Revisiting other crafts I have done in the past, I settled with needle felting as something that I can do that puts much less strain on my wrists, but still allows me to integrate a variety of techniques in small amounts through making additional miniature items such as sewn, knitted and crochet clothing and accessories!
Some of the first characters of the Felted Wildwood, available on Etsy very soon
Tiny details have always been my favourite thing about crafting, and in creating my own miniature characters, I created for myself the opportunity to design and make a huge variety of very tiny, quick, but intricate and challenging accessories for myself to make too! I also plan to include characters without accessories and extra miniature characters that allow for a lower price point, so that there's a wider range of choice from the customer's side, and they also give the opportunity for somebody to design their own accessories and make a character of their own!
Basic characters: curious fox and bouncy cockatiel
When making teeny tiny characters I wanted them to be half the size of the others but still just as posable, which I achieved by simply halving all the measurements for the full base skeleton, and not so simply done when it comes to intricately wrapping and layering much more fiddly little bits of wool over it!
This tiniest fox is just as posable as the bigger counterparts!
I have also been really excited to provide specialised packaging for these little creatures, who deserve the best when it comes to a safe journey, and an exciting moment opening up the package! I've been busy sourcing safe boxes and padding, beautiful materials, designing character certificates, printing special stickers, and creating a small souvenir leaf for each one to take with them from their home forest to their new place with you! The leaves will be painted with a wash to accentuate the texture, but here's a behind the scenes look at the process so far;
Clay tags made with leaves from the forest where these characters come from
The tags have holes to hang in the packaging, and a magnet in the back for display
All in all I'm really excited to see this all finally coming together, and have these characters available in my Etsy shop very very soon!
