The story of a fox

In June 2020 I ordered an intriguing needlefelting kit from Fibrecraft, a Mississauga based online business that sells a nice range of quality needlefelting supplies.  It was my first ever order from this small business and I was impressed by the entire experience, from an easy to use website, straight-forward ordering procedure, super fast delivery and well-packaged products (there was even a little extra "gift", which was a treat!).  In these COVID times when visiting a farm to buy rovings isn't possible it was nice to find a great Canadian online spot!

Fabian the Fox was just what I needed:  a challenge!  I've completed simpler critters but nothing at this level.  I was eager to get started...

First the instructions were detailed in how to create the wire armature.  Then I started to build up the core body, and then legs.  Instructions were step-by-step but I feel some experience is needed as it's not aimed at beginners.

I have to mention that the fibres were delicious to work with, so soft and felting quite easily. (And plentiful:  there was enough for the fox with some left over.)

Once the basic body was created...

It was time to work on the face.  Eye holes were created and beads inserted to hold the positions.  This was well described... but the nose?  The instructions left you to figure it out on your own.  I ended up with a rather large nose.

Then the black "mascara" was added along with the mouth and other facial markings.

 

Ears were made from scratch... with good instructions on how to do this.

And eyes were created from felt too!  That was an amazing feat, I thought!  I was impressed with how they turned out!  Again, though, the instructions were a little short:  how do you make smooth eyeballs?  I found it was very helpful to wet and role the eyes in my hands to get nice, smooth balls.  

The next step was not so much fun:  adding the black to the paws to build up the feet.  Because of the wire armature, there was no room to poke without hitting the wire.  I broke two needlefelting needles trying to get the black fibres to stay in place.  Also, the instructions at this phase were very short and didn't supply the necessary details on how to create the feet.  I looked online for reference images of fox feet for help.

Luckily I had other needles and could keep going...

Until they were finally done!

Now it was time to make the fox furry!  The thighs and hind quarters were done first, adding long fibres and then trimming them down to the desired length.  The chest and tummy followed and finally the tail.

The reverse needle was used at this stage.  Here the instructions were good on how to blend out lines and add just a bit of fluffiness to even out the fox's coat.

And Sabian was finished!  I think my fox is more a female then Fabian so Sabian seems to suit her.

Yes, it took me 6 months to finish her!  But there were LOTS of interruptions!

Ta da!!  

Aside from the one shortcoming in that the instructions could be a bit more thorough, I would certainly do another Chicktin Creations kit.  The unicorn looks like fun...

Happy New Year!

 To everyone:  may 2021 bring back to us all the things we sorely miss, remind us not to fall back into old habits that bog us down and let us experience grand new adventures!