designing a squirrel

I got asked to create a soft sculpture squirrel as a special custom request this month. I finally had some time to get to work on the pattern over the weekend, so sat down and drew out this sketch as a starting point. This is the way I create all my new patterns - I start with a concept drawing, then I take the shapes I'll need for each component from the drawing, altering where I need to as I go.

This is the little guy in pieces, with his eyelids freshly sculpted.The trickiest part of this whole project was selecting fabrics that would work and look 'squirrel-ish' enough. I got lucky with this dense gold mohair, and the matching dense white that one of our limited edition long pile faux fur fabrics was a good match!

And this was the end result. Not too bad for a protoype if I do say so myself (in fact she's actually better then I expected! bonus!). Her new mum has called her 'Poppy' and decided to go with the red bow by her ear as her accessory.

I would really like to make another squirrel to make use of my newly crafted pattern again... but it will depend on whether or not I can find some more suitable fabrics to make a second one different as little Poppy is being sold as a one of a kind.

Maybe I could try a colourful squirrel... turquoise anyone!?