How to Needle Felt for Beginners, A Dog Armature

For my small sculptures I like to use a simple armature.
Two lengths of pipe cleaner, the length to be the front legs, along the body and down the back legs (twice obviously) I fold over the ends so there is no jaggy wire

The back legs are usually slightly longer than the front - but look at the breed
I then twist the centres together to make a H shape










Taking thin strips of core wool (I use the world of wool carded white corridale reviewed here ) I wrap that as evenly up the legs and over the body. On the body I wrap around the body side to side and top to bottom to make a nice fat shape








Then spend a good amount of time felting this smooth - moving in all directions, taking up to an hour to get it nice and smooth.
Then I felt back and forwards in straight lines at the tops of the leg to make creases to make bending the legs easier





Bend the legs over using the crease lines, and again felt all over till its firm. At this stage check front legs are the same length as each other and the back legs are the same length as each other - add a little fleece if needed







About a 1/3rd of the way up the back  leg (depending on the breed) again felt backwards and forwards in the same place to create a line









This line is the hock, bend the bottom of the leg forwards and felt to firm this bend, then curve the top of the leg back

Take around an inch of fibre for each side we want to felt a C shape starting behind the dogs bum then curving down infront of the thigh and ending just above the hock felt this fibre in place squeezing between your fingers as you felt to keep the 'muscle' thin when facing head on but nice and 'meaty' from the side




It should take over 1 hour to get a nice firm smooth dog body shape, keep felting all over the body and add small amounts of fleece if you need to smooth out any areas that need it

And you are done :)