How to needlefelt - head and neck

Make a ball of fleece and lightly needle felt it to hold its shape.

Make a smaller roll of fleece and attach this to be the upper jaw.

Sculpt with the needle to make this a smooth firm head and upper jaw shape looking often to make sure the shape is going towards what you would like it too. If an area is too small add more fleece, too large stab lots.

I find the finnished look better if you hollow out the inside of the upper jaw to make a better mouth shape - but this is not seen in the finished work.

Once you are happy with the shape make a roll of fleece and sculpt it into a lower jaw - leaving some fluff at the end to attach it to the head with.

Attach the lower jaw to the head making sure you needle in all directions and add a little more fleece if needed to smooth out any seams.

Add a large handfull of fluff to the base of the head where the neck will be and felt a little to firm up.

Felt this neck onto the dogs body

Hold the head and body roughly in position and carefully felt the neck till it is firm enough to support the head

(WATCH YOUR FINGERS!!)

Now have a really good look at the shape of your animal and decide what areas are not quite as you would like them to be. Be really critical

I decided the neck, tummy and back end were too skinny so I added more fluff and felted it in firmly

I also made a tail in the same manner as the legs but tapered the end and curled it out while I was felting it.

Spend lots of time firming up and sculpting your peice at this point, the more time you spend here the better the final peice will be

It is tempting to rush on to adding the colour.

By this stage your peice should be able to stand up totaly unsuported

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