Dachshunds ……. and More Dachshunds

I have been needle feting for quite a while now and always looking for new challenges and new subjects (because I get bored very, very easily!)

So, I make different things, such as this Elf Doll walking her Dachshund.  She is all needle felted and is attached to the log slice plinth she stands on.  Her hair is dyed lambswool, her dress and knickers are wet felted and her little elf shoes are needle felted.  She has pointy elf ears and a sweet face.  She is taking her little miniature wire haired dachshund for a walk on a rainbow cord lead and holding her flower head garland in her left hand.  All the dachshunds are needle felted using a range of wools.  Once the body shape is firm, I mix 4 or 5 colours to get the variegated colours in the wire haired coat.

I follow a very talented Russian felt artist who does lots of mice dressed in clothes and doing “human” things.  That got me thinking about Dachshunds and how they could be used in the same way.  My first project was this “father and son”, both wired onto a plinth, with the youngster looking up at daddy.  I knitted a little jumper for the boy and wet felted scarves for both of them.  I then added some doll’s house accessories – a top hat and an umbrella for daddy.  They are quite dinky, 6 inches and 5 inches respectively.

Next, I made a “girl” dachshund.  I knitted her a tiny woolen sleeveless jumper with a roll neck and used a pretty quilting square to make her flared skirt.  Her balloon is bright pink Perendale wool needle felted and attached to a wire that looks like string that she is holding in her hand.  She is also wired onto the plinth.  I felted her around a wire frame and drilled the plinth to insert the wires into 2 small holes so she “free stands”.  She is about 6 and a half inches tall.

The final one for this post is one of 2 little boys, one on a winter sledge and the other one pulling him.  I knitted 2 little red scarves, to keep them both warm.  I glued some glittery white pre-felt onto a plinth, drilled the plinth for the standing boy and glued the sledge on to the white pre-felt.  The one on the sledge is sitting with his tail hanging over the edge of the sledge …….  This has a real winter / Christmassy feel – I might take the photos and use them on my Christmas cards this year!

I am carrying on with a tiny doll’s house size pram, which will have in it a needle felted blanket and a sleeping dachshund baby ….. with a “mum” stood up pushing the pram ……..

 

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The Innocent Slumber of the Needle Felted Wire Haired Dachshund

Ah the satisfaction of completing my little replica.  I watched our little mini wire Aldo sleeping and thought – that would be good to needle felt – so my needle came out and I started.

The base was pink – really harsh wool that enabled me to get the shape easily.  I made the legs and head separately and before I attached them I covered his tummy in brown Shetland combed top.   I then dressed the legs with a mix of Icelandic and Shetland top – cut into tiny pieces that I hand mixed to get the wild boar look of the coat.  I left the tops of the legs un-felted so I could attach them to the body and I used a long doll needle to stitch through the front legs so they stayed in the right position whilst I felted them on.  I then attached the head – still in its un-dressed state and looking really odd – the pink made it look like an alien!  It took a while to cover the body in its mixed wool coat and once done I added the tail and started on the head – that was very fiddly – adding eyebrows and a beard, felting on the black nose and doing a fine line for the closed eyelids.

When I was happy that he was in the correct sleeping position and his beard was well needled in, I put him aside and made the basket from Green Perendale batting.  The banket came next, a small piece of doubled Sherpa fleece (that I use for my real dog beds)  I embroidered a small paw print on one corner and overlocked it. 

I finally had my mini miniature – 5 inches long in a basket 6 inches wide!