Barn owl

I would like to present my latest needle felted creation, a barn owl. I have not been naming any of my pieces lately and probably will not name him either.

Ever since I read “Wesley the owl: the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl” by Stacey O’Brien, I decided I wanted to needle felt a barn owl. The story has a sad ending but it is a good read.

This guy is 10.5” from talons to the top of his head and 12” from wing tips to his head. I had lots of things to figure out along the way. First I started out with needle felting the beak and talons. They turned out being too large and not pointed enough to look like a beak or talons. I ended up searching the web and bought some ‘Premo!’ Sculpey clay for the beak and talons. I never worked with any of the oven bake clays before. After about 10 minutes with warming it up in my hands it was quite easy forming the parts, not that making something sharp on one end with a bit of a curve is rocket science. I made lots of extras just in case if nothing else I had a good selection to get all the talons to pretty much the same size.

From there I made a wire armature for the feet and used Krazy craft glue to stick the talons on to the armature. From there I felted the feet.

The beak is a bit different. I formed it the same as the talons it is just a bit larger and not quite as long. I also poked two holes across the base of the beak and threaded Mastex upholstery thread through the holes and tied the beak off at the back of his head.

There are five wing pieces; one tail feather and two separate wings on each side. The wings are loosely felted with no wire armature; I may add some wire in the wings next time because they are just kind of limp.

Right now he’s not up for adoption, there is a fiber arts show coming up in May of 2011 and I plan to enter him into the competition, unless I make something better before then.

Don’t ask me how many hours it took to make him. I’ll just say I missed a lot of Survivor, Biggest Loser and any number of other reality shows.

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Schnauzer

Here’s my latest addition. He’s 4” tall and almost 3” from front to back.

For some reason as he was coming alive there was absolutely no resemblance to anything until the nose was in place. Then he really came together. Most of my other creations start taking on a persona much earlier in the process. I’m glad I kept on; before the nose I was considering starting over.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Don't tell my cat...

that I'm making needle felted dogs instead of cats.

I've made another needle felted creation. I finally dug up the Fleece Dog needle felting book I bought at this May’s Doll and Teddy Bear Show so I could get started on some new projects. Here’s my first creation from that book. It’s supposed to be a French bulldog, I hope it’s recognizable to all you dog lovers. It resembles the photo in the book. From the heading of this post you can guess I am a cat lover so any resemblance my needle felted dogs is purely coincidental. J It’s not that I do not like dogs, I just like cats better. Actually I’ve been going to Nancy’s blog again and I am amazed at her needle felted creatures.

He’s 3” tall and 3” from nose to rump… a square dog???

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Back again

Hello again to all you bloggers. I have been away for quite some time and hope to restart my needle felting and mohair projects again.

I attended a doll and bear show this past May and I am able to make expenses by attending a show at home. I got lots of compliments on my mohair teddy bears but not very many went to new homes. I did get a few ideas at the show for making new needle felted projects for dolls; dogs and cats in particular. I still am playing around with different animals in the mean time.

I finally found a place in the Etsy world that sells mohair and Cotswold sheep locks for needle felted projects. Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaTeaDaDesigns for locks. Marti was very helpful putting together a small sampler package of the different kinds of locks she has available. I also picked up a package of her natural dark reddish brown llama roving. All the items I received are great to work with. At this time I have put together another owl using the mohair locks. The only reason I have not used the Cotswold lock is the color, grays and blacks didn’t work into my owl. An excuse for more projects...

This owl is 7” tall and 4” wide. As of yet he/she doesn’t have a name.

Thank you for stopping by,

Mark

Belated Happy New Year!

I'm only a week late... I hope everybody is having a great start to the New Year. From watching the weather lately it looks like it’s kind of tough in the Eastern half of the country. We are supposed to get some of the effects of the cold here but at this point it has not arrived yet, I am thankful for that.

I took some extra time off from work to unwind knowing that the start of the new year will be hectic. Thinking that I would be able to relax and do a few things for fun didn’t always work out. I got to replace the automatic garage door opener and help a plumber dig out our water line from the street to the house since the 52 year old galvanized water line decided to rupture a couple days ago. It’s a good thing I remembered how to run a shovel. The plumber’s helpers showed up when we had about 1’ of trench left to dig. I couldn’t have planned that timing any better myself. As of this morning we have running water back in the house. The first thing I did was jump in the shower. I don’t know how those pioneers did without running water. No doubt they were a tougher, smellier group than us!

I did have time to enjoy the birds in our back yard while having the time off. We have 6 bird feeders going in the back. I saw several different birds that I have not seen in the yard before; gold finches, a mountain chickadee and either a sharp-shinned hawk or Coopers hawk. This is in addition to all the doves, robins, sparrows, finches, hairy woodpeckers, juncos, scrub jays, towhees and flickers. I did get a few good photos of some of them. I was surprised at the hawk. We live I the middle of the city and never expected to see a hawk. When I go in the back yard I usually scare the doves and hear them taking off in a frenzy. One time I heard the doves take off even faster like there was something after them, and yes I saw the hawk sitting on the power line above the bird feeders.

I was also successful in finding a nifty kitty toy for Babee. It is a refillable catnip field mouse, by Kong. She’s still playing with it! She usually quits playing with her toys even sooner than kids wear out the batteries on their own toys. Occasionally I have to hunt around the house to find the mouse because Babee seems to lose it but once it makes its appearance she starts playing with it again.

I have been busy with needle felting and have included a couple of photos of my latest bears. They are 4” and 6” tall when standing.

I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2010

Thank you for stopping by.
Mark