Woolnimals

A few years ago, when I was still new to needle felting, I decided to make my entire family a creature each for Christmas. I was stumped on what to make for my husband - as I wanted it to be a big surprise. I was browsing an Antiques store one day and saw this little brass stamp box. It's not much bigger than - you guessed it - a postage stamp. I thought the box was lovely - but what could go in such a tiny box? Could I really felt something that small? Yup. Meet Stamps! He's a very, very tiny elephant. And one of my earliest creations. My husband opened the little tin and fell in love with his tiny new friend! I mean - how could you not? Even his little tush is adorable! He's just a wisp of a thing. I'm thinking about stealing him back! The good news is, I found another one of these Stamps boxes on Ebay and I'm going to make another one. When the box arrived, it smelled pretty terribly of cigarette smoke, so I've been airing it out for about five month...

I've been working on incorporating dyed vintage doilies into my wool pieces. I've had to learn how to sew in order to do this, and I'm finally well on my way to a project I've had in mind for months. This is a much larger piece than I'm used to working with, and has taken many hours just to get to this point. I took these pictures with my phone, so the colors are off. The elephant is actually a nice, soft grey with a true Crayola purple doily on its back. It's about six inches by five inches so far, and the legs have yet to be added. A note on my personal felting style: I usually start with a course wool for the body and layer a softer roving over that. It makes for a tedious process, but the end result is a textural delight.