Down to the point, of TWIRL

This weeks Illustration Friday word is Twirl. I think I have decided she should dawn the name. She was so much fun to make and as you will see from some of the drawings and pictures was completely different in her first stages.  She was originally Adline, and then Irean/Irene, check out the background post.

I photoshopped her mouth in this picture because thats what it actually looks like. I need to look into reformatting my XD card for my older camera so I can stop using the camera on my phone.

Now here is some step by step

I am going to show you how to needle felt!
I took you through dyeing the wool. Now it is time to get out your carders and card up the dyed, washed, and dryed, wool.

Carding is an art that, I defiantly need more practice at. It really helps to get alot of those last little bits of hay and grass out.

This is purple Alpaca roving from and the blue from a above is donated from 

Helga Hillyard

Green Acres Alpacas

felting needle, bone horn (with hole through the end), sculpy and poprivit to make wholes in claws, doll eyes (and backs). I have two eyes cause I haven't decided which size to use.  

Now I get to work stabbing the roving (wool). The barbed needle pull the hairs into them self and dread them into a nice firm shape. It takes a lot of time but it is worth it. I am going to try to time the next one.

Here I have put the back on the eye and am felting around it. When the wool starts getting tight I pushed the back in tight to secure it. Then I started stabbing wool into the hole in the bone horn.

I keep layering on the wool and stabbing to make it firm.

Einsle and Gregory are in the background.

Here I am forming the claws out of sculpy and punching holes in to them. As many as possible to make  more hold for the wool. Then bake as the directed. Any paintable Palmer clay will work

Then just keep stabbing away!

These are some other drawings that I was working while making her! Sometimes it feels like the sculptures dictate how they are going to look as you build them.

Putting in the claws. The same as the horn on the head. Just staying through all the holes. This does tend to dull your needle I think.

I made the core of twirl out of some sheep wool that I have that was a little less soft, but it gets nice and firm. Then I put the purple alpaca over it. I made all the body parts first and then put her together.

Her now and here is her first incarnation.

Here is some different sketches. The two legged girl is her.

The schetches above are newer than the ones below

Thats all for now. 

If anyone would like to leave a comment or question you are most welcome to.