Once I have finished a doll, I really like it for three days. I look at them all the time and just enjoy each one, but on the fourth day I am ready to get on to the next character. This is the main reason that I don't keep any dolls. I like them for a few days, but it is really the making of them that is the fun part --- not the owning of them. It seemed like a fun thing to make one that I would want to keep at this stage in my felting. Each doll is better in some way than the previous one, since I am always trying to work on some aspect of the felting or construction. Being the year of the final "Hobbit" film coming to disc, it seemed like a fun idea to have a Hobbit character of my own! We're also a bit "Hobbit crazy" right now, and it's always fun to work on a character that you are really inspired to make.
My two favorite characters from all six of Peter Jackson's Tolkien films are Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield. Bilbo as a "hero" and general character and Thorin as far as character portrayal and acting. Bilbo didn't seem like he would be challenging enough (from a felting perspective), so I waffled for a few weeks about doing Thorin. Would he look good in felt? Did I think that I could make him? How would his armour piece work on a doll?
Mom and Elizabeth really encouraged me to go for Thorin, and I had a package of Mohair Kid Locks that looked exactly like Thorin's hair. They convinced me, in the end, and I started on him. Elizabeth had made the "chest armour" for Tauriel out of a piece of leather, and that gave a really rich effect to the finished doll. What appealed to me were the metal hair bands that she had made for Tauriel's braid. Thorin had four of those, so that was a real deciding factor in choosing to make him. Well, Elizabeth offered to try some more detailed leather work for Thorin, and it certainly made Thorin look really grand.