Needle Sculpting with Mohair and Merino blend

I needle felted a few more friends this week . Despite my resolution to not make more as I have run out of room to display them in my own apartment and have still not managed to set up my Etsy shop , I could not resist the urge to needle felt .

This is one step closer to setting up an Etsy shop however, as I am "practicing" taking pictures using my wet felt wool table runner and a print of one of my favorite paintings .

I'm not sure if it's to distracting to others, but I really like the surreal look of it .

Taking pictures also helped me see that I am a bit out of practice needle sculpting . I need to add bigger eye lids and more pink roving to the mouth area of the large mohair animal . It looked fine in "person" but looks washed out in the picture and the eyes are a bit spookier then I had intended .

well ....I am losing the light but thought I would go ahead and post the "after" picture . I added a bit of pink to the inner ear and snout and eye lids and think they help , though he actually looks pretty upset about something . If there a market for smirking, disgruntled or angry animals , I think I have it covered .

Also forgot to mention how much I like using the mohair for the "loose hair bits " . The individual hairs stand out much better then when I have tried this with my usual merino .

I really am going to try and organize my crafts and begin posting my felt on Etsy this week . It would be nice to make a few sales before Christmas....then again, I've been saying that since last year so the operative word here is "try" .

Needle felt weirdness with Mill End fiber

Uhmmm, I think this guy looks a bit .....creepy? I hate to say that because it's like admitting one of your kids looks like a troll . I'm always trying different shapes in face and bodies and like the diversity but they certainly don;t always look "cute " . Hopefully there are some parents who would be thrilled if their kids were trollish and will want to give this guy a home .

He has a bit of merino and silk in pink areas but is 95% Mill Ends that I really enjoyed felting with . Not sure of the fiber type but perhaps"colonial" and about 27 micron ? The up-side of the Mill Ends is that they are much less expensive then the hand dyed merino I had been working with and that makes me feel less guilty about making these larger sculptures . This one is about 8" . I'm still trying to figure out how to make something that is affordable as many of my med-large sculptures take over 20 hours and have about $30. in wool in them . Who can afford such a non-necessity in this economy ?

Really struggling this week about guilt of all the money I spend on wool and my inability to market myself to make back the money I'm spending . Know of any good art agents ?

Beaver with dental work and mustache

A bit of dental work has turned this reformed beaver....who prefers to be called "wood technician" into quit the model of modern lumber jackery .....of course he still needs me to make him an Ax and red plaid jacket . I think the mustache gives adds a lot to his naturally rugged good looks. He has a core of Border Leicester which felts really quickly but ends up being rough like Romney . That is covered by several layers of alpaca which gives him the very fuzzy halo and facial features are done with a nice soft merino . I think he is about a pound of fiber and has a nice heft to him .
Below is one of my greatest problems in taking pictures of my felting......my cat assumes that every time I get out the camera, I must want a picture of him . Strike a pose Ballyhoo Balou .

Needle felting animal friends

above "critter' was voted the favorite of my new animals by the 3 members of my household....(my cats refused to vote on the grounds that "they" are obviously cutest) . I'm not sure exactly what that allusive "something" is that makes certain felt animals appeal to me and certainly don't know what appeals to others but I think it would be interesting to have a "favorite off" and give away when(if???), I get my new Etsy store opened .(Posing on the dogs head is an unfinished miniature that is waiting for his eyes . )

Above is about the cutest real animal that I have ever seen . I am still working up the nerve to try again to make a sea otter but the babies just seem like a pile of floppy fluff....harder to sculpt then you might imagine .

Below is also from my favorite site of cuteness....Baby Zoo animals....This is my new source for animal pictures which my sculptures do not resemble but are certainly inspired by .

Play Time for Polar Bear Baby

The one I found most difficult was the polar bear, (click the above link if you want to see what a real polar bear looks like)..... which took several reworkings and still doesn't look like a polar bear in about 10 different ways . Perhaps I will try another polar bear now that I have some pictures to look at instead of just trying to "remember" .

I had fun mixing merino and alpaca in my latest animals and think that blending works better then either on their own . Hard to see in these pictures but the natural colored alpaca does add some interesting contrast to the flatter effect of the dyed merino .

The Polar bear is pure white merino and it seems that the white shows the poke holes more and the sculptural detail less . I also found out that even putting the animal eyes in at a few millimeter at the wrong angle can be a huge deal and not to easy to fix . Lessons learned .

Spinning the Web special order of animal colored merino for felting

Here is a sample of the gorgeous fiber that I recently ordered on Etsy from "Spinning The Web" ..........http://www.etsy.com/shop/spinningtheweb.........She is going on vacation soon, so make sure you get your orders in soon or bookmark her for later . I think her fiber is wonderful in texture as well as color and I have been searching high and low for some good browns and grays . she did a great job of dying for me and the color variations gives the animals a much richer coloring .
I know I have posted this "utterly unottery otter" before, but wanted to show her what I have been doing with her wool . My BF says he looks like a Down Syndrome Otter but I think he turned out a bit panther faced . I obviously need to make the snout shorter and rounder...(see video of baby otter playing if you don't know what he was supposed to look like ) . I can't seem to make the video fit today....(arrggg computer challenged), but if you double click over the video it will take you to the full screen version on Utube .





I think the gray mouse turned out rather sweet and I spent a lot of time on his face to get more depth in the coloring but the picture doesn't seem to show that very well .
Blurry picture caused by battery dying in my camera.......(note to self...need AA batteries .) is it just me or do cameras seem to eat batteries?. My rechargeable batteries only last about 10 photoes and the cheapo batteries last only about 30 pics .


Below, are the whole clan so far using Spinning the web fiber .