So I had a crazy idea (what’s new?!) …. I wanted to make some woodland animals and decided to make them a Carol singing group that I would gift to my Son and Daughter-in-Law for Christmas (whether they want them or not!) These are all about eight inches high and made with wire armatures so they are posable.
Oooh, a poor naked, headless squirrel - Don’t look!
I made my rabbit before I had the genius idea of carol singing. As I made the other two I thought in order for my carol singers to hold their music they must have flexible hands. I had made individual fingers for my fairy and menfolk, but they are not posable, so I set about learning how to make wire fingers and wrap tiny bits of wool on them. I have learned that the bigger you make things the easier it is to do tiny details (Duh!) but having already set the size for my characters I had to make do as best I could. I don’t recommend it if you have little patience for fiddly stuff, but I’m sure I’ll get better at it over time. I do love a challenge! A secret I learned was to paint the fingers with a little dilute Modge Podge after applying the wool in order to make it stay in place. Hopefully over time the fingers will stay fingers and not turn into a wooly fringe!
Ha, the squirrel did not lose his head after all!
Here is my squirrel fully formed and finished and perfectly capable of holding things in his little paws! Someone asked me how I figured out the proportions on the creatures I make and that was amusing as I had just finished the squirrel’s head and I realized it was way too small for his body. It’s darned difficult to take away wool after the fact, but fortunately fairly easy to add to needle felted things. I had to add quite a bit to the shape of his head to get it right. Note to self - spend more time making the proportions correct before wasting a lot of colored wool on details! To finish him off I added some horsehair whiskers, made him a little red scarf and used an adorable acorn cup from the local park as a bobble hat.
Badger says Hi!
Here’s my English badger. As you can see he has a wonky pinky (he’s a bit put out about it) - victim of my learning experience, but we’ll just say its a battle injury!
Badger and Rabbit getting acquainted
The rabbit is the second bunny I have made so he was a bit easier to make than the others because I knew a bit more about his structure and there was a tutorial I was following. I decided to have fun and make him a little coat and hat. The clothes did not turn out as well as I’d hoped and further down the line I actually cut his hat way down. Both items are removable and I thought that the carol singing rabbit could also double as the Easter Bunny and hold an easter egg or something later in the year.
In finishing up I found some tiny carols to print out and stick on to red card for the singers, and to complete the set I added a little felted Christmas tree with bead decorations. These little characters are now on their way to their forever home bringing Christmas Cheer to one and all.
On an interesting note I discovered that wassailing can refer to going on a friendly drinking binge as well as going from house to house carol singing. This year we might need a bit of both!