Dimensional Illustration - Follow Along Tutorial

[EliaMurrayArt]

and hey - if you'd like to follow along. Go out and get yourself the following:

20g art wire
Needle Nose Pliers
Pipe Cleaners (any color doesn't matter)
Needle Felting Needle (found on Etsy - just get a basic one, nothing fancy needed)
Wool Roving/Batting (also any color - though I'll be using white core wool for interior sculpting, and red wool roving) You can find this on Etsy pretty easily. Core wool is cheap and general undyed, and then you can find fancier colors too but you get much less of it.

And that's it!

[carlianne]

buckles seat belt

[Rachel Horne]

@EliaMurrayArt Yes that would be so great!

[Rachel Horne]

@EliaMurrayArt that's fabulous, thank you! When will it be taking place? Just so I have the time to gather the necessary tools.

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Rachel-Horne I'll be starting soon but you can certainly gather the materials a flip back.

Plus there will be time between posts so if you order the wool soon and it doesnt show up for a bit, that's ok because we are starting on the rabbit design and the armature. there's time!

[Rachel Horne]

@EliaMurrayArt Super, thanks

[EliaMurrayArt]

Ok!

I'm ready. Are you ready? Did you get your materials? IF you didn't - that's ok! Make it up. Use masking tape to bulk out the rabbit - Wire & tape can make a pretty good rabbit. Anyways here's my plan as of right now . I've sketched out a pretty basic design for my rabbit, and then I have laid out where I'll be building the wires.

The blue is where I'll be wrapping the wire with pipe cleaners - but again this is not necessarily needed.

You can see from the sketch how much bulking out sections will need. The head and the belly will be getting the most bulk, where as the arms and the legs I'll have to be more careful and keep them thin because the wire will take up a lot of space.

Cheers!

[Coley]

Ooh I have pretty much all those materials (just getting caught up on this thread!) . I’ll do it with you . I’ll have to poke around for some wire, I might not be up on how thick or thin etc the wire is but will find something I’m sure. Hopefully there are pipe cleaners from my days with little kids!
How big are you building your rabbit?

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Coley I'll be using wool and needle felting the rabbit

[Coley]

@EliaMurrayArt yep I have loads of needle felting supplies! Just wondering size. I was thinking smaller, maybe because I’m lazy and I know how much time it can take hahaha . But padding it out helps. My needle felts were super dense so lots of stabbing involved!

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Coley if you make it smaller you might not need the wire armature! Though I like to use it regardless.

[Coley]

@EliaMurrayArt yes I think I’d like to give it a try to see how it goes. I might do a different creature tho, maybe a mouse, will think on it! Will let you,do your svs bunny and I’ll create something similar but a little different too

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Coley that's a great idea! You could make anything this way No need to make a rabbit.

[Mara Price]

@EliaMurrayArt
Hi Elia,
I’m totally new to this. Can you please give us the rabbit dimensions and also how much wool to buy. Etsy has so many choices in wool. Do you have a particular store you can recommend with kits?
Thanks!

[JosephStallone]

@EliaMurrayArt Agreed! I made it smaller and then i did not need the wire armature.

[EliaMurrayArt]

@Mara-Price That's a tough question... Personally I have bought about 1lb of core wool, because I know I'll use it and because it can be less expensive when you purchase more. For the bunny itself - it won't take that much wool. I wish I could give you more precise measurements.

The amount of colorful wool is hard to determine because sometimes you need to layer a lot, sometimes you need only a little of certain colors. Like I know I need a bunch of red, but I also am going to use a little blue, some yellow perhaps, but only small amounts of those.

I am going to be making my rabbit about 3-4 inches tall. So not very big, but it may be easier for you starting out to work a little larger so you can work in more details if you'd like! Small works great if you don't want to worry about details and just overall shape.

I'll be using the wire armature so that I can pose and bend my rabbit.

I'm going to link some shops I use in a moment!

[EliaMurrayArt]

Wool: Nice soft wool, great smooth colors.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BigSkyFiberArts?ref=usf_2020

Wool: Very textured - GREAT core wool, beautiful colors.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/GreyFoxFelting?ref=usf_2020

Wool: Great short fiber wool for super fast felting. Tiny amounts of wool, but they go a long way.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/1127handcrafter

Needles:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HeidifeathersOnEtsy?ref=usf_2020

[EliaMurrayArt]

So here is my start.
From the top of my rabbits head to the bottom of his feet is 6 inches, a little taller than I wanted but I figure he will squash a bit.

I measured out a length of wire from toe to tip of ear and then doubled it - which came out to 24" of wire, folded in half to about 12 inches and then shaped. I made two of these which will create the spine, and the legs.

Then I wrapped the whole thing in pipe cleaners and added arms.

Now, this is heavy duty. You do not need to do this much wire. You could easily do half as much wire but I wanted my guy to be pretty sturdy.

[EliaMurrayArt]

My deep apologies for the radio silence. I had some life events happen and I'm sure you know how that goes.

Here's an update! And I would love to see if you folks have started your rabbits! Or finished them!

At this step I have begun winding the core wool, the cheap white wool, all around the white frame. I wrap first a thin layer and then I begin to build the layers out, stabbing away, until I get my desired shape!

[EliaMurrayArt]

Update! The Rabbit is now Red!

So at this point the rabbit I have been stabbing is quite fluffy - fluffier than I want it to be.

So! I decided to wet felt the legs, arms, and ears so as to make those parts thinner to get the look that I want.

When you soak wool in hot water, the fibers will knit together much tighter (think felt). Add soap and agitation and you will see your wool start to felt together and shrink.