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

Happy Birthday Wool from Detta's Spindle

I just turned 48 a few days ago and with generous birthday money gifts from my parents and my Mother in Law I got to stock up on more felting supplies . Above and below are some of the wools I bought from Detta's Spindle . After a year of buying form her on-line, I actually got the privilege of meeting her and her beautiful Standard Poodles and handpicking some of the "animal fur colored" wools . If you click on the pictures, you might be able to read what kind of wool is which but it is mostly colonial and merino with a bit of coopworth and a lovely alpaca/silk blend

I highly recommend her Mill Ends and other fibers as I have always found them a great quality for the price . Thanks again , Detta for sharing you dogs, wool and hospitality .

Standing and sitting Yeti and a couple more do-over felts

 Here's my latest large Yeti with corn fiber felted in as fur . I still need to do a few small touch ups that I didn't notice until I took the picture....one nice thing about checking results with photos is that I seem to find the flaws easier then looking at the 3D in front of me .....weird but true .

 Below looks like a Yeti had a baby with a hamster ?

 The last three are felties from my first year of felting that I needed to "do-over" . I think it takes almost as long to try and repair an animal as it does to just start from scratch but I really hate to just throw away something with out at least trying to fix it . None of this critters would be on my personal favorite list but perhaps they can be sold at discount and still find homes .

Happy felting .

Are We There Yet (i) Needle sculpted Yeti

As a fan of all things fuzzy, Yeti have always had a place in my heart . These are two Yeti babies I worked on this weekend . I tried a bit different style with each but they are each made with a base of merino covered in Ingeo(corn fiber) . I think this stuff is the best for creating a nonclumping rooted in hair .

My attempt at a Bigfoot...Northern hemisphere style Yeti.... was less successful . He just looks like a monkey . (A base of merino with alpaca locks .)

Happy felting !

Needle sculpted sounds better then needle felted...more critters

 I know my health issues have limited my blogging but it hasn't discouraged me from felting animals . Since last I blogged, I have created 4 more large critters and three small ones . I also worked on several old sculptures and made minor improvements though I doubt the changes would be noticeable to the casual observer .  The above critter is mostly merino blends with some corn fiber fluff on the tail, chest and ears .

 As usual, my cat Balhoo decided to get in on the photo shoot . He really is an attention hog .

 I also finally bought a white back ground  for taking pictures....to block out the distracting clutter of my apartment and hopefully make more professional pictures for listing on Etsy . It turned out to be to big for the table I used today but hopefully I can get a bigger table cleared off soon .

 Most of my animals this past month have had similar wool and coloring but each is a bit different in shape and have unique personalities and expressions . Unfortunately, my "facial expression vocabulary" is still a bit on the dark side . Some where between "homocidal lunatic" to "snarky know it all" and "oops, missed my Prozac" .  I have an uncomfortable theory that these may actually be the same expressions that people see on my own face...and probably why I repel people .

 Instead of using a chicken egg for size reference, I am using one of my own felted eggs .

 Although this guy is the "snarky" one, he is also my favorite .

 The last three are many little critters....about 3-4" .

 The new cat arm chair is still very popular . When they aren't fighting over who gets to use it. they occasionally manage to share . While having a black cat and a white cat may make picking a  clothing color that hides cat hair impossible, it does add a nice "yin and yang" balance to the decor .

I'm going for a sleep apnea test next week, to rule out (or in), one possible cause of my current narcoleptic existence . In the mean time....

Happy felting to all .