Tag: FeltFabulousGifts

custom dogs, dogs, felting with fur

Dog fur or hair? What’s the difference?

amandafelting

When I started working with dog fur/ hair to create needle felted dog replicas, I became curious about the difference between dog hair or fur. What to call this new material I was working with, were those two words interchangeable? Was there a difference?

OK, so now I now there is a difference and I shall attempt to explain that in this post.

So there is no chemical difference between hair and fur, they are both made from keratin. They can however differ in texture and growth cycles.

Hair

Examples of dogs with hair include Poodle, Bedlington Terrier, Schnauzer Bearded Collie and Bichon Frise.

Hair can be straight, wavy or curly and generally feels smoother and finer. It tends to be longer and thicker than fur. Hair grows in a single layer rather than in a double coat and goes through a longer growth cycle. Because of this longer growth cycle, dogs with hair shed less frequently, this leads to people with allergies choosing them over dogs with fur, though this doesn’t always solve the problem! Dogs with hair might need more grooming (as in doggie haircuts) so that their hair doesn’t get too long.

Fur

Dogs with fur include Golden Retriever, Labrador, Newfoundland, Pomeranian

Dogs with fur have shorter growth cycles so they shed more frequently, this is so that they can change the thickness of their coat depending on the season. The fur is finer and denser than hair and often grows in a double coat with a coarser overcoat over the finer undercoat. This helps them to regulate their body temperature. So dogs with fur seem to be more adaptable to changing climates and weather. Their fur is shed before it gets too long so less visits to the dog salon!

So I now know more than I did and I hope you do too! If you want to get in touch about your dog or to enquire about my work with dog fur, I would love to hear from you!

Please use the contact page to get in touch!

Amanda x

Felted bowls

Felting bowls makes me happy

amandafelting

I love felting bowls.

Bowls, vessels, pods…. whatever you call them, I just love making them.

Embellished with beads.
A bowl drying on a cooling rack.
A bowl with a button!
I love the ceramic look to this bowl.
Beads hand sewn onto the rim.
A tiny bowl, just big enough for a tea light!
Looks pretty with some spring flowers in!

 

I wet felt them using a resist method, a process that is now second nature to me. I just set up in the kitchen (best place because it can get pretty wet and soapy), put some tunes on and go! You can do the rubbing and rolling parts quite aggressively too if you have some pent-up tension inside you!

The fulling stage comes next and is one that I really enjoy. This is where I gather my tools (anything with a rounded or curved edge, spoons, ice cream scoops etc) and rub at the wool to firm up the shape of it. (A good felted bowl is always soft but shouldn’t be floppy!) It’s exciting to see the shape of the bowl start to appear, from the felted wool that was round and flat.

Ok, you can’t put your soup in them (but I now have a hankering to try out making ceramic bowls….), but they are great for putting a tea light in. PLEASE make sure it is a battery operated one though! The light just loves to glow through the wool.

Because they are made from wool, they are safer for children’s bedrooms too. Try breaking one, you can’t! Nice and soft for jewellery and watches too.

I use a variety of wool colours and types to make my bowls. It’s always good to learn new things and learning about the different wools and their textures has been really interesting.

If you like felt bowls too, or are just curious, have a look at my felt bowls in my Etsy shop, Felt Fabulous Gifts. There are also some pictures there that show some of the process of making them.

Thanks for reading!

http://www.feltfabulousgifts.etsy.com

needle felting, shop

Bunny blog post!

amandafelting

Hello! Welcome to my post about my needle felted bunnies !

Last week I was feeling a bit under the weather, you know, where you don’t feel awful but you have not a lot of energy.

Making more bowls felt out of the question as that involved standing in the kitchen for lengthy periods of time and vigourously rubbing and rolling as I wet felted.

A couple of weeks earlier, whilst sitting on a bus, I had noticed a rabbit (a pretend one) attached to a student’s rucksack and had that lightbulb moment; ping! I’ll make bag bunnies!

Here is my attempt.

 

DSC02192
Bag bunny attempt

Yeah, not great. Disheartened I left bunny making for a while…until last week when I thought I’d have another go.

What helped me this time was actually looking at REAL rabbits. I have two in my garden! What a wasted opportunity if I don’t observe them! I noticed that I’d got the nose shape all wrong and his front paws were too big.

Needle felted rabbits after real rabbit observation.

Actually, the rabbit with the carrot is a slightly improved version that I did once I’d got more in the swing of it. The first version wasn’t so smiley and his back feet not as substantial. He also didn’t start off with a green scarf.

I put the white rabbit on my Etsy shop and then rediscovered some accessories from my old card making/wedding invitation days.

This inspired me to make a bunny bride!

Bits and bobs
She holds paper roses
A veil and necklace

 

Using some of these accessories, I then improved my white bunny by adding a ribbon around her neck and giving her some flowers to hold. I made her feet more substantial too and improved her nose by adding a bit of brown under the pink. I relisted her as the new improved version.

 

Then followed smaller, “younger” bunnies… A cheeky brother and sister pair…

She wears a felt dress with flowers embroidered on.

 

And finally some babies! I had wet felted some brown Bluefaced Leicester wool a while ago (to make cloaks for little Lego figures) and thought this would make a lovely blanket for them. I blanket stitched around this and added some daisy stitches. I also wet felted a bowl shape as a bed and embroidered a couple of daisies on there too. All my bunnies, even these baby ones, have “whiskers”, made from threading invisible thread through their faces using a needle, ouch!

Sleeping bunnies

So, there we are. I really enjoyed my week of needle felting bunnies. It was exciting to feel myself getting better at the process as time went on. I came across the rabbit that was my very first attempt at needle felting, probably from a couple of years ago now.

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First ever go at needle felting.

I was so proud of him and I actually like the shape of him. Hmmm, might have a go at other bunnies in this pose…. I’m sure I will be returning to bunny felting again soon. Watch this space!

Most bunnies (apart from early “experiments”) available to buy at my Etsy shop.