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bearyfun732 Aug 1, 2009

Hello everyone!

There has been a few questions I have been meaning to ask for quite some time..so I decided to put them all into this one post so that maybe all you TTers out there can help me out.

-Firstly, for those of you who make clay noses and eye outlinings, how do you make them so perfect and flawless looking?

-When needlefelting, what exactly is "carding" and what affects does it make on the final product?

-How do you sculpt muzzles that appear to have that "round" affect?

-Lastly, how do you needlefelt around glass eyes without them snapping or breaking?

Thanks, 

desertmountainbear Aug 1, 2009

Hi bearyfun, 
Carding is the preparation of the wool for felting.  I card wool because I buy my wool raw (unwashed)  I clean it then when I am ready to use it I use cards.  They are basicly two big dog slicker brushes.  I brush back and forth between the two cards and it separates it, cleans all the vegtable matter out of it, and makes it nice and fluffy.  If you are buying wool roving, you don't need to worry about that.
I do my round cheeks with needle felting, is this what you are wanting, or is it how to shape with a needle thread and scissors.  If that is what you want look in the library under muzzles.  If felting is what you want let me know, I will go into detail.
I also always felt around glass eyes.  I start with a long thin piece of felted wool,  I wrap it around the eye. You have to aim the needle at an angle away from the eye.  I do not use a lot of pressure when I felt, just enough so that if I hit the eye it won't break the needle.  You have to aim it so that the wool will felt into the fabric all around the eye.  I do break needles, I keep lots of them around.
Joanne

bearyfun732 Aug 1, 2009

Thanks Joanne, I shall experiment with what I have learned.

StarHawk2003 Aug 1, 2009

Hello bearyfun,

I can't help with the needle felting questions as I've only made one small needle felted bear and have never felted onto fabric or mohair.

I have a little experience in clay although i'm not very good. I find really working in the clay so its soft and pliable is good but, worked against me as I have hot hands. If you get a basic shape in clay and then, Freeze it for a little while (an hour or so in a zip lock bag) I find it easy to work as it's harder and wont budge as easy. Well it helped me anyways. I could never get my finger prints out of them, I sanded mine with a high grit sand paper (1500 Grit) it is very very fine and only needed a little to make it smooth and then I varnished it. For shaping I guess its practice and I never got a hang of it.

For puffy cheeks as most call them, I had trouble trying to figure it out. I'm not much of a scissor sculptor and messed up a few heads doing it wrong. I took a class on Ebear University in extreme Sculpting. It taught me the right hardness too stuff bears for sculpting (I stuff Mega hard) Needle sculpting, How to do puffy cheeks, A little needle felting If i remember right. It was a very enjoying class and I haven't tried it out yet but it was explained very well and I'm sure I won't have any problems doing it. Also you could try putting darts in the side head piece to make it rounder. I think you would need to scissor sculpt and needle sculpt behind the cheeks even if you do add darts. 
 
Link to the bear University lessons http://www.kranbearys.com/EbearZ/Extreme.htm

I'm sure you will get more people helping you out

Take care,

Richy~

bearyfun732 Aug 1, 2009

Hello bearyfun,

I can't help with the needle felting questions as I've only made one small needle felted bear and have never felted onto fabric or mohair.

I have a little experience in clay although i'm not very good. I find really working in the clay so its soft and pliable is good but, worked against me as I have hot hands. If you get a basic shape in clay and then, Freeze it for a little while (an hour or so in a zip lock bag) I find it easy to work as it's harder and wont budge as easy. Well it helped me anyways. I could never get my finger prints out of them, I sanded mine with a high grit sand paper (1500 Grit) it is very very fine and only needed a little to make it smooth and then I varnished it. For shaping I guess its practice and I never got a hang of it.

For puffy cheeks as most call them, I had trouble trying to figure it out. I'm not much of a scissor sculptor and messed up a few heads doing it wrong. I took a class on Ebear University in extreme Sculpting. It taught me the right hardness too stuff bears for sculpting (I stuff Mega hard) Needle sculpting, How to do puffy cheeks, A little needle felting If i remember right. It was a very enjoying class and I haven't tried it out yet but it was explained very well and I'm sure I won't have any problems doing it. Also you could try putting darts in the side head piece to make it rounder. I think you would need to scissor sculpt and needle sculpt behind the cheeks even if you do add darts. 
 
Link to the bear University lessons http://www.kranbearys.com/EbearZ/Extreme.htm

I'm sure you will get more people helping you out

Take care,

Richy~

Hello Richy, and Thanks for the advice, however, when freezing clay, does it have to be a specific type of clay? I don't know if it has any affect on whether or not the clay will become the way you have explained when using different types of clay. Thanks!

desertmountainbear Aug 1, 2009

Hi Bearyfun,
I do not use clay lids, but I have worked quite a bit with clay, I used to make dolls.  Since I have one of your wonderful creations I can see you are using an airdrying clay, (am I right)  I think with this clay, and with sculpy too, you can dampen your finger with water and smooth the clay.  You want to smooth it over the coils to make it one, do not use a lot of water, just a damp finger.  I also have used lots of little tools I made made or found myself, toothpicks, knitting needles, a small paint brush, all these things will help you to put the clay where you want it, and then smooth it out. The other thing I can tell you is those using eye surrounds are also using needle sculpting to create eye sockets.  Then the eye and the surround can sit even with the fur.
Joanne

Lhearn Aug 2, 2009

Here is web site you may want to book mark.
http://monicasattictreasures.com.au/on% … rials.html
She has different tutorials  that you may like to try.