batiferrite | needle felting: vaporeon

Another update so soon?! I've been working on this little girlie for quite a while, but only just finished her up and wanted to ramble again, lol. But first, some glamor shots!

Honestly, the biggest motivator here is that I acquired some lace and just thought it would look sooo cute as a ruffle on a vaporeon! and that also lead me to try and incorporate some other fiber artsy things, as well, like embroidery (the blue on her face fins is blanket stitched on, while her back spine-things (?) are extra wide cast-on stitches. This was my first time trying to do that, so it took a while to get in the groove of it (and they look kinda messy, rip), but overall I think it makes for a neat texture, at least!)

But, also, I wanted to experiment with poseability!

The classic option with poseable needle felting is to use a wire armature, but I've had issues with getting them to work how I want them to in the past, so I wanted to try out some different options. Like, before working on the vaporeon, I made a little bead (& button)-jointed doll inspired by Spyderthread's works.

I kinda just grabbed whatever beads were closest at the time and didn't think about, like... how to add clothes, or anything like that. So, mostly out of laziness, I think she's just gonna stay blank. Still, she's surprisingly expressive, even without a face, isn't she?! But, also and this might just be a skill issue with my thread tension or whatever, she doesn't really stay in position that well...

And, so, with the vaporeon, I tried to go for a middle ground: wires in her limbs, neck, and tail, but they aren't connected to her spine. Her back legs are sewn on via a button-joint, which... again, I mean, it works, but is not particularly stable. (I do think I just have to get better at tensioning, rip.) And her front legs are loosely connected with wool, so they're a bit more sturdy, but also can't really rotate or anything. More experimenting needed... Her neck situation actually worked out really well, though! Her head and ruffle are completely separate, only attached with a piece of pipe cleaner that goes through some holes I poked with an awl: