Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

Tracy,

I'm a big fan of your work.  Oliver is so sweet.    

Thanks Bobbie for the tip.  I had not thought of plucking the area I'm felting over so I will do that this time around on my current project. 

:hug:

http://www.shoppalstores.com/curlyfur/  This is the place a really well known artist who I've collected for years told me she gets hers from for quality.   I know that she uses this stuff to make Yorkies that look really life like by brushing and ironing the hair strait.   The hair on this tibetan lamb is 5-7" long, and when brushed out and ironed it can be as long as 10"  You ca  also use hair spray to style it.

Bobby

Jacky,

  Felting into a mohair head is fun and really easy just take pieces of wool and poke them into a mohair form, and begin to shape it.  It was love at first try for me, and I'm sure you will love this too.   I'm starting my forth  one this week. 

Bobby

Hi Jayne,

First on the long mohair, you can buy a pelt of tibitan lamb, it will take dye, and you can straighten it with a flat iron.     To get the the mohair into the piece you will need a felting needle; 38 star is what I use.  You will need to dip a tooth pick into fabric tac glue and dab the area where you insert the mohair. Take your needle and felt over a small staple of hair about 2 mm in diameter in the area where you glued.   After you get all the hair in.  wait until the glue dries and tug on it a little to get the unsecured hairs out; might be about 25% to 50% of them.  Start that process again and again until you cover the area desired.   Hold the hair you are felting in the direction you want it to go.   I had to do this with my last bear around his eye brows I plucked a scrap of mohair and with about 7-10 tufts at a time I did the entire upper eye brows on my bear it's not hard, but takes a little practice and experiment with the amount of glue to use.     The other thing you can do is cut your pattern out of the pelt, this is the best way to do it I think depending on the breed of dog.
  I learned this through trial and error. I'm really new to bear making, and this I'm sure is not the definitive technique. 

Hopefully someone more insightful will share with us I also want to learn if there's a better way. 

Bobby :hug: