Charlie

I have two favorite sources for my needle felting supplies, www.livingfelt.com and www.sarafinafiberart.com.  Last week I saw that LivingFelt was having a bird challenge and I knew I wanted to enter.  When I considered what kind of bird to do I was prompted by the fact that part of the entry was to be the back-story.  And that's when I settled on Charlie the Belted Kingfisher.

When I drove my daughter to school part of the route had a wide deep ditch along the side of the road which acted as an intermittent stream during the winter.  And nearly every day in late autumn and winter we would see a kingfisher perched on the exact same spot on the telephone wires carefully keeping watch over the stream.  My daughter named him Charlie.

When I made the wire armature, I sculpted a bill from polymer clay and attached it to the armature by forming it around the twisted wire at the front of the head.  After heat curing it I painted it for a more realistic look.  I made the toes by twisting 26 gauge cotton covered florist wire.  The cotton covering on this wire is white and it's easy to color it with alcohol inks - that's how I got the black.

Both the tail and wings are made from two layers of wool felt sewn around the side edges and tips.  I began the felting before I attached the tail and wings to the armature wires.  After completing much of the core wool felting on the armature I attached the tail and wings over the wing and tail armature wires and secured them with thick cord that I threaded through the tail or wings and body then tied off.  The cord ends are easy to secure by threading them back through the body then clipping the ends.  Completing the felting hides the joints.

I entered him in the challenge, so wish me luck!  I'm very happy with him!