengel. Not just because felting is my thing, not just because I love the textures. But because in making them, I stay connected to my daughter. And in gifting them, I help others stay connected to theirs.
We’re all holding love that has nowhere to go except forward. The angels help us carry it.
Welcome Your Guardian Home
Browse available handmade felted angels: MariaElena.shop
Grief support and resources: Saoirse.online
Commission your custom angel: Contact through MariaElena.shop
Each handmade felted angel is created by hand in my Dutch studio, where wool, love, and presence transform into guardians that travel with you through all of life’s passages.
