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Posts: 8,574OK, I watch a really dumb show on HGTV- something about crafters-they highlight three crafters every show. And one was a needlefelter. But here is her tip
She wads her rovings and into the shape she wants and puts them in an old nylon, the ties it off the wads like sausage and throws the whole mess into the washer and dryer. It gives her a nice round body shape to start off with...from which she made some really UGLY, so ugly they are cute, type critters.
I like the show because I am easily amused and it moves fast- we think of it as Sesame Street for the challanged but sometimes they have super neat stuff to share.....hope this helps someone
dilu
Dilu, I saw this show only once and LOVED it! Some woman made an incredibly cool purse out of crocheted WIRE! I'd never buy or use it, but I sure could appreciate it for its artistic value and the skills required to make it.
What IS that show called? I can't remember when I saw it, on what channel. Help! I'd actually love to see it again!
Sounds like a good idea, by the way, on the needlefelting tip! 
But what do I know? I'm not a needlefelter! I have, however, felted a few 100% wool sweaters. One started out a mens size XXL and ended up about a toddler size 4. No kidding. So that washer/dryer thing actually WORKS!
Matilda Huggington-beare:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
Thankyou for the laugh. oops sorry, Tip. 
LuxembearsDilu, I have not wacthed that channel but now I am going to have to pause on it while channel surfing. I too have to admit I am easily amused by crafty shows. 
Shelli, I once had a beautiful white angora sweater that I really wanted to dye a rich golden color. MISTAKE..... putting this lovely garment into the washer. Well, now my daughter has a very nice sweater for Barbie, when she goes out on dates with Ken.. 
:doh:
Here's something else you can try to really mash down the fibers and get a smoother finish. Roll the wad of wool in your hands applying a lot of pressure. Even wet your hands first. Then you you poke poke poke, the fibers seem to stay deeper and felt faster. Always make sure that right from the start of your project you go all the way through your wool. You want the center to be very firm.
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)For teaching, I start the students' base work for the project by wet felting 'balls' tied individually into panty hose legs, put through the washer & dryer. Effortless solid core, saving an hour or 2 of class needling time.
Always make sure that right from the start of your project you go all the way through your wool. You want the center to be very firm.
Thx Judi, you opened up one of my favorite subjects: the dreaded Tennis Ball Syndrome. It can happen in a ball, inside a long piece like a limb, a neck - anywhere. One must absolutely thrust completely through the mass and into the foam in the beginning stages. That's why we work on foam...
Once you're able to hold the piece in your hand to work, it's generally past the stage of inadvertently creating the problem.
PijangibearsSome great idea from danish television.
Crocheted purse or handbag out of old videotape. It looks fabulous and shiny.
Hugs Birgitte :hug:
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)So, if you put something hard inside a bear, do you just felt carefully around it. Reggae has rocks in his head, lapis and crystal, and it was hard for me to feel he was well made because I had to felt around the container with the rocks in it. Is that why beads are used for weight, because you can needle through them?
I don't know of any beads that you can needle through. And the position of the hole would shift anyway as you work around them. I've weighted things that stand off-balance or on 3 of their 4 legs by felting firmly all the way through and then cut open a slit in an out-of-the-way spot, slip in your weighting material, close the slit and felt some wisps of fiber over it to conceal it. This puts the exact amount of weight, exactly where it balances your piece and you don't have to figure it all out in advance. Felting 'evolves; and you may find where you placed the weight in the feet/legs/belly don't do what you want after you've had to add more fiber than you expected to need, to give you the look you want.
I'd do it afterwards.
Here's one bear from a vignette I've created. One of my largest, measuring about 4" long. While he weighs only 1.2 ounces, too many of those tenths of an ounce are placed forward of the center fulcrum. Polars have such long necks & bodies!
In the 'bottom' shot, you cannot find the spot I inserted a bit of weight to:
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Here's a sneak peak at the vignette I designed for the Heartland Museum in Clarion IA. They're adding just 8 new ones this year. Here are the bears - I have to decide if there's more impact w/o the 2nd cub on the right..
And the concept of the scene is going to be fabulous - "Into The Future"
The male is going to be sliced in half diagonally through its middle and mounted half on each side of a glass pane. The female and (restrained") cub will be behind the glass and in a the far background will be arctic scenery.
There is no family unit in the wild, but they'll represent forward movement - the male seeking new lands & adventures, the female thinking about the hazards, the troubles ahead, the lost connections. And the cub just wants to break away and get on with it!!
The bears are done and I need to build the slightly angled-upward, myopic scene-in-a-box.
The Male is 4.5" long, female sits 3.5" high and the squirming cub is 1.25" high x 2.5" long.
It's hours spent needling the finish coat, the choice of particular needles and several breeds of wool selected that give me no fuzzies/no clipping. Thx for the compliment!
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Toes and claws - I knew that to take this fiber art into the realm that it deserves, I needed to step-up-to-the-plate: no more sewn claws but realistic ones.
The claws on just those 4 bears represents 3 days of work. After spending all that time I decided that they needed to be shown, so in my auctions I began to show the 'bottom-side'.
I laugh when I see the number of auctions that use the same vantage point now...
Posts: 8,574Wow Bobbie, great work! Beautiful bears...
The show is on HGTV and it is in the morning-around 9-930 am....PST. After Designing for the Sexes; which really used to bug me until i found out the designer has a PHd in Physics or something like that.....
......I've misplaced part of my anatomy, and have to go find it.....and it isn't my tail....
.......here brain.....come on home honey.....
I'll put you to bed........
....sigh
