Happily, this doesn't happen very often, but occasionally I get halfway through a piece and realise that it is wrong to my original intention. As with this pre-ordered hare, Willow. Yesterday I realised that her arms were going to be too long for her body; cutting the arms down, as I did, didn't help. She needed more neck length. She was looking too tubby anyway - more like a rabbit than a hare. Only one thing to do...find the big scissors...
(If you are Janet of the Empty Nest, you might want to look away now...)
Cut off her head. It gives me a rare chance to look at cross section of one of my toys and see how densely it's been worked.
So the neck extending begins.
Once the wool is taking shape, I can hold the head on with a spare felting needle so that I can work on her more easily, in my hands.
About two hours after I cut her up, she is looking much better, but the joins are still weak and obviously showing.
So I tightly wrap some braces round the weak areas and needle them firmly -
- then carry on patching and smoothing. I also added more at her back, so that she didn't look too oddly tall.
After about five hours, I have a shape I am happy with and pop some black headed pins in her, so that we can say hello at last. Her proper glass eyes will be added later, but I like to have my toys looking at me while I work on them, so pins will do for now.
Much better - see the improvement? (You can look again now Janet).
