Meet Brun, the Badger
A new tiny forest friend
Meet Brun, the Badger, Wonder Weavers.
Brun is the second member of my growing family of tiny forest friends.
In addition to writing and reading, Brun loves to take tea with his friend, Federico, the Fox.
I’m making these animals using a similar process to one I used for Otto, the Bear. I share the process in the following video.
I just want to emphasise that when using needle-felting needles, you can also use guards. Personally I struggle to use them, so I take my time, working slowly and mindfully to avoid injuring my fingers.
Please take breaks when you’re feeling tired — remember this is not a race; it’s about enjoying the process.
Brun’s colour chart
Brun is just 5cm tall and just like a real life badger, he has distinctive white-and-black facial markings. On the other hand, his coat varies in colour, ranging from grey to black.
For brun’s dark fur, I dyed a small amount of white roving wool using food colouring, blending equal parts of red, green ,and blue. As you can see, the final colour isn’t a true ivory black. In my experience, achieving black with natural dyes can be tricky. During the dyeing process, the wool develops a spectrum of colours — ranging from dark brown and grey, sometimes even hints of green and blue. In the future, I plan to experiment with indigo.
If you’d like to learn to dye small amounts of wool with food colouring, I invite you to watch my video below.
Brun’s arm trick
Every time I sit down to needle-felt, I learn something new.
While making Brun, I found it challenging to wind and felt the wool around his arms, which are beading eye pins. To help with this, I applied a small amount of lanolin to moisten the wool.
Our next animal is Owl. If you’re joining me on this little creature adventure, I’d love you to share your progress. You can leave a comment or write to me.
Have a peaceful and creative weekend and thank you for reading this post!
