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 .

Is Taxidermy still creepy if no animals were killed making it ?

Firstly, this is almost exactly one month of needle felting done while working a full time job,(which allows me about 4 hours of felting each night and another 6 hours before and after work),as well as Physical Therapy 3X a week . The injury has also slowed me down but I'm not sure if that is a temporary or permanent situation . What I have been wondering is if there will ever come a time when I could sell my art for a price that would allow me to live on what I make . At this rate, I doubt it, but perhaps as more people become aware of needle felting as a form of sculpture it will gain value ? Even without the extra time of not having a "real job" , I would have to allow for all the hours of marketing, going to art/craft fairs and doing all the other mundane self promotion needed to sell . It's daunting, as like many people, I would love to support myself doing something I love and creating these fuzzy friends is a true passion for me  .

When I began felting it was with a single , size 40 needle . Needless to say, that would not be effective for making the large animals I am making now . The past year or so I started using a 4 needle tool (with the red handle) and it has been great . Problem is that over time the wood eventually became a bit warped from the constant friction and the needles were no long completely vertical which makes them vulnerable to bending and breaking , So, I recently bought the metal felting tool on the right that I then covered in leather . It is very sturdy which is great but it does not feel as comfortable in my hand as the other one . The ideal solution would be something with the wooden top and the metal bottom . I think that is a pretty easy fix so will work on that soon .

Sorry for the redundant picture but I wanted to see what they looked like with different lighting as lighting has still been my nemesis when taking pictures . Even with clear skies, we get so little light in this apartment that it often feels like a cave. I love caves but not the best place to take pictures and using a flash makes the images so grainy . I have a private fantasy that some local photographer will see my animals and want to exchange their photo skills for a chance to sell my animal images ....unlikely, I'm afraid I will have to save up money to pay someone to take some nice nature shots of my animals . Maybe this fall when the leaves are changing color as I think they would look great with the mostly brown critters .

So, above gets back to actual topic of this blog . What are your opinions of Taxidermy ? I love animals but I do have a secret love of taxidermy, (as well as a love of bones and fur) . I don't want any animals to be killed but if they are dead....well, it should still be gruesome to have a dead thing in my living room....and yet . I still find it beautiful because the animals are beautiful . I guess it is just one of those unpleasant realities of being a human who holds contrary values and esthetics in the same brain . The mounted needle felted heads are a compromise of sorts . They are fuzzy and I think cute but with that touch of the forbidden . I haven't yet attached anything on the back to mount them on the wall but I think they also look interesting snout up on a table . The two above are both reverse felted and have baby alpaca locks needle felted into them <----incredibly time consuming but the best way to create the natural fur look without killing any animals .

So that is it for the month . The summer appears to be either filled with rain or baking hot, which does not go well with my bodies own hot flashes . So I sit in my cozy cave with British TV shows on Netflix creating my own little world of fuzzy critters . Things could be much worse . Hope you have found your own small comforts this summer .

Needle felt friends with alpaca hair and some new purchases

 All three of the latest felt friends are a base blend of wool and alpaca with a thick layer or alpaca firmly felted on top and then reverse felted to make their fuzzy coats . It took most of a week of 10 hour days to finish them but I then rested for the next 3 days until my arm recovered . (I'm also running low of wool .)

 Below are new cards I ordered from Vista Print(left) and a company called Print Runner(right) . The few business cards I have ordered in the past were from Vista and they have always been good with some great sale prices but this last order then sent me cards with the front and back barely usable . They took a while to respond and were then confusing in their intentions when they did respond . In the end, the fixed the problems and sent me free replacements but had I been in a hurry for new cards that would have really been a problem . The other down-side for Vista is that they spam the hell out of you . I think I get several a day and it does get annoying .

 Print runner was quick and efficient and for less money then Vista (which charges a lot if you want to up-load your own pictures), Ialso got a bit thicker card stock and lamination on both sides . I would recommend them and plan on checking out more of their services . My intention was to use the card on the right as a hang tag for my needle and wet felted items .

 As you can see (if you click on the picture to make it bigger), on the back side of each card, I used pictures of some of the different fibers I use in my work . I think this will speed up the process of labeling what each item is constructed of, which could become a bit tedious to write out . Now I can just put a check mark by each item and still enough space to write weight, size or other details of the items . I'm hoping this will speed up the listing process for Etsy and lessen the questions at craft shows .

Above are two more items I invested in last month...the sweater dryer to be used with washing alpaca/wool in the bath tub . I bought 3 green houses were marked down to $20. at Big Lots,
(love them) . I think they will work great for craft shows and the plastic cover can be used to keep dust off while storing animals for sale . It's hard to justify these expenses when you are not actively selling anything but....part of me sees my creations as a safety net for if I lost my job or had other emergency that required some extra income . I know I'm supposed to be setting aside money for a retirement fund but considering how the stock market has gone in the past few years, this doesn't seem all that crazy as an alternative .

Happy felting to all .

A family of needle felt critters

 All these guys look like they could be from the same family . They are needle felted from the same basic mix of colonial and alpaca with a bit of pink merino . Just like real family though. they are far from identical .

 Their body positions are a bit different and each face has its own personality .

 The following three pics are the same guy from different angles to give a bit more perspective on their shape . In spite of the poor lighting, you can hopefully see what a difference the reverse barb needle makes in creating a nice long fur on each of these critters . Using the strong alpaca it is easy to create several inches of fur that is strongly secured . I actually brush them after felting to remove any broken hairs . Only the critter with the light brown tummy has the alpaca tacked into place instead of reverse felted and I wouldn't dare brush that . No matter how many hours I felt it in, a strong tug can remove a layer of tacked in locks  .I do think they make a great addition as nothing feels silkier then baby alpaca curls .

 I just bought another 50 of the reverse barb needles and if you haven't been able to find them....(they are hard to get a hold of), you can email this seller......Bobbie Ripperger

bbbinquiries@att.net

Happy felting

Large needle felt animals with clay claws

 Just a quick post . Someone asked for a picture of me and I wasn't sure I could add an email attachment so I have put a rare picture of myself on here . I have never liked the way I looked and age has certainly not improved my self image , so I am hoping my critters add a bit of distraction .

I finally finished the clay claws for the North American badger and added some to the "critter" I worked on this week . Pathetic, I only made one animal all week ! I am slipping . He is a bigger then my cats and although the flash and rainy day photos do not show much of his detail, I think he has a sweet look  . He has a nice shaggy coat of alpaca with bamboo fiber back legs . I'm not thrilled with the "black" bamboo fiber which does not look like a true black to me as you can see as he sits next to the true black alpaca fiber badger  .

Wishing you all a lovely weekend .

Needle felted American Badger and a few other tiny animals

 It's been a rough couple of weeks since I last posted . Although the therapy for the back and arm pain have not been a waste, I am still having arm weakness that makes felting difficult . I would say my productivity has dropped drastically (for me) .

 This past week off, I did manage to make 3 smaller critters, but I can generally knock off two mediums and a large in the same space of full time felting . It's very frustrating and having to continually stop to rest my arm ruins the wonderful rhythm of felting . 

 However, It has been good practice trying to work smaller and still retain the detail of my larger animals

 Above and below is another attempt to make a "real" animal . I spent some time googeling pictures of North American Badgers (there are several different types of badgers). I liked the idea of having black and white strips but it turned out harder to keep the strips from blending then I had realized .

 I ended up having to redo the face because my black and white ended up mixing to much, which may account for the project taking all last week . I still have to add claws and bought some FEMO but haven't gotten around to making them yet . Badgers have some really long , non-retractable claws for digging .

 I also did refurring of two of my older critters below . I added a layer of white Bamboo to the (lame) attempt at a polar bear cub and then reverse felted a nice long "fur" but it still doesn't look like a polar bear cub . Luckily, the other guy is just one of my imaginary animals so I don't have to be reminded of how much it doesn't look like whatever I wanted it to look like . I don't know why I keep attempting to make real animals when I end up just feeling disappointed .

One thing I am never disappointed in is how adorable my cat MAX is . It's so cool to know that I can make myself smile just by turning my head to look at him .

Hope everyone in Northern Hemisphere is enjoying the official beginning of spring . Happy felting .

April Fools Day car accident but still needle felting....slowly

 Firstly, I hope everyone had a lovely Holiday . I know that handmade and mass produced are considered incompatible but I think life is more complicated then that . Although I encourage everyone to support artist creating one of a kind items, I also believe that people in other countries deserve jobs as well . I bought 50 of these little lambs as an "accent" for some of my larger animals who need their own "comfort animal" to cuddle on their trip through the mail .

Below is my only new animal for the past 2 weeks .

 I am still spending most of my time re-vamping some of my older animals . I have replaced many of the eyes with bigger, better eyes and spent hours reverse felting them to give that fuzzy surface .The following are animals from the past few years of felting . It has helped me learn a lot more about how the different base fibers look when reverse felted .

 The alpaca and mohair give the best hairy look for the larger and medium animals . Merino is much shorter and softer and feels more like velvet .

Most of the above were done before my car accident....(I was rear-ended by a drunk driver on April Fools night) . Since the accident, I have had some trouble finding a position to sit in that doesn't hurt my back but I started chiro and will start physical therapy soon . I don't plan on giving up felting but it may take awhile before I get back up to full felting speed .In the mean time, I will just try and be patient and rest between felting...instead of my usual 5 hours without a break .

Happy felting .