Last of needle felt animals ..... 2011

 This is as close to a "real" looking critter that I have ever made . Reality has always come harder to me then fantasy ......(just ask my mother) . The egg is there to show size and offer my camera a white balance but the picture were taken indoors before sunset, so still not very good .

 All my felting is a mix of wool and alpaca with either Ingeo(white) or blends of alpaca and silk for the top layer and "furring" . I am completely sold on alpaca and silk blends for doing animal fur . It is so soft yet doesn't clump/mat like merino .

 I just finished the below guy last night and he took several days longer then usual because of the pain killers I was taking for my most recent tooth extraction . On the plus side, the stray needle pokes to my fingers didn't hurt as much : )

 I hate felting around wires but decided this guy needed wired toes....soooo, if you want to make his toes curl more, you have that option .

 Below feltie reminds me of a gold prospector and was probably unconsciously inspired from watching that Gold Rush show . I was never a fan of gold, but watching the miners destroy the environment makes me like it even less....yet, I find the show  compelling , go figure .

 This is probably my least favorite for the month but hopefully his soft Ingeo fur and big eyes will make him appealing to someone .

 Below are my only small critters for the month and strike me as rather "generic" compared to the larger critters . The only take a night to make but it's harder for me to give the little ones as interesting  posture or expressions . Or maybe I'm just bias because I like my critters to be an arm full and not just a handful ?

It's been a very long month . Continued health issues and removal of 3 teeth have resulted in a general lack of energy . It hasn't stopped my felting but has put a strain on my blogging .( If somethings got to give...the needle will be the last to go . )

I hope everyone else enjoyed their holidays and has many blessings for the new year .

fuzzy feathery fur in needle felting

This guy reminds me of something you might see in Seussville . He took 4 days of felting, mostly because of all the Ingeo(white silky corn fiber) and alpaca/silk blended "fur" that I needled on the surface . I recently bought some alpaca roving and some golden dyed silk roving but don't own anything to blend them so just tried to take thin sections of each and layer them . The resulting "fur" reminds me more of feathers then fur but feels absolutely heavenly . I'm hoping that the thin layer of silk between the alpaca, will keep it form matting up over time .

I'ld be glad to do a tutorial on this if anyone is interested in trying it , just let me know in comments section .

new Fulji camera for needle felting photos...(thanks santa)

 Two new critters both with outer coats of alpaca and silk . Love the texture and have some more roving on the way . The smaller figure is 8" and his brother is 10" and wearing some fluffy leggings of Ingeo .

 These are my first pictures with my new Early Christmas present, a Fuji camera that I got for a great price during the cyber marathon shopping spree . I'm just playing with it for now but have ambitious plans to read the instruction book for it ....(that would be a first, I hate reading instructions since I learn better by watching someone or at the least observing pictures of the process .) I was impressed with the cameras tolerance of the low lighting night pictures .

 I also bought Coral paint shop photo editing software but still haven't learned to use it so these are still edited with the Picassa which is just such a simple and intuitive photo program .

That's it for now, been slowing down with the felting the past few weeks as I am literally running out of places to put my felting . I'm hoping this week will be a chance to get some descent pictures and list a few items on Etsy . Wish it had been in time for Christmas but maybe next year ?

Happy Holidays and good felting to all .

I'm driving myself nuts with these huge needle felt animals

This guy is eight inches high about 12 inches if he was standing . The frustrating thing is that I began him with the full intention of going back to my smaller (and less time consuming and less wool hogging), small animals . I really can't figure out why I keep making these larger ones when I am running out of places to put them and they would be so much harder to sell (and make over $2 an hour) . I also managed to make his checks and eyes uneven and am not sure if I will be able to fix it ...... so time, wool and oops .

and after all that, I managed to make the next one twice as big .  I obviously needed a break from felting until I can regain control over my needle, so......

I spent the past 4 days on line shopping for some Christmas presents for my BF and myself .....and not a scrap of wool amongst the gifts . (Though..... I did get a good deal on a large foam mattress topper that I will probably end up cutting up for felting mats ....and a couple of huge pasta pots that I bought from Herbergers to use for dyeing wool BUT they emailed and said....sorry but we are out of those !!!!!(I'm so mad at them I could spit fire and wont be shopping there again...don't mess with a wool addict, says I )......and a new camera that I am writing off as a business expense so I can list my stuff on-line for sale...HAHAHA, (Been saying that for  years and my shop on Etsy is still empty ) .

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed your crafting, Holidays and or shopping . I think I need to go back to felting before I end up bankrupt . (Idle hands are the devils playground, indeed ).

Giving thanks for some weird new needle felt friends

I don't know "what" he is but I bet he would give good hugs with such long arms . He has a deep purple bottom and lots of super soft light brown alpaca and silk "fur" which takes forever to root in but feels so good . As you may have noticed, I also bought some giant eyes . He's about 12 inches tall and a pound or so of wool . (Not sure how accurate my scale is right now . )

It's not easy to tell from this picture, but this is my largest sculpture since my dragon . I think he would be about 3 feet tall if he were standing and is over 2 pounds of mixed wool, alpaca and of course Ingeo for the white hair rooted in . He took a little less then a week to make which is kind of ironic? because I always thought that the longer I felted the faster I would be able to make animals but it seems like I have just started making larger, more complex animals resulting in longer felting time .

This guy turned out a bit like a goatish troll with really long arms and fat little toes . His bearding and hair is the alpaca and silk blend that I have fallen in love with....(and will need to restock soon.)

 Above the below are my "normal" size critters with a mix of wool and alpaca . Again, I seem to have reverted to my psychotic and moppy looks on these .

 All the gang wishs you happy Thanksgiving and happy felting !

Baby Chupacabra has no spikes !

Well, that's what my BF said when he saw my latest felted critter . After googeling images of Chupacabra,  I can see that mine is not nearly ferocious enough looking .I'm considering adding fangs and spines but right now this guy looks more like he would cuddle up to a goat, not suck it's blood . This is actually another do-over of one of my first felts.I think it illustrates how you can "save" a poorly done sculpture by felting over it .

Other then the raised paw, there is little left of the original design . I removed the eyes and covered over the base sculpture with some much better wool . Luckily, many of my first critters were not felted stone hard so are easier to felt over . Here are a few more pictures of the end result....(I'm practicing some photography so pardon the extra pics but I wanted to see what they look like off Picasa .....

Something else new for me, but barely noticeable in these pictures, is a needle that I purchased from Woolgatherings , It has reverse barbs on it that pulls the fiber out and gives a fuzzy halo to the firmly felted surface , (it only works if you felt things firmly). My results were mixed as it's a new tool for me but it does give a softer feel to the surface but the hairs are pretty short, at least with the Merino I use .

My second do-over for the week is another that is barely recognizable from the original ......

This is the original cartoonish dog with some very weird proportions and here are several shots of my Chewbaca type puppy do-over with some lovely alpaca and silk fur felted in ......

I've always been bad at making realistic animals but this guy almost look like a real dog to me (with just a pinch of a pink nosed Chewbaca thrown in . )

It;s been a slow week of felting with only these two guys being completed but  I'm enjoying doing the felt "do-overs", it's fun watching something transform .

Happy fall and felting to all