Sunday, October 04, 2009

Zeke

Our therapy dog at school passed away last year. His ‘mom’ Susie asked me if I could do anything with the hair they shaved off of him prior to his amputation (and passing).

This is one of the projects I made for her hubs.

I used Mountain color top for the base mat and, after washing/carding the dog hair, I replicated his footprint using a felting pen.

The dog hair was washed in a salad spinner. I used a drop of Dawn dish washing detergent to get the oogies out. Then I gave it 2 more cold water washes to get the remaining dirt out.

I combed it with some combing cards I picked up last year.

This was my first needle felting project. It was pretty quick to do. I left the footprint fuzzy on purpose as Zeke was a very hairy Golden Retriever.

I mounted it in a shadow box.

I hope they like it.


Project needs:
Needle felting mat: size large
Pen style needle felting tool: for small projects, holds 3 needles max.
Red top: I used some Mountain Colors that I picked up on vacation.
Dog hair: Zeke was a Golden Retriever. His leg was amputated months prior to his passing. At that time, Susie collected some of his hair based on a conversation we had MONTHS prior to knowing Zeke was even sick.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

Very thoughtful. I'm sure they'll appreciate it! How did you get his paw print?

Lisa said...

I forgot to mention that part. Kids would come to read to him and he would give books, etc. as gifts. He would also 'write' notes to kids. His paw print was his signature. They made a bunch of paw prints before he had surgery on his leg.