Polar Bear Bits Becomes a Polar Bear

 Today I got back to work on my polar bear.  I wanted her to have a felted body rather than a cloth one, being a fuzzy bear and all.  Most likely her clothes will cover her fur, but just in case, there is fur overlapping her neck and paws.

The first photo shows the wire armature on the right.  And on the left, I've added wraps of plush wool felt and whip-stitched them in place. 

After covering both sides with the felt, I began adding the wool.  Just as I anticipated, the wool stuck much better to the wool felt than it did to the acrylic felt I used on the armature of the reindeer.  So from now on, I'll use this plush wool felt over any armature I'm going to needle-felt over.

The second picture shows her completely needle-felted.  I used a less expensive "core wool" from http://www.livingfelt.com for most of her.  But I used Merino around the neck, wrists, and ankles because it's closer in color to the polymer clay.

My next step will be to dress her.  But now that I see how lovely her little bear body is, I kind of hate to cover her up!