Wednesday 12 November 2014

Hedgehog

This is the creature I have been working on recently.  Her name is Bella, and she is [supposed to be] a hedgehog.  This is just the prototype.  I have some specially-purchased, gel-spiked mohair for the actual finished version, but since I wasn't sure how I was going to make the legs, I wanted to practice with some other mohair first.  

She has toes!  Little wiry, metal toes!  The legs start with a bit of wire armature.  These are wrapped in a thinner wire, which is also used to form the toes.  Then they're thread-wrapped (which looks great on its own, but doesn't hold firm enough), then felted over the top.  It was a bit of a voyage of discovery, but I'm really pleased with her.  

I think her front legs are probably too close together (see second picture), and I wish there was less contrast between the spiky bit and the white fur.  

In spite of these flaws, I still think she's really sweet.  I'm not going to sell her, but I'm thinking of running a Facebook giveaway.  Other 'business pages' seem to run them all the time when they reach milestones in terms of numbers of 'likes'.  My problem is that I never know what to give away.  It seems a bit OTT to giveaway a bear, when they're so expensive to make.  A prototype though, which is good but not quite good enough, seems a reasonable medium.







1 comment:

Emily said...

Beautiful Bella! Awesome work, she looks fantastic. Cant wait to see the next verion :)