A Dachshund and Mouse Tale …..

Well, the needle felting bug has really got me.  I have been busy making  wire haired dachshunds and decided I was fed up with them “posing” so I wanted a bit more “action”.  Hence I made a little needle felted mouse with a dachshund crouching ready to pounce, eyes shining, tongue out ……..

The mouse is felted from Shetland wool with brown merino ears.  Its little black eyes are plastic beads on wire and its nose is black Icelandic sheep wool.

The dachshund was tricky as he needed a sloping back, crouching forward, open mouth and tongue protruding.  If you look very closely you will see he also has little white teeth felted into his bottom jaw.  I made his bottom jaw and tongue separately, needle felting the teeth and tongue into the black Icelandic wool, then attached it the rest of his face.  His neck needed to be a bit longer than usual because he is stretching to reach the mouse, his front legs are drawn back a bit under his body and his back legs are straight to provide the propulsion he needs to pounce ……

More Dachshund Needle Felting

Well the long winter days have to be filled so I carried on felting ……….. in-between sewing, making leads, quilting, making trolley covers and embroidering!  So – here they are:

The pink one featured in my previous post.  The next one I did was the green one, with his coat and hat on.  I rough felted some polyester toy filling to get his shape.  I then covered it in Perendale batting.  I used Merino for his eyes and nose and was itching to try and felt over to make him a coat and hat.  I worried about that as I did not want to ruin him but once started, there was no going back so I ploughed on and was pleased with him in the end!

Next I wanted to sculpt the “sitting pretty” dachshund.  That was a challenge!  Getting the back legs to look right (and look the same) was tricky but nowhere near as difficult as the front paws and the head leaning to one side!  He is made completely of Perendale wool which felts well and leaves a fairly smooth finish.  I added a colourful scarf to give the whole figure a bit of fun!

Now I had done a few I wanted to try my hand at a little “wirey” person.  I bought some wool roving in different colours and mixed it a few strands at a time in short pieces to give the “wild boar” look to the coat.  It was painstakingly slow but to do it any other way would have looked “stripey” so it was a case of plodding on …………….  I covered him all over in a brown undercoat and felted the top wire in 10cm strips ……. lots of coffee was consumed during this part!   With the finished shape completed I enjoyed adding his eyes, beard and eyebrows and am pleased with the finished piece.  Am hooked and will be starting another one soon!!!

 

 

He is tired of posing now!!!