Meet Blaze, my latest fairy creation. I didn’t set out to make a “punk” fairy, but once you start making creatures they take on a life of their own. This one, quite early on, decided to be a bit punk and adventurous. I think she’s my alter ego! She is made entirely from needle felted wool (apart from her clothes and decorations) and has moveable joints. This technique I learned by watching instruction videos by Kay Petal on her wonderful needle felting website - feltalive.com.
There are so many stages to making a fairy in this way, but it is totally worth it. I am blown away by just how realistic (or fanciful) you can make various features as you learn the techniques. Making the head was the most amazing as it starts out as a small white egg shape and as you add the nose, lips, chin, cheeks etc it becomes more grotesque and bizarre looking. BUT, eventually (after many hours of felting) it take shape and becomes a character. Thank you Kay for your instructions to stick with it - I almost started over several times, not quite believing it would come together! I watched at least 9 hours of Kay’s instruction and learned sooo much doing this whole fairy. My previous fairies were all made with wire armatures and I hated working around the wire, but couldn't figure out how to make moveable arms and legs without it. This is the way to go!
WARNING - creepy images below! :)
Oooh yes, so very creepy looking at this point!
To make this fairy required lots of separate parts - just like a real body - upper arms, lower arms, separate hands and feet etc. The parts need to be felted fairly well so that they will support the body and head, but not rock hard. Only experience tells how big, how much felting to do etc. I hope to get better at it. Once you have the separate parts made, then you get to join them and make more realistic limbs. Then you get to add bulk for the butt, belly, and boobs (if you want them). It’s a miraculous process that each bit of fluffy wool becomes like muscle and gives shape to the body.
Fairy “parts” joined to the body. The head is still separate at this point and the hands have not been made.
Once my fairy was assembled and covered in more skin- like tones I could think about clothes and hair. The instruction video had the fairy wearing little slippers, but my fairy wanted boots and I embellished them with little bits of chain and bead spacers. I felted underwear on her - a simple bra top and panties, then added fabric for a skirt, which is just held on with her leather belt. I put her head on and had intended to give her blue and green hair, but again she decided it was to be red and orange - and who am I to argue! She has a mountain of hair that I could only dream of…. The very last thing to add was her wings, which I struggled with. These are the second attempt, the first turning out too large and clunky. Live and learn. Anyway, I love my new fairy. I’m wondering what sort of furniture or goodies she will want from “Twigge Towne Furnishings”. :)