Thursday, July 26, 2012

Making fuzzy Mohair critters and needle felting with reverse barbs

 All my favorite fibers in one giant needle felt critter . Ears are white bamboo and pink merino . The core is a blend of med fine wool with a nice thick layer of alpaca and mohair .

 This was the first time I have tried the reverse felting with mohair and I have to say that it looks pretty bad after you first felt the mohair down . However, as soon as your reverse felt the area it becomes a nice shaggy coat of shiny bliss . You do lose some of the fiber as it is being pulled back out but if you lay down a nice layer it doesn't matter . All the animals have been brushed and any lose fiber removed but they are still nice and bushy .
 I do trim the alpaca face on the top of the nose but left the rest because I like the shaggy look .
 This shows the length if the white mohair fiber which works great for my large animals but would probably have to be trimmed for smaller animals .
This is an attempt to take a picture in my living room during the after noon and with the sliding door shades open....(still looks like a cave) . The metal ruler shows the height of animals, each about 12 inches of leg and 10-12 inches of body and head .

 This is my second mohair animal in a rather unusual posture ., A bit like a runners stretch .
 MY BF found it to be confusing to the eye , as if one leg was shorter then the other rather then just tucked up and bent . AH well, can't please everyone .
Look who appeared in the middle of the photo shoot . Max is really jealous of all the hours I spend making my animals .
 Above and below are the medium size critters I made this month....I really can't understand why I seem to be felting so slowly lately . Only 4 animals this past month ? Am I being abducted by aliens because I seem to be losing hours .



Having fallen in love with the mohair, I ordered some on-line this past week and .....am now very confused . Below is a picture of two different sellers fiber....both are marked 4oz 100% mohair .and could not look or feel more different .



The one on the left is a beautiful blend of fall tones and is really soft but unlike alpaca, also has a nice shine . The one on the right looks like human hair, ( and all the mohair I have bought in the past ). It is very long, thick, shiny and makes a beautiful coat of fur on my animals but I couldn't believe that it was actually 4 OZ as it is so much denser and heavier by size then most animal fibers . Perhaps the left mohair is just smaller broken bits and that makes it seem  fluffier ? Anyone care to way in I would love your opinions . Without a DNA test I could not swear that the one on the left is not pure mohair and without a scale could not attest that the one on the right is not 4oz but....I do wonder .

Last and least, (to everyone but me), I fixed my multi-needle tool dilemma .
 Above is my solution to a more comfortable felting tool . The part on the left is the aluminum base(covered in leather) that holds 4-6 needles . The middle bit is something I picked up at AXman just a bit of plastic with a hole in it to hold the needles in place and the top on right is the old bottom for my red handled felt tool that wore out . This fits much more comfortably in my hand then the original metal top .
 Below is the little Tupperware of my needle essentials.....multi tool "re-vamped" and  tube with extra needles in different sizes to fit in tool . I also have several individual needles that I wrap in old pieces of leather that I have put two sided tape on . I get the tape at Axman and I think it is used for sticking carpets to floor and not the thinner tape used in sealing windows . Anyway, it works great and I always carry extra strips incase I need to wrap a needle and it also works to protect your fingers . I also carry a fingernail file because my fingers get rough from all the needle pokes and it drives me nuts to work with fiber and rough fingers .
That's it for the month . Another one that just seemed to fly by getting little done .

4 comments:

  1. Jejku to giganty. Mnóstwo pracy. Świetne.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hallo, du hast mir auf meiner Seite ein Kommentar hinterlassen, Danke auch dafür und ich freue mich, dass dir mein Rucksack gefällt.

    Ich schaue ja schon länger auf deine Seite und bestaune immer deine tollen Sachen die du in so mühevoller Nadelfilz Handarbeit fertigst.

    Vielleicht findest du ja auch gefallen an meiner neuen Filzmaschinen Erfindung. ;-)

    Liebste Grüße Jessi

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are fantastic doing the very pretty and live look stuff. Love all your works.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for taking the time to comment and encourage me : )

    ReplyDelete

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