...dear deer what can the matter be?... Do you know that children's song? I'm afraid it might have gone out of favor but I still find myself humming when I look at this little fawn. Also it just seems aprropriate since I totally neglected to post this guy yesterday. Rest assured nothing's the matter! It was just one of those days--a day filled with bedroom painting, baking for a cake order and tending to a sick kiddo (actually he didn't need that much tending-just waiting out an annoying virus-he's a trooper that one). Anyway, here (better late than never) is a belated day eleven felt friend...

a little fawn in a meadow...

dreaming of spring...

I'm still playing with embroidery on these felties. Can't seem to get enough of it, to tell the truth. And I'm learning so much doing these bitty sculptures...things like this ~ noses and snouts can be problematic and can change an animal's species in the blink of an eye ~ that neck circumference and length are more important than you'd think and that even if you don't get those two things just right a cute bum and ears can save the day...

I can't believe that we are almost halfway through this feltie advent adventure. I think I'm sort of finding my style. I've realized that while beautiful and so impressive, I'm not aiming to make completely lifelike critters. I'm not actually sure that I could. There are some truly talented and inspiring artists crafting these little look-a-likes~~really jaw-droppingly beautiful felties . And yet at the same time I don't really want to make cartoony or pop arty felties. I do love many of them out there. The cute factor with some of these is practically irresitable, but it's just not what seems to want to get made when I'm working on mine. So where does that leave me?...somewhere in the middle I guess, hoping that these little creations are easily recognizable by species but are not all together lifelike. I think anthropomorphism might have something to do with my emerging style of felting (though I'm not sure you can actually call it a style yet). What I mean is that I find myself making up little stories for them as I make them and /or trying to recreate some of the characters in my favorite children's stories. That inner dialogue is apparently a very big part of the felting process for me. I don't seem to ever get too far from that fairytale theme, do I? Anyway, it' still fun, still an adventure, and still worth all that midnight. Hope you're having fun in this season of making and giving.

until the next feltie,

~xox~

alison