Greta the Schnauzer

Just a quick post. Yesterday I added Greta the Schnauzer to my Etsy shop. She is a sweet little puppy and comes with her own bed.
I finally purchased a pair of spring action Fiskars today. Now I can cut out the critters I have drawn out on fabric without sending that nerve zing through my thumb. I have also contacted another Teddy Bear artist about purchasing one of her ultimate stuffing tools. I have been using hemostats for years and I'm pretty handy with them but they bother my thumb too. It's going to take me a little while to learn to stuff with the new tool. I guess I will still use the hemostats for turning unless I find something better.

Schnapps the Schnauzer

Remember my dye day last week, well this little Schnauzer is one of the critters to come from the dyed pieces. Someone emailed me before I did a Teddy bear show in Tampa last month and asked if I had ever made a Schnauzer. She attended the show and asked again. I told her I was thinking about it. I finally figured out how to get the look-with the beard and longer fur on his legs one night just before falling to sleep. He is made with 2 lengths of mohair-the shorter mohair dyed a shade darker than the longer. I added some eyebrows by dying some wool to match and needle felting them. Schnapps is only 5 1/2" tall and I am pleased with the way he turned out. The person that requested a Schnauzer answered right away so he will be going to his new home soon. But I have already had a request for another!

Dye Day

After I finished working(listing books on Amazon) I decided to dye some mohair fur. Several weeks ago someone asked me about making a Schnauzer. I finally figured out how to do it. After making my pattern, I cut out, from 2 differant kinds of white mohair, the pieces. The legs and muzzle are longer fur. The body, ears, tail, and the rest of the head are shorter fur. They needed to be 2 differant shades of gray too. I mixed up the dye bath over the stove and immersed the longer fur pieces first..they need to be lighter gray. I then added more dye and put in the shorter fur pieces and timed it. The first batch(in the picture on the left) came out too dark. I'll guess I'll use those pieces on a different dog..maybe a Boston(?). I measured out half of the dye bath and then put that much plain water back in, heated it up again. I tried again with the new pieces I had cut out from the white fur. The short white fur I used is one of my favorites and I usually have a good size piece of it on hand(luckily). I'm happy with the shade they came out the second time. While I had the grey dye bath I decided to dye another piece of the longer fur so I can make a cat. Since I had my dye stuff out I did another siamese cat dye job. A busy Dye Day!