Category Archives: felting

walking dead dolls

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I know I’ve shared a couple of my Walking Dead doll remakes, but I found I had this post in my drafts folder and it includes one previously unshared doll: Sasha.

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This is Sasha in the show:

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And this is my Sasha, complete with a high powered rifle with moving parts.

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Remaking Sasha included a total repaint of her face and a new hair style. I made her singlet top and she wears Bratz jeans. I bought her gun on ebay as I’ve bought various other accessories at times when I can’t make them myself. I already have a crossbow to make Daryl… I just have to get there.

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Let’s revisit the other girls… Firstly my all time favourite: Michonne. This is how she began, a very messy Bratz girl I bought in an op shop. That’s one thing I miss here (among other things…) No op shops. I’ve never seen dolls I can remake for sale anywhere for instance. I’m glad I brought a ton with me! When I eventually get around to re-making some again.

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This is Michonne on the show…

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And this is how my interpretation, complete with a katana and a chain to hold her pet walkind dead.

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In Michonne’s case I had to do a total overhaul. I had to remove her hair and make dredlocks by wet felting a combination of wools. I made her top, including a leather vest plus a studded belt. Her jeans are original Bratz jeans as they’re just too hard to make.

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Last but not least, Carol. This is Carol on the show:

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This is what the doll looked like before I started. A typical overdone Bratz doll with wild hair.

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And this is the finished Carol, complete with a gun, a military warrier knife and bag.

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In Carol’s case I did a repaint of the face, gave her a haircut and coloured her hair grey. I made all her clothes and made a pair of Bratz sandals into boots by painting and adding laces.

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I miss remaking dolls. Its one of the things I planned to work on in winter but never got around to it for two winters in a row. This winter I was working on sculptures and last winter who remembers… All I know is that time never seems to be enough.

And I get bouts of laziness and inspiration blocks.

I should really be working on things like this constantly but instead I spend hours doing all sorts of things instead of creating. I really work best when I have a ton of projects going at once cause then I can pick what I want to work on at any given time. Space becomes an issue in a 2 room flat.

Last night I was up till 12.30 working on one of my new (old) cabinets. I didn’t even realise what time it was till I saw it was pitch black outside.

I love it when I’m in the zone like that.

z

a bunny ear-phone holder

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Have you seen the cutest little bunny ear-phone holder on Pinterest?

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Well. I had to try it. Its just so darn cute! (I’m not the only one who tried it. You can see other examples here.)

So, meet my bunny. I made him out of extra thick felt and put stiffener between the front and back on the body to make him stronger. The ears and tongue are made from  regular thickness felt squares.

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Pretend you don’t notice where I went off kilter with the sewing machine on the ear…

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I gave him a little something extra… a pom pom tail!

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And, I couldn’t make him without making him more ‘mine’… hence the button eye and the X eye. My little imperfect bunny.

Since I finished him I’ve also added a little clip to his side so I can now clip him to my bag. That keeps him from getting lost (falling out of the bag or falling to the bottom of the bag requiring me to empty to entire bag to find him), and keeps him handy.

I’m happy with my little bunny.

z

meet mr fox – in felt

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Hello Mr Fox!

Here is Mr Fox going for a drive. And below he sits on our gate post as the horses do a good job of mowing our driveway.

He’s such a happy little fellow. Mainly cause I gave him a little grin when I needle felted him.

My what big ears you have Mr Fox!

Here I was ridiculing the Fox Eradication Program… They spent millions of dollars to eradicate every single fox in the state. 
Well, it worked! I’ve never seen a fox, have you?
Oh! Wait! There’s one!

Perhaps they were right… there were ARE foxes in Tasmania!

z

needle felted rat-like creature

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I’ve been looking at a lot of incredible needle-felted animals on Pinterest lately. Some people are so talented! The expressions, the realistic shapes…

I decided to make my own little dressed up mouse. Its been a while since I made a needle-felted animal. I love working with felt but I’m not exactly consistent.

I had planned to make a mouse but he looks a bit more like a rat. Not to worry. He’s still cute.

I needle felted him entirely, except for the white collar on his little orange vest, and his yellow bow tie. 

His eyes are needle felted, with a little white twinkle highlight. I stitched his nose and mouth with black thread.

I had these little metal shavings in my shed… I don’t know what they’re from, I found them on the ground when we took a load to the tip last year. Hard to see in the photos, but they look like little flowers to me. I made a little stem and leaves out of wire and gave them to my little rat-like creature to hold.

Yep. He looks cute in his perpetual grovelling, apologetic, flower-offering stance.

z

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elmer the emu

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The other night I got into the ‘zone’ again and made another felted animal. I had an emu in mind cause we’d made an emu at work with clients last year and really enjoyed it. In that instance it was a papier mache emu and we couldn’t find a way to get him to balance on his long skinny legs, then I accidentally broke a leg… so we ended up putting him in a wheelchair. It was great. How perfect is a disabled emu made by a group of people with a disability? He was exhibited at the Cosmos Art Show and sold.
This is the only photo I have of him, unfinished.
Wheelie Bird, made by Day In The Hall clients at Cosmos Inc. (website designed by me, incidentally)
But back to my emu who looks like a cross between Big Bird and Beaker.
Elmer, the emu.
 See the resemblance?
Anyway, I think he’s adorable. I made Elmer and Kangarat to enter in a competition being held in Salamanca in Hobart but now I’m not sure. It costs $15 per entry, then I have to price them for sale and drop them off and pick them up if they don’t sell. I think I’d be better off reviving my Etsy shop and selling them through there.
Then again, if I’m going to be selling items through Etsy (or ebay) I should really have a regular list of items for sale, right? And I’m too scattered to do that. 
Seriously. I have a million projects on the go at any one time and another gazillion whizzing around inside my head, bouncing around like dodgem cars.
Plus, I have a serious affliction. I’m addicted to tip shopping. I can try to resist but its futile. I give in and I’m in there, on my knees going through boxes of rusty stuff, getting my hands dirty, unearthing some small bit of something which I know will be perfect for some project I have in the back of my mind. Or seeing stuff I think would be perfect for xxx, or would look great if I just did xxx to it.
I just can’t help myself. I’m like that bug in A Bug’s Life who flies toward the light saying “I… can’t… help… it”.
Yesterday I asked Wayne to help move a cabinet which weighed as much as a small tractor into the workshop area of the casita for me. I believe it was some kind of sorting cabinet for paper in a previous life cause it has tons of small slots in which paper would fit perfectly. I think it’ll be really handy to sort my junk inventory in some sort of order. All the knobs in a box in their own slot. All the hinges in another. All the nuts and bolts in another. You get the idea.
A wise friend of mine pointed out that until I start to actually use the stuff I’m collecting to make stuff (and by that she means FINISH stuff) I’m nothing but a hoarder in training.
I have to face reality. She’s right. My desk is covered in post-it notes with To Dos. I have a notebook full of To Do lists and all I seem to do is cross off one, add 3 and reshuffle the rest.  I need to actually finish some of my projects. Then I can justify the stuff I collect…. cause I ain’t about to stop!
Perhaps letting the ideas out of my head will give me some peace as well. As it is, getting to sleep at night is really hard when I’m lying there thinking of solutions to problems I haven’t actually faced yet.
z

its a kangarat!

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Yes, yes. I know. Its been AGES since I last posted. I don’t know how those ‘other’ bloggers do it. I just can’t blog on a regular basis when I’m working. I seem to push blogging down the list as other things pile on top.

However, I have been busy. Not as busy as I’d like given the wrist pains. For instance, this last week I haven’t done much at all.

One thing I did do was finally finish my lightbox. This is a lightbox made from a cardboard box, white paper, a tip shop sheet and a desk lamp. The desk lamp came from a garage sale a few months ago. I bought it despite the fact that it didn’t have the clamp to hold it to the desk cause I thought we could make a base for it. I asked Wayne to make a base for it on the weekend and this is what he made:

The base is made from 2 offcuts of wood from our deck extension and corregated iron strips which have been hammered flat and nailed on. Pretty cool. A bit of overkill I thought, but hey. It works!

And the proof that  it works is in the photos! This is my felt kangarat. I took these photos in my new lightbox using my simple point and click camera.

I’ve tried various felting experiments in the past. Most of them were dismal failures. Or mediocre failures at best… First is a small felt purse made with bought felt with a felted toy poodle on it.

Then there’s the throw with felted poodles playing on it. This one I think I buried in the back yard.

 
In fact I think this is my favourite felt project till recently. My favourite polar fleece jumper had lots of small holes on it from puppy teeth (thanks Bonnard!). I cut up pieces of felt and felted on the patches. I love the colour spots on my jumper now.

So… when I decided to have a go at a three dimensional felted animal I was diving into the deep end. I started with some pieces of a scarf I wet felted and would never wear. I cut a piece of the scarf and created a cone shape. I filled it with felted scraps, then I started felting the two tones of grey onto it to make the kangaroo colour.

The head, ears, legs, arms and tail were all made separately and felted onto the body. It was interesting, and other than impaling myself on the felting needles a few times, it was easy enough.

I decided my little kanagroo needed a jumper so I simply felted a square piece of blue, created holes for the sleeves and folded over the collar.

When I showed it to Wayne he said it looked more like a rat than a kangaroo.

Hm.

I will call him a kangarat!

And I think he’s gorgeous!

z