A friend of mine asked if I do commissioned work. She needed some felted animals with poseable limbs. I had done some felting over wire armatures, but not enough to know if what she wanted was possible. So, I did a test. The prototype worked beautifully. Now I'm hard at work on the four animals my friend wants, but I've also started exploring other ways to use wire armatures, like making bodies for the heads in my felted head collection.
This gal is felted mostly from Romney wool roving. I chose to start with her because that I knew that her face was made from the Romney wool and thus it would be easy to match her face color with her body color. Under the wool of her body is a wire armature. I have enjoyed watching Sara Renzulli's YouTube videos on using wire armatures. I intentionally did not spend much time sculpting or hard felting this doll's body. I just wanted to see if the concept would work. She is roughly 1 foot tall and her dimensions are based on the artistic idea that humans are roughly 7.5 "heads" tall. (Check out this reference.) I am thrilled as all get out! Now I can move forward and provided bodies for more of my heads....see them waiting patiently for their turn?! :)
Many thanks to my friend Kathy H. at Athens Art Gallery for a little push in the right direction!
