The birds you see on this site are sculpted from sheep's wool and beeswax over wire armatures, using the simple process of needle felting. Needle felting involves poking fluffy wool fleece with a special needle with tiny barbs along its length. The barbs felt or compact the wool fibers. Instead of removing material, like carving wood or stone, the wool is compressed into the desired shape, somewhat like with clay, but becoming denser the more it is felted. It's a bit like what happens if you squish cotton candy.
Needle felting is low tech and peaceful - there are no noisy machines, no fumes or dust. All that's needed is wool and a felting needle.
When I first began needle felting, that's all I used. You can do a great deal with just those two things. But additional hand tools - carding and blending combs, a hand-crank carding machine, multi-needle holders, armatures and wax - expand what is possible.
Steps in Making a Bird
I like to make each bird as lifelike as I can. I think wool and beeswax, because they're of animal origin, lend a quality of authenticity and realism to animal sculpture that is different from what's possible with plant or mineral based mediums like wood, clay or stone. I use locally sourced wool as much as possible.
I begin by researching the bird I want to make - appearance and size, behavior, habitat, diet, songs or calls. Ideally, I can observe it in real life, but mostly I rely on internet research and books.
Next, I make a simple wire armature, wrap the wire with wool, and begin felting onto it. For large birds, I sculpt polyurethane foam into a base form and felt onto it, which makes the final sculpture strong and sturdy, but light - like the birds, themselves. I use waste foam most of the time--discarded cushions, mattresses, packing materials, etc. I used to use only pure wool but found it got heavy and unwieldy, not to mention time consuming, for the very large birds.
I keep adding and felting wool until I'm happy with the shape and proportions, then add color and markings by "painting" with colored wool, much as with applique or embroidery. For subtle markings that are difficult to do with wool, I use pigment markers.
For some bigger birds, especially raptors, I make individual, detailed wing and tail feathers. Finally, I make beaks, legs and feet by wrapping and felting wool onto wire, then saturating the wool with melted beeswax and shaping it further while the wax is still soft. Finally, I texturize or burnish the wax surface to imitate the surface of legs and beaks.
My friend, Margaret, helps me with the bigger birds by felting the first layer of wool onto the forms. Here she is holding a Wandering Albatross. The Wandering Albatross has can have a wingspan of up to 12'. This one has an 11' wingspan.
Above and below are the penguins Margaret helped with, as well as some other large birds - a Giant Petrel and a Black Browed Albatross. But she prefers to work on penguins. I owe her many thanks for her help.