My first attempt at Needle Felting

This handbag was my very first attempt at needle felting.  I needled felted the background by hand, using Merino tops.  I then quilted it and added the border all around.

The next one is also done by hand except for the strap which I did using a newly bought Janome felting machine.

Then I discovered Teddy Bears and from then on other animals developed.

This little fellow wanted to conduct a protest rally, when Adelaide Zoo turned down his generous offer of using him instead of the two pandas, imported from China.

 

Earnest Lee meets Amelia Loveheart

Earnest was my very first teddy bear followed shortly after by Amelia, Earnest had never seen another bear before let alone one as pretty as Amelia.  Poor little Amelia is such a little lady that he came over a bit too pushy when not knowing how to behave in company, he just had to have a closer look.

This one is a bit older than Amelia and loves having her photo taken.

Nearly forgot this one, all the above and this one too have been claimed by my daughter who collects small teddies so they have gone to a good home.

Here she is the little floozy doing a Marilyn.

Now for Beagles.

Whilst I waited on a pattern for making a beagle (Barbara Allen) I had a go at my own this is it and he's quite tiny.

The one on the left is another attempt, then my pattern arrived so except for the making of the armature that was done using Barbara's instructions.

I tried a kitten but it isn't all that great, it's something I'll get back to when my current interest in making heads starts to wane.

CREATURES OF THE HUMAN VARIETY.

After the first two pictures, those that follow are of heads that I am experimenting with.  I call them my Tyburn heads because they stand on skewers.  I have started on one that I intend creating a body and limbs for but that will take some time so there won't be any shots for now as I am also working on a tutorial for how I make the heads, eyes, eyelashes and eyes.

This is my very first human like felted piece.  He's made using some really old unspun wool I had from my spinning days, some 20 years ago. It was very dried up but as I wanted to have a go at something, I used it.  I wanted to make a child-like head but when I had finished it just wasn't right and somehow or other turned into the boy king Phutt.  Why Phutt you ask?  Well when it was finished I was so disappointed with the result I just grunted 'phutt'. Here he is and surprisingly most people like him.  Oh and he wasn't a Pharaoh for long, someone put a real life, light, bellied, spitting cobra (now extinct) on his hat and the rest is history.

This second one is the wood nymph that is pictured at the beginning of this blog.

Mostly made with Merino tops, the forest floor is from a bought bag of fancy unspun wool, (best described as dags.). That's a male robin sitting on a nest of two eggs, the female flew off leaving him to take care of the brood.  The nymph doesn't have an armature so I've just gentle needled her to sit on the wool rocks.  Her hair is from a bought packet of synthetic dolls hair.

This next one is the first serious attempt at making a more lifelike head.

As you can see her eyes are far too big for her face.  I call her 40/50 something

This one is Lily, (I thought she looked like Lily Tomlinson in 9 to 5)

I tried an experiment with Lily, painting her face all over with a very weak solution of PVC wood glue, in order to take away any hairy/fluffy appearance that comes through over handling.  It worked fairly well on this one because she was firmly felted but when I tried it with another softer felted one, the air pockets raised up and completely ruined the felted surface, so I've put that idea on the back-burner for now.

This next one I've called Bec because her eyes remind me of a very young second cousin who came to stay with me last Christmas.

I've plonked an old Marilyn Monroe party wig on her for now but have included a picture of her with some dark wool draped over her head for you to see how much different she looks.  Oh and you'll notice in the blonde version, that I've lowered her eyebrows.  You know when you look at something that doesn't look quite right but you can't put your finger on it, well I asked for advice when I put the picture of this one up on a forum that I belong to and one kind lady suggested that I had her eyebrows a little bit too high.  I wished it had been my Eureka moment but it wasn't, nevertheless I have learned a valuable less and am so thankful for this sort of constructive criticism.  I couldn't lower them too much because they left fibre marks but she now doesn't have that startled look.

Latest blonde version with make over. Lowered eyebrows.

What do they say, the camera tells no lies, and it doesn't, after taking the shot below I realised that she needed needling around the eye and bridge of nose area.