First let me wish everyone a Happy Equinox!!  A day of perfect balance, and tomorrow with the slow waning of the sun, more inspiration to felt something worm and cozy. or look to the fun of Halloween for inspiration during the extending darkness! (if you had asked my cat, both the Solstice and Equinoxes were the Pur-fect excuse to demand tuna juice for breakfast while watching the sun rise. i miss her and her tuna based celebrations.)

There is continuing busyness at the local weavers and spinners (and felters) guild, as we celebrate the guilds 75^th anniversary. This time we are getting ready for the Exhibition at the Mississippi valley Textile Museum, running from October to December 2024. The call for submissions went out and the forms were downloaded. Now the hard part what to pick from 35 years of being a member of the guild?

I started as a weaver when I first joined the guild in the late 1980’s. by 1996 I had found a spinning wheel and got distracted. I returned to felting (now mostly dry felting) by 2000. Throughout that time, I also made baskets, intermittently. (I even made a hand made broom!)  This gives quite a few options for what to submit…. Drat! limit of 3 items. Ok that narrows it down a lot.

I was requested to submit Mr Mer as part of the proposal so I will have to send him. But he is only part of the Mer-Family group, I think I should finish the three Mer’s, that are almost done.  Then I can see if I can complete Miss. Mer who is the only one who needs quite a bit of work. OH no!! she is not in the project bag i thought she was in! i bet she is out partying with friends, maybe in the living room?

Let’s see what is left to do, for the three that are where they should be.

Item #1 Mer Family and pets (Miss Mer is not yet done)

Mr. Mer

Mr. Mer needs his Norther Pike spots. I bought silk from Monika at the Olive Sparrow to use for that. It was a small bag of silk hankies in this perfect colour of greenish yellow.   I pulled thin long bits off the silk hankies. Then tacked them down and cut the length with sharp embroidery scissors (technically they should be called felting scissors since they don’t actually do any cutting of embroidery threads). To help reduce the hard edge to the little bars of spots, I layed over thin wisps of the under greens from Mr. Mer’s Fish parts.

The bar-spots are on the fish body and up his lower back. His glutes and part of his hamstrings were not spotted, he would not want to distract from his most fabulous feature, his butt.

1.1  Mr Mer shows off his new fishy-spots

1.2 Close up of tail and wast spots.

He also got his Necklace, arm ring and beads. You can see he had decided to bring his Quatrefoil (a trident has only 3 points but his has 4).  He seems very pleased with his accessories. (If the weapon seems to violent I could send his Tennis racket and tennis ball?)

 

Shark Boy

Next young Master Mer needs hair and eyes. Shark boy had decided to emulate the drummer from Buck Tick,  Yagami Toll, with his fabulous high Mohawk hair style (Yes you should google that as a hair style option!). After much consideration of the fiber I had selected for him, he picked two bundles of locks also from the Olive sparrow. One with Prussian blues and greys the other with greys blues and browns. Both went extremely well with the colours of his Shark body. He was rather insistent he wanted his Mohawk to be even taller and that it should echo the fin of his hammerhead shark parts.

The locks were wonderfully soft to the touch, which would be wonderful for spinning or long flowing hair.  Unfortunately the options of hair jell or glue rinses, seemed likely not to hold up to any future swimming he might like to do. An under armature and support would be required to give him the amount of impressive uplift requested.

This may be a bit hard to envision so lets take a look at what actually happened.

2.1 Grey felted crescent  for base of Mohawk

I started by felting a small crescent to help support all the hair. I had to get the inner curve to match Shark boys’ head.

2.2 Checking the crescent with the curvature of the head.

Once I had the curve correct, I would still need more strength. I used a few floral wire pieces to give that extra strength and help adhere the felt crescent to his head. (warning: don’t look at the next picture if you are squeamish of mer surgery!!)

2.3 inserting the flora wire through the crescent and into shark boy’s head. (This I a supplemental armature and is not attaching to the full armature.)

2.4 adding more floral wires to help support the hair.

I found the wire stiffness made the insertion through the crescent and then into the head was a  bit challenging. I focused on getting the wire into the head and added extra wool to the crescent. The extra wool locked in the wire through the crescent.  To further help, with hair support and adhesion, I wrapped the wires with wool too.

2.5 I should have added a thin web of wool to give a bit more support between the spines.  (the spines are steel 20 ga floral wire)

If I have to make a Mohawk again I would use a web of wool between the spines (wrapped wire). If you remember the way I made the Mini Dragons wings you will have an idea of what I should have done.

2.61 the locks selected matched his sharky-parts very well

Now its time to add the Hair!! Lets look at the reference photo and see what we are going to work form. In case a few of you are not long-time fans of the Japanese rock band Buck Tick, this is Yagami Toll, who has inspired Shark Boy.

 2.62 Yagami Toll Drummer of Buck Tick with his amazing high Mohawk hair.

I added locks securing them to the head and base crescent. I supported one side of the hair with the other side. This was a bit more fiddly, then if I had put a web of wool between the spines. Oh well, I blame pain brain for missing that step. The final effect is still quite impressive!

Ok now its time to add eyes so he can see how handsome he looks! I used some of the blue grey from his shark body for his eyes and added a bit of dark brown as eyeliner. I made him a necklace of Moss Agate, 2mm, and a shell.  (aliexpress)

2.71 Parts for Shells and stone necklace

2.72 Sharkboy showing off his new hair, eyes and shell necklace

2.8 Shark-boy Side View

2.91 3/4^th view  Shark-boy

2.92 back view of Shark-boy

 

I think Sharkboy is going to be an even bigger flirt than his father!!

Thinking of Mr. Mer, I should show you how his wife is coming along, but this post is already longer than i expected. why dont i show you how fabulous Mrs. Mer Looks with her new spots and hair in the next post!! untill next time have fun and keep felting!