One of the few holiday craft projects I was able to get through this year before Christmas rolled around. Its completion was a success due to its ability to be made in the car, not my time management! Sheep were in my head after watching Wallace & Gromit's "A Close Shave" and I fantasized how fun a Christmas tree full of sheep would look. At least, that's how MY tree would look if I wasn't a wandering vagabond and had roots in a home of my own...
The wool came from this musty old comforter which came into my possession after a trip through Memphis in 2010. It is special to me because the wool used to fill it came from the sheep my great-grandfather tended, on the ancestral homeland in Brownsville, TN. My grandfather's third cousin (ie-my third cousin, twice removed...follow me?) passed it on to me, knowing my crazed fiber love. So now here comes a chance for me to make something of it! The comforter has been ripped open and removed of all its wool innards, to be used for future projects. (I loved the chance to see how the wool was structured inside, prior to prefab batting)
The rest of the body is composed of a Sculpey head and legs, which were then connected with a wire spine. The wool was wrapped around and needle felted into place. I ended up not turning them into ornaments, allowing the gift recipients to decide how they wanted to display them.
We hit a little bit of that Christmas snow storm as we came over the Smokey mountains, into Tennessee, which to me is simultaneously exciting and terrifying, due to my inexperience with driving in inclement weather. But we made it to our destination safely, with sheep intact, and only a few felting needle stabs left behind.
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