Hi I really like your felted dolls how did you make the chimera head? I like to needle felt but I always end up with a lumpsided face do you have any tips ?
Thanks! I really enjoyed working on chimera, and the free-form head shape was one of my favorite parts :)
As far as how the shaping was done, they key is to build it up slowly. For the chimera, I started with a featureless ball and attached it to the body before adding anything else. I actually used a piece of blue tailors chalk to pick out a center line and an eye line, the same way you would on a drawing.
Then I made a few small pads of wool with loose edges and pinned them in place with regular straight pins to check that they were even and where I wanted them. First I added pads for the cheeks, then the ridge above the eyes, and the muzzle last. After checking the placement of each addition, I felted them into place and then repeated as necessary to build up the right shape.
For indented areas like the eyes and the indent of the mouth, I use a very coarse needle (usually a 32) to push deep holes and then smooth them out with the 38 star that I do most of my work with. If there are still a few ugly divers at that point, they all disappear when you add color over top and smooth it out!
Finally, the ears were done by cutting out the shape from a sheet of felt and felting roving on top to thicken it up a bit. I usually go over the whole ear piece twice on each side to smooth it out nicely. To attach, use the loose ends of the roving to blend into the head and add a little extra inside to felt down through the sheet and into the head.
I hope that helps, and have fun felting!
