Anatomy of a Kit

I thought it might be interesting to show my thought processes when creating a new needle felting kit.....
First I think about all the kits I SHOULD be making...People are always asking me if I make dog kits and frog kits, for example...so I decided to make a Golden Labrador puppy kit....

So this is how I began:

I went to Goggle Images and found this little guy....  I don't want to steal any images so I'll add that
greenfieldpuppies.com posted this   with the title:  Rocky, Yellow Lab pupple for sale from Leola,PA

I'm sure Rocky will find a good home very quickly!  He's adorable!!

Now...I did a preliminary drawing of Rocky:

He's been drawn in red because of my animation back ground....we drew in red and then went over it in lead....red didn't show on film...now of course it had to be a certain KIND of red....Carmine Red was in demand for years in the 90's!  Scarlet red just didn't cut it :)

I scanned him into my computer again and I cleaned him up with my photoshop eraser tool and darkened the lines

I found him to be too sad and dejected so I made a few changes:

I also wanted him to be looking at us.

I'm getting there!  I wanted him to be tucked snug in a blanket....

Then I added shadows to his face where, when needle felting this guy, you put a darket colour

 And here is the finished piece.  I used my drawing almost as a paint by number kit.  He's not looking at you like I intended, but I like him anyway!

ArtFelting!

I've finally been able to play with this fabulous medium!

I decided to try a large piece....I want to do a life size zebra.  So I created this "skin" out of ArtFelt ....

 Millsy had to join in the fun!  Can you see her?

 I had no room to dunk the piece in water so I went outside on the back porch....I know now that Artfelt freezes and sticks to surfaces.....always handy to know in the future:)

 Soaked it down and wrapped it up in plastic

 Rolled up the legs first and then rolled up the body....




It was HEAVY!!!  I had to surround it with loads of towels to keep it from banging the dryer to bits during the cycle!

Below is the piece after I put it in the dryer three times for 10 minutes each time.
After drying it, I unrolled it and rerolled it in another direction.  The final time, I took the surrounding plastic off and left it loose in the outer plastic bag.....In hindsight, I think I went too far this final drying time.  It shrank quite a bit.
I've put the beginning of the felting process beside it so you can see how much it shrinks....it really does shrink alot!

Next time I think I'll make different sections of the zebra and sew them together....this guy may just become a wool carpet!

New Needle Felting Kits available!

Now that the craziness of the Christmas season is behind us (feels like months ago:)  I can concentrate on making new Needle Felting Kits.

These african animals are so striking and I love the graphic nature of them.  

The Tiger is 6" x 8" when finished and is a little more at $28.00

And the Zebra is 5"x 7" and costs $25.00

Originals christmas Craft Sale

I'll be at the Originals Christmas Craft show again this year...come on down and see me at booth 117.  Show starts Thursday Dec 10
Here are some of the latest critters I've been working on!