i am so excited – i have finally completed my woodland elf archer costume!  i have named her elsa to pay homage to the first d&d character created for me by my husband, who attempted to ease me into the world of dragons by making my character deaf and mute… haha!  she’s come a long way since then!

the costume idea, amongst many others, has been bouncing around in my head for the last two months driving me nuts because i couldn’t find the time to bring it to life… and, of course, when an idea is left to brew too long it grows in complexity often to the point that it becomes daunting… but i did it! and i’m really proud!

up to this point i’ve kept my felting projects small – hats, belts and the like – but the buoyancy and shapability (is this a word?!) of merino felt lends itself so well to sculpting seamless whimsical clothing that i had to give it a try. i was also inspired by tree bark (probably due to the fact that it has been a long winter and you see beauty in things you would otherwise overlook in a vibrant summer forest) and really wanted to incorporate the beautiful textures in to my creations. so, with an abundance of beautiful italian merino wool from Artgus Studio and a full day off, due to an International Women’s Day stat (unique to my job at a university student union! yay!), i immersed myself in 8 solid hours of design & felting.

by the end of the day i had completed the raw version of the woodland vest and circle skirt. during the rest of the week, i squeezed in any available moment to complete the vision – sewing detail, making gauntlets, adding leather, creating a belt bag. man, i was in my element. i really could do this all of the time… sigh.

the day of the photo shoot was exciting… as this is a grassroots operation my husband was the photographer and i was the model and makeup artist : ) by the time my mother-in-law came to look after the elflets (bless her kind soul!), we had about half an hour of sunlight left to do the shoot. it was a scramble, but incredibly fun and satisfying. The outfit includes a vest, skirt, gauntlets, and leaf belt bag all hand felting with merino wool fibres and embellished with naturally dyed silk and hand cut leather. my favourite part was adorning a fairy hair wreath made by Freckles Fairy Chest – it gave the ensemble the touch of lovely that it needed. i would love to hear your comments & feedback… what do you think i should make next?!

and here’s a final shot that catches my true modelling skills ; )… if you would like to see some more of my work visit my facebook & etsy store!