Saturday, December 12, 2015

Miss Bumbles' Reindeer

 While surfing on Etsy I came across Miss Bumble's (Ruth Rivers') shop of charming needle-felted animals.   She is in London, and I remember thinking that if only I were anywhere near there, and if she teaches, I'd love to take a class from her.  Then I noticed that she sells kits, so I bought this one as the next best thing to taking a class from here.  Here are the finished results!
I was interested in her techniques, and I'd have to say that the main way in which hers and mine differ is that she doesn't use an armature.  It's all just wool, beginning with a firmly felted basic shape and then adding on.

What I found particularly interesting is her use of embroidery over the felted wool.  On this piece, the detail on the "sweater" is embroidered.

And speaking of the sweater - it is simply blue wool felted onto the body and arms.

It was fun and interesting doing this kit.  I may very well use the embroidery techniques and felting clothing in some of my work, but will continue to use armatures as I like the animals to be posable.

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