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Thank you everyone!
Here's my little Spring. Had lots of fun cutting out all those petals with my large fabric scissors 
For more photos and detail shots: http://paeoniadrop.blogspot.com/2014/04 … ipity.html
I've been having a wonderful time dyeing mohair in ombres and colorways. Here's Summer from a Four Seasons collection, I have been creating
This is my first attempt at a puppy. She's based on one of those moving puppy toys I had as a child. I did not have ultra suede so I substituted for her ears and paw pads with dry brushed minky. It was my first time felting a face where I had to felt brow bones and the actual eye socket instead of depending on the mohair to keep it in. I had a little trouble waxing the nose because I do it by cutting off pieces of wax, kneading it, then placing it on the nose before hitting it with the blow dryer. It's not the best way, but I made do with what I had. I attempted to wax her paws too to give them the feel of real puppy paws but in the end, the wax was getting blown around everywhere and I had to redo the paw.
I've only been crafting for a year and a half now, so I'm hoping to improve because I have a long way to go to get that "awww" factor.
Thank you for taking a look and reading my wall of text.
It's so beautiful. The face really draws you in 
He was inspired by a little character my friend made for me based on a chocolate cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. I was lucky enough to find fabric that matched it exactly color for color at a local store. Hope he'll bring some whimsy to your day!
Thank you so much for your kind words everyone
For the longest time, I've sorta been lurking rather than active on these forums because the sheer amount of talent makes me a little shy to post what might be lacking in certain ways, but this year, I've resolved to be more active and to not be afraid of sharing my work here.
Eliza is a little kitten who stands at 6.25 inches, and she has a needle felted face and feet. She has a wobbly neck joint, and five toes just like a real cat. Her inner ears and foot pad is done in minky. (I don't know what else to say)
I know at other types of conventions, some people split tables. I don't know if it is allowed, but it might be fun to have the company and to be able to show a smaller set of bears rather than trying to fill an entire table.
Personally, I do not feel good enough to sell at a show, but I'd love to just attend one to meet other bear artists. As a graduate student, I rarely see the world outside my lab at this point, but I think it'd be fun socialize and just meet people with similar interest. Is there location where these fairs would all be listed with times and locations?
Thanks!
Thank you every for your kind words. I greatly enjoyed felting her face
Little new baby ram girl that is searching for a new home. 
Thank you everyone for your kind words. She was a joy to make though her horns frustrated me a little. I'm still an amateur at needle felting
I have done the striped tail of my racoon using pastel shading. To make the stripes clear and neat I put paper tape (the one that you also use when painting the walls to protect things you don't want paint on). Starting from the tip of the tail towards the body. One ring of shading with the clear ring beside covered with tape, and so on. At the end you can blend a bit better if some areas look too defined. I hope I make sense to you.
Here is a picture of the result. You could do it also with oils.
http://www.teddy-talk.com/img/members/3 … ot_tt5.jpg
Thank you for your suggestion. I tried this with pastels and it didn't work too well with my sparse mohair. I had more pastel sticking to the backing than the mohair. I'll try again with oil.
I have seen some amazing airbrushing work here, but I was wondering is there another way to approach animal markings. I'm looking to make a red panda and I have thought it out for the most part. The tail however has 12 rings which alternate in color. I think on a sparse mohair, to sew together 12 pieces, the seams would be too apparent. I thought about painting on dyes as well, but I have no guarantee there won't be any bleeding.
Complex patterns like cat markings are also eluding me (other than to needle felt the entire face). I know something like zebra or giraffe print can be purchased.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should approach this?
Thank you!
This little lady was inspired by the moors and mountains. I tried to achieve a gray-ish lavender when dyeing. I sorta had a character in mind as I was making her, so it helped a lot. It was only after I finished that my friend pointed out to me, lambs do not have horns or paws. Silly me 
I have some experience with this. Keep in mind, I have mostly dyed only mohair, but think the same thing would occur with other fabrics. I find that if I use the least amount of water and heavily concentrated dye the fabric dyes quickly and makes the backing almost the same color. If I add more water the backing takes a little longer to grab the dye making the fur brighter than the backing. In cases where I'm trying to create a full true black, I add a lot of dye in as little water and dye for about 10 mins. I have pulled it out too soon before and it gave me a very dark blue color, which was not what I was looking for. I never measure my salt or vinegar. I just guess and pour.
Hope this helps!
Robert :)
Thank you. That is helpful. I was wondering if the salt cakes on the mohair though or harms it in anyway.
So lately I have been wanting to get particular colors and want to mix acid dyes and RIT dyes. I got mixed results where it did take to the mohair to give me a teal, but did not take to the backing. Is that because I placed both dyes in? I tried to add a little more vinegar to exhaust the dye bath, but still it did not take after half an hour. Should I have waited longer?
On the RIT dye instructions, it did recommend that I add salt to dye cotton, but I didn't know if it would affect the finish of the mohair. Does anyone have any recommendations for what I should do?
Thanks
My largest project yet. She's my first new work after being sick for a couple of months. It's my fourth needle felted face and the first time I've used this much needle felting on a bunny. Her mohair was dyed by yours truely.
how "big" is she ?
she looks very small, but cant really tell from the pictures :D
and i too would make the nose a little bit more prominent
She's 3.5 inches/9 cm long.
Thank you everyone for your kind comments.
What a sweet little piggy! I agree, as a matter of personal taste I'd like to see her nose nose become more obvious since pigs have such cute noses, I don't think you'd have to have a head gusset to achieve this - just some needle sculpting. Or perhaps you could needle felt the nose next time? So that it became more obvious. But this is personal taste - you might have been looking for a small feminine nose for her so in that case her nose is perfect
She's a gorgeous pig! Well done!
I'm still new to bear making so I'm not exactly 100% sure what needle sculpting is, but if it is using minute thread to pull things in certain ways, it was very difficult for me to attach eyes because the head and body are one piece. I had to put in another piece of fabric inside so I'd have somewhere to knot the thread without making it too noticeable
Cute! She reminds me of a furry little piggy bank.
If I were going to tweak the design at all. I might want a more defined snout, but that's a matter of taste, and I think it would require a gusset, and maybe some needle sculpting too. All in all, she's precious as she is.
Becky
I tried to make a gusset for it, but I was having a hard to sizing the nose piece properly. I think I'll have to work on that. Thank you.
I tried my hand at creating a very small piggy. Had to remake the pattern a few times because I wanted her to be both chubby and small. I dyed her mohair myself
I have a sparse straight 5mm mohair in natural that I wanted to dye. I used the acid dyes purchased from intercal, but since it is sparse and only the mohair took up color, I'll have a piggy that looks peachy rather than a solid pink. I know that the backing doesn't always take up color, but this time, it didn't take up any.
I've purchased hand dyed fabrics from others and the backing and mohair are the same color.
Is that because they used two different dyes?
I don't know if it's cause I did not lower the pH low enough. (I gradually added more vinegar as the process went on). Or I was just under boiling rather than shimmering?
Thank you,
Maggie
