A Glamour Reindeer

Lately I've been adding glamorous touches to some of my needle felted animals, including this reindeer.  He's also a bit larger than the animals I usually make, and larger than the pair of reindeer that I recently sold from my Etsy shop (the link is in the right margin if you'd like to visit.).

 The glamour comes in two parts.  First, the antlers.  I made them from twisting rusted wire as I usually do.  But before I added them to the reindeer partway through the felting process, I brushed them liberally with Liquitex mat medium and while it was still wet sprinkled them with a fine bronze glitter from artglitter.com.  I let it dry overnight before continuing with the felting because I didn't want the glitter falling off.

But the really time-consuming bit of glamour was the elaborate festive collar.  I made it from satin ribbon using a few different techniques for making ribbon flowers.  The collar itself is scalloped and then I made and added small ribbon roses with pearl centers and a bow with pearl drops and brass filigree bead caps at the ends.  I sewed a small freshwater cultured pearl to each scallop on the collar and added a sparkly vintage glass button to the cluster of roses on the bow.  Finally, I added a few pearl and crystal drops to the antlers.

I just had fun with this.  Although I made it around Christmas time, I avoided Christmas colors for the collar because I want this piece to be a winter piece and not limited to the holidays.

I highly recommend collecting bits of little things you like - ribbons, pearls, crystals, vintage buttons, and so on - because just having them on hand is an inspiration to create!