Preparing Needle Felt for Shepherds Harvest

I know this little Alpaca is not anatomically perfect, but I hope I captured the utter cuteness of a freshly clipped Alpaca baby . These guys are amazing and one of the things I look forward to at Shepherds Harvest next month....(more on this later) . Something about their vulnerability . I still need to tweak the ears, I always struggle with proportion as the wool you begin with becomes much smaller once felted but it's hard for me to figure out how small it will end up and the result can be disproportionately long of arms, legs, feet or ears . If I made one set image or even a few, I'm sure that I would be able to do this but because each animal I make is unique, it's always a new challenge .
The BFL fiber I used is some of the best I've found from a new (for me), seller on Etsy named TLS . I will add a link to her shop and a sample of the fiber at the end of this post .
Dingo Pup ? I don't know but he sure took a long time and I still need to overlay the fiber I used with some of TLS fiber . The upside of needle felting is that I can overlay fiber mistakes with new colors...the down size is that it requires another 2-3 hours, dang .
The fiber I used was some special order from Sheepish Creations . I always love her own colors but had hoped she could dye some animal fur colors for me . Unfortunately, though the fiber is as lovely as always, the colors just don't work when felted . The yellow is unrealisticly bright and the pinkish brown looks a bit like flesh showing through a dog with mange . I'm terrified of trying my own wool dying because I've seen so many other novices end up felting the wool during dying but....I hope to get together with a more experienced friend and see if we can over dye this with some darker browns .
Just another couple of "rodents", one with a teddy . I'm still having fun making these and hoping that they are an affordable choice for someone wanting a sample of needle felting without breaking the bank .

After another $400 investment in wool, dyes and animal eyes...I am doing my last minute preparing for the Shepherd's Harvest festival at Lake Elmo Fairgrounds on Mother's Day weekend . You can read about it here........

http://www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org/index.shtml



So....I recently stocked up on some lovely, fluffy merino from YARNAHOY on Etsy


I will try and get some more of this for animal fur from TLC on Etsy........

One of my favorite sellers of fiber from Sheepish Creations....The animal colored fur did not work out but I still love her own color selections .


Click on thier names to go directly to their Etsy shops and share some of my joy in beautifully dyed and carded fiber artist . Disclaimer: they are not paying me for endorsing them and I can't recommend them for spinners, I have never used their fiber for that and have no experience using their fibers for spinning .

Happy felting .