Lol! Spring has finally sprung sow I decided to go hog wild, hatching some ideas about making lil’ farm critters. Here’s eggsactly what I’ve been up to — no apologies whatsoever for the puns ;)
First I made some chickens. I always thought I would like to keep chickens when I retired, but I herd taking care of them is not all it’s cracked up to be, so here are my wooly substitutes. I started from scratch with a tiny wire armature to make the legs, and built up the chicken from there.
Half baked chicken - hard to tell what it is really.
I hatched a rooster too, not sure he’s anything to crow about, but he does have a big tail.
Those chicken feet got painted with acrylic - yum!
Pleased with the chickens, and with Easter coming up, I hoppily made some bunnies. They’re tiny, and quick to make, so I ended up with a whole fluffle of bunnies (yes, that’s a real expression according to the internet and one I intend to use a lot.)
The first chicken I hatched (rear right) had a chenille stem as a base, but that made the legs too thick and hairy, which could actually work for some breeds of chicken, but I didn’t want that. Henny way, I chopped those off and cluckily turned the legless chicken into a laying chicken. The bunnies proved very popular and became a good barter item that I could use for other fun things, including a ride to the Quilt Show! With all their cuteness it’s not surprising that my fluffle of bunnies quickly found forever homes as fast as I could make them.
Feeling sheepish about not having any bunnies left, I moved on to another farmyard favorite. I love the hilarious stop motion series “Shaun the Sheep,” (look it up on ewe tube if you haven’t seen it), —and I am working with wool for heaven sake — a sheep it had to be. As usual I began with the wire armature.
I used only my core wool for it’s body. The core wool is relatively ineggspensive (I’m counting how many times you groan reading this ;) because it’s natural, not dyed or bleached.
Here’s my Shaun the Sheep ;) It might be hard to believe, but that eye is made only of wool! Now on to the next pigment of my imagination…
Yup, you guessed it! Some people think pigs are dirty creatures - but that’s hogwash. They like to be clean, and only roll in mud to keep cool as they have no sweat glands. Pigs are very intelligent - as you will know if you watched the movie “Babe”. I made my pig a nice clean pink, and added a few oink spots. My son said this piggy is my most accurate animal anatomically so far — praise indeed.
Sheep are not as stupid as most people believe— they can form strong bonds with their fellow sheeple and are only slightly less intelligent than pigs. Here my pig and sheep get acquainted, and what do you know a little bunny popped up out of nowhere— as they do!
So I’ve got quite the farmyard happening, but then I was challenged to make the cutest of all sheep - the Valais Blacknose Sheep from Switzerland.
Looking sheepish - maybe
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any more adorable…Valais are so shaggy and cute with their black noses and curly top knots. I used up a lot of my curly white sheep locks on this one.
Not sure what I’ll make next —there are sow many reasons to make piglets, or it might be amoosing to make a cow. It might just be whatever gets my goat. I’ve just been told “it’s pasture bedtime” so I’m off. You can breathe a sigh of relief — no more puns. Alls wool that ends wool ;)