A question of stuffing

[felicity]

I made a fish. Yes, another one! And I've a kind of problem which I don't know how to deal with and ask for advice. You can see that the tail is very long and hollow (see the picture of resist). I wanted it to be more sturdy. The only idea I had was to stuff the tail with smth. I stuffed it with some wool but I still have a question - what material to use as a stuffing? How to fix it in the tail? At what point - while still felting or afterwords? And so on...
If anyone has similar experience or just has some thoughts I will be very grateful!

[Pandagirl]

Since you've already put more wool in the tail, you could full it some more rolling it in a bamboo blind or sushi mat until it shrinks and is harder. Something with sturdy resistance to full it harder and faster. Just a suggestion.

BTW, the fish is beautiful!

[felicity]

Thank you Marilyn! That's what I thought - to full it more together with wool in it...

[MTRuth]

Love the fish and his tail is fantastic.

For next time, I think it might work better if you made the tail first as a solid cord with a fancy end. Leave the one end dry, loose wool for attaching later. Then make the fish over the resist without a tail. Add the tail at the point when everything is wet down and ready to go. Then felt as usual. That way the tail will be completely solid - you could even add wire inside if you so desired so it could be shaped afterwards.

[halay]

Felicity, the fish is lovely! I cannot figure out how wide the opening in the tail is but I would use a pipe cleaner and wrap it with some wool, felt it and push it in. The wire will help hold the shape of the tail.

[felicity]

Thank you Ruth, halay! The matter is that I wanted the tail to be hollow and only later I understood that it's hard to keep it in shape... Next time (if!) I will think it better first! And idea of stuffing with a pipe cleaner could work nicely I think!

[zed]

You could use hollow fibre stuffing, the kind you get in cheap pillows. They sell it at most fabric stores or you can get a pillow from Asda for about 99p. It can be used on its own or wrap it in wool if you do want to felt/full it more. If you want to use wool, World of Wool have cheap options of carded wool and core wool.

The fish is a great design

[carole aka craftywoman]

you are the queen of fish, this one is gorgeous, as for your question, I personally would buy soft toy stuffing, it's easy to use and you can compact it :-)

[felicity]

So many ideas, thank you very much!

[Shepherdess]

The pipe cleaner and stuff around it with wool sounds like a plan.

[felicity]

Yes I agree!