Structured Learning

The Red Tailed Hawk class is my second class with Phoebe of Lavender and Lark. The feathers construction was my trial-by-fire into wet felting. The white hawk, pictured above, was not nearly as involved as the red tailed version pictured below. I really enjoyed sculpting the heads and faces of these birds of prey. It was a work of love to get their round eyes positioned just right under their sturdy brows. Learning about the specific structures of the beak and the intricacies of getting the nostrils positioned correctly was so interesting.

The white fairy is a departure based on Phoebe's initial idea of a fairy crown with horns. Having always had a fascination with the southwestern jackalope, I created a squirrel skull cap with horns for my white fairy.  Just visible are her wings made of found cardinal and mockingbird feathers. You can see the hawk and fairy playing in the tree above.

 I came across this fabulous leaping hare during an internet search for needle felting classes. Phoebe, the artist behind Lavender and Lark, specializes in magical settings with lifelike animals as companions to her beautiful fairies. I do okay with the doll making, but the animal constructions are my emphasis. The ability to build dynamic movement into my sculptures excited me to create a life size hare sculpture. He is set in a woodland base. I include his fairy rider, Annias, in the last photo.

I highlight the construction of the eyes to emphasize that the entire sculpture is wool-no googly doll eyes in this rabbit