Each week of felting brings new challenges and furthers my skill level. Having seen a photo of the Dachshund I made last time, a friend threw down a challenge for me to make two spaniels. I had some good photos to work from, but wasn’t sure I could make the curly fur. As usual my first reaction when getting a commission is to do anything but the commission….ooh that shrub outside needs some trimming, oh and I’d better get some shopping - no procrastination going on here at all! Lol! A few days go by…..
Easing in gently, I began with some research to see what a spaniel’s skeleton looks like and what the proportions are. Let’s face it, looking at Pinterest and other internet goodies is great fun and uses up many happy hours …. but eventually I had to start for real. I began a wire armature and wrapped it in core wool. Then came the tricky part of making fur. I found some videos online showing various methods of making curly and wavy wool for fur and then tried some out. Firstly I plaited some wool. This gave nice waves, but were too big in scale for my spaniel. I already had some sheeps locks, which are white and naturally curly, so they were what I was aiming for. I found the best method was to wind the wool in small strips around a skewer, wet the wool throughly and let it dry overnight. Below is the result.
Natural sheepy locks on the right, my fake ones on the left.
Not only did I have to make curly locks, but I didn’t have the right color of wool for the brownish fur so I had to blend two colors. I discovered that, just like paint, the perfect color you think you made is somewhat darker when it’s applied to the subject…and you have to blend it a lot more than you think.
Many hours of fur application, ear making, head shaping, and angsting over eyes and nose and - voila - a spaniel is made. He doesn’t look exactly like the photos, I need to work a bit more on his face - but he’s pretty darn cute. And of course, procrastination not withstanding, I really enjoyed making him.
Now time to have fun with him.
He’s a handful!
Getting a bit rambunctious with my fairy Blaze.
Oops - need some training here!
Making his presence felt in many ways! My merman is like - Oh careful little guy, you nearly got my tail there!
Blaze looks a little concerned.
Sit! Good dog!
I think Blaze will have fun training him - who could resist that cute face!
Now on to spaniel #2 who is black and white. Off to make some curly black fur…..