Felted Figures: Oin the Dwarf from The Hobbit

[sarahbeth]

For some years now, I've been working on the fourteen characters of Thorin's Company as seen in The Hobbit film trilogy. These have really given my sister a change to do a lot of metal and leather work for accessories, and I have gotten to incorporate a lot of hard-to-find fibers and wool into the figures. Definitely a great project for experimenting with the art of felting. Here are all the finished ones together (they range from 8-1/2 to 9-1/2" in height). Two more characters are "in the works" at the moment.



I was going to try and post them all at once, but that's a bit much. Here are some close-up photos of my favorite, definitely, because of the amount of interesting fiber used to create him. Except for the skin tone (and a tiny underskirt that doesn't show), all the fiber is undyed and natural.



He stands 9-1/4" tall and weighs in at a solid 4-1/4 ounces. He was felted with .40 and .42 gauge needles and features some pretty fun fiber and yarn in his costume — along with a lot of knitted work. There are six different types of wool in the costume.





The neatest part of this doll, though, is definitely the Stansborough wool! Stansborough is a special breed, found on just one farm in New Zealand. It's used in all the wool fabric and yarn in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films! So, this makes Oin very authentic! I've never felt wool as soft as the Stansborough curls on his boots. His pants are made of a piece of woven fabric from the Stansborough looms, his boot tops are made of some scraps of Stansborough pelt, and his hoodie is knitted from single-ply Stansborough yarn. The hoodie is really the prize piece on this doll, since it was such an undertaking. To keep it from being too large in scale and too bulky on a doll of this size, I used the single-ply yarn (thinner than crochet thread) on 0000-gauge dollhouse scale knitting needles. That was really tiny work . . . and twenty hours of knitting!



There are lots of fiber types in this doll, so I made a chart to list them. It's so interesting to use the different wools in one doll. Each one felts so differently.

[lyn]

These figures are really fabulous. I don't know how you manage to make them look so 'alive'. It's obvious just how much work you've given to these.

[MTRuth]

Wow, these are fantastic! They are immediately recognizable and it's great that you have documented what fibers you used etc. Also cool that you were able to use the same wool used in the movies.

[lindsay]

Wow, Sarahbeth, your figures are all amazing. So much precision and accuracy, they are obviously a real labour of love. You really demonstrate what can be achieved with needle felting. Well done!

[Shepherdess]

Amazing

[sarahbeth]

Thank you! I really love making these, and being able to incorporate the various fibers makes it even more fun.
The Stansborough, of course, was amazing to work with. American Buffalo fiber is also quite interesting. It doesn't felt very strongly by itself, so you have to card it with wool.

[ScarletThistle]

Your figures really are fabulous. Very true to the characters. Well done.

[afiberartist]

Jan 13, 2022 15:39:02 GMT sarahbeth said:

For some years now, I've been working on the fourteen characters of Thorin's Company as seen in The Hobbit film trilogy. These have really given my sister a change to do a lot of metal and leather work for accessories, and I have gotten to incorporate a lot of hard-to-find fibers and wool into the figures. Definitely a great project for experimenting with the art of felting. Here are all the finished ones together (they range from 8-1/2 to 9-1/2" in height). Two more characters are "in the works" at the moment.



I was going to try and post them all at once, but that's a bit much. Here are some close-up photos of my favorite, definitely, because of the amount of interesting fiber used to create him. Except for the skin tone (and a tiny underskirt that doesn't show), all the fiber is undyed and natural.



He stands 9-1/4" tall and weighs in at a solid 4-1/4 ounces. He was felted with .40 and .42 gauge needles and features some pretty fun fiber and yarn in his costume — along with a lot of knitted work. There are six different types of wool in the costume.





The neatest part of this doll, though, is definitely the Stansborough wool! Stansborough is a special breed, found on just one farm in New Zealand. It's used in all the wool fabric and yarn in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films! So, this makes Oin very authentic! I've never felt wool as soft as the Stansborough curls on his boots. His pants are made of a piece of woven fabric from the Stansborough looms, his boot tops are made of some scraps of Stansborough pelt, and his hoodie is knitted from single-ply Stansborough yarn. The hoodie is really the prize piece on this doll, since it was such an undertaking. To keep it from being too large in scale and too bulky on a doll of this size, I used the single-ply yarn (thinner than crochet thread) on 0000-gauge dollhouse scale knitting needles. That was really tiny work . . . and twenty hours of knitting!



There are lots of fiber types in this doll, so I made a chart to list them. It's so interesting to use the different wools in one doll. Each one felts so differently.