Monday, April 13, 2009

Shepherd's Harvest Needle felt contest ...Alpaca Women





Alpaca women is in love with the small wonders of life...moss, stones, bark, bones . (she is holding a tiny bird skull I found, boiled and painted with glow in the dark paint about 20 years ago . ) I would like to send her to her new home with a bag of such goodies and hope that her new owner would add their own small daily finds to her hands, which are meant to be an alter of "Awe" .
As to her construction...whew, human bodies in needle felting are much more difficult, for me, then clay . There are some advantages, like easily changing the appendages posture with a few pokes of the needle and no muddy hands but the body alone took over 20 hours, another 3 for the Alpaca head and 2 hours to add the dress which is beautifuly dyed Merino from Copperpot on Etsy.(http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=14584598)... In other words, not something I could afford to sell often . This will be a very limited series unless I learn some techniques to speed up the process. As is, I used a 40 needle, Merino for the body and dress and Alpaca from Northstar Alpacas ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5001683 ), over Romney for the head . Perhaps would have been wiser to use Romney for the body but I prefer the softness of the skin with Merino .
A bit of trivia...the head was inspired by the beautiful Sonata (mother of JR) of North Star Alpaca...You can see her and her gorgeous son here....( http://northstaralpacas.blogspot.com/2009/03/school-day-for-jr.html ) I believe it was her fiber I used , a beautiful silky auburn

2 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, you are incredible. This absolutely blows my mind. It is so awesome both in concept and in your artistry.

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  2. Thanks Gloria, very sweet of you . I have to say, I almost gave up on this but I do think she is a good representation of me as a child ...half wild and a bit scary but meaning well .

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