A Very Strange Sheep

Here it is! My curious sheep. A solid week of embroidery.

Last year Cape Wools asked for proposals to decorate felt sheep for the Campaign for Wool. The brief did seem to require using wool in some form or another, but I've experimented with printing on wool before, and not been happy with the results. I did have a very very big bag of vintage embroidery wools, though.

Last month a hollow felt sheep, made by Ronel Jordaan, was delivered to my house, and I spent about a week just looking at it. (And Emile barked at it. A lot.)

(I took the bag off it's head for the photos; I kept the feet and head wrapped while working. So please try to imagine it without the booties.)

I sorted through the wool to see what I had the most of, and luckily green won. Then I printed a few panels of my blocks, divided the sheep into a grid with ribbon and pins, and cut the prints out and placed them. After draping bits of woollen thread all over it, I realised it needed a bit more, so I outlined the prints with red embroidery, and sewed them on.

I wanted to imitate one of my printed patterns, so I mimicked the second printing with embroidery. There wasn't enough of a single shade of green, so I started with the lightest shade at the top and worked down to the darkest.

I do have to apologize for the terrible photos, and the state of my studio, but I finished it about 1/2 an hour before pickup!