Tufted Needle Felting

I have tufted needle-felted works before for effect, but I have never tufted a whole piece before.





Today is a landmark day for me in this aspect.
Today I spent 8 hours tufting a commissioned piece I am doing.
After I finished the great little needled felted rabbit, it was just missing something.

I could not put my finger on what it needed.
I knew I wanted to tuft a bit of the top of the head and face and after I finished that I realized that the piece took on a life of its own and began to get the dimension that the rabbit needed to look realistic.


I then set out to tuft the whole piece.
Tufting is basically adding hair strands individually to create 3D fur.
You can trim the fur to the depth you want. What I wanted was something petable so I went with a velour consistancy.

My first exposure to tufting by hand was with Canadian Aboriginal women who tuft beaver and elk and moose hair into small 3D pictures. I took my skill as a needle-feltor and applied this ancient technique of tufting to it. Needle Feltors do use a similar technique for adding long shaggy hair to a piece, but I have never actually seen it trimmed and tufted before my own works.



I am so stoked by doing this I think I will write a manual on it. I am really happy with the
technique.