After all of Pop's health issues for the past few years, my needle-felting had sort of been pushed to a back burner -- but this year, I decided to get back into the swing of it and try working on some dolls again. Before getting back into Thorin's Company of Dwarves from The Hobbit film trilogy, I thought it might be fun to make something totally different. So, I decided to make an 8-1/2" Pin-trading Jawa as a surprise gift for a friend (photos of that are posted on the Wool Dolls page). Once he was finished, I was ready to tackle another very special subject as a not-so-secret gift for a very special friend. This friend is really crazy about Kanan Jarrus from the Star Wars Rebels animated shows, and we have video chats together a lot. It seemed like a fun thing (during all the craziness going on in the World these days) to have this project to concentrate on together -- for no other reason than just being friends. So, I started working on Kanan at the end of January and just finished him at the end of September. |
Kanan the doll stands 10-3/4" high, which makes him the second largest wool doll that I've made to date (Elrond is the only one to stand taller). He weighs three ounces and took 77 hours to complete -- which also makes him the longest felting project I've made so far! I used .40 and .42 gauge needles to make him. When it comes to fiber, Kanan's legs, arms and torso have a solid-wool felted base made of Romney wool that I just love. It's dark brown (which you never see on the finished doll) and makes such a sturdy base for these dolls. His skin and clothes (including his two-tone shirt, pants, two-tone boots, holster, belts, buckles, knee pads, gloves and hand/forearm armor) are felted of 100% Merino wool -- all from Ashland Bay or England. His hair is made from a really cool piece of blended fiber that I've had for more than ten years. It was just enough of a piece to do this, and my guess is that it's a mix of Corriedale wool and Llama fiber. And the facial details are made of various wool -- almost all Merino. Click on any of the thumbnail images to enlarge. As a short clarification, this doll (aside from the decorative accessories described below) is 100% needled-felted wool. He has no wire frame or special base inside of him. I made it with wool roving, felting needles and a printed "model sheet" showing pictures of Kanan from different angles -- imagine sculpting with wool and a needle, rather than clay. There is no pattern here. In fact, this is the printed model sheet that I used: Sis made the fabulous shoulder armor and weapons for this doll. Because he doesn't weigh very much (being wool), the trick was to figure out how to make such substantial pieces in a light-weight way that the doll could support. She ended up using Crayola Model Magic, which is an extremely light-weight air-drying modelling "clay". She then painted it with acrylic paints and coated it with clear coat. The armor and pistol are completely made of the Model Magic, while the lightsaber was finished with extra details made of a silver-tone endpin attached to a Hematite bead -- and steel washer. Kanan has a steel hook on his belt, and a Comlink made with Model Magic and a metal tube bead. For display, it was obvious that Kanan needed a really cool stand that matched him. Pop cut out a piece of wood, and then Sis went to work. She ended up using metallic acrylic paints to make a really shiny base with the official Rebels logo (which sort of looks like a Star Wars version of a rising Phoenix). The stand is 5-/12" in diameter and 3/4" high. Two large needles are fixed into the wood, and the doll's feet/legs are pushed down onto the needles to use the stand. Click on any of the thumbnail images to enlarge. And there was no way that Kanan could leave for his new home before meeting Baby Yoda . . . er, Grogu . . . right? Hopefully, it won't be so long between the next blog post here or the completion of another wool doll!
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SAMWISE: MY HONEY-POT
Colossians 2:8:
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. BEATRICE: MY HONEY-BEE
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Edward James Eliot
My "favorite" member of the Clapham Sect. Not very much is known about him, but what is preserved keeps a beautiful memory alive of an exemplary Christian man. William Wilberforce Quote:
May I look to Him for wisdom and strength and the power of persuasion, and may I surrender myself to Him as to the event with perfect submission, and ascribe to Him all the praise if I succeed, and if I fail say from the heart thy will be done. For you Jesus Christ came into the world. For you he lived and showed God’s love. For you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, ‘It is accomplished.’ For you he triumphed over death and rose to new life. For you he reigns at God’s right hand. All this he did for you, though you do not know it yet.
Where there is one, there is a majority of one; and when the rights of the majority take away from the rights of the one, then the many will themselves suffer.
~Henry David Thoreau~ I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden. You see, that's where I belong. That's home. That's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.
~ Bilbo Baggins ~ FAVORITE BOOKS & FILMS
Gone With the Wind (Mitchell) Genesis of a Legacy (K. Ham) Prisoner of Zenda (Hope) Scaramouche (Sabatini) Amazing Grace (2007) Bertie & Elizabeth (2002) Farmer's Daughter (1947) Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) Secondhand Lions (2003) Sweethearts (1938) SCARAMOUCHE QUOTES
He was born with a gift of laughter & a sense that the world was mad. The future is to be read with certainty only in the past. Man never changes. PRIDE & PREJUDICE:
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment. PRIDE & PREJUDICE:
Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion. WINSTON CHURCHILL ON
KING GEORGE VI "His conduct on the Throne may well be a model & a guide to constitutional sovereigns throughout the world today & also in future generations." "For 15 years George VI was King. Never at any moment in all the perplexities at home & abroad, in public or in private, did he fail in his duties." |