These series of photos show a little of the creation of a Chacma Baboon. From the first body covering, creating the head, feet and hands and attaching the fur. I am constantly amazed just how versatile wool actually is for achieving realism. For this commission, the fingers and toes were a first for me, so I had to find a way to create them life-like, but without all the fuzziness created by tiny details in wool. Forth photo highlights this problem. To help with this, felting wax was used to cover the fingers at toes and underneath the feet and hands. Felting wax keeps all the stray fibres locked into the shape you create, clearly shown in forth photo. It tidies everything up nicely and gives a sort of realistic sheen, that is a baboon's feet and hands. The newly created baboon, when finished was able to go and say hello to his new friend for the long journey over to the USA. They both arrived safely. They were commissioned by a customer who's daughters had volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary in Africa, to help nurse babies who had lost their mothers. These two were created as a keepsake. The felting wax was from "Mum's Makery" who are great value and a pleasure to do business with. https://mumsmakery.co.uk/
