Designing the sheep base for my breed study

Before I jump into the first breed of my breed study for needle felters, I need to figure out how to approach making the sheep.

I thought making the sheep to scale would be fun and interesting. It would provide a comparison of the sizes and shapes of different breeds. But I couldn’t find a chart or consistent system of measurement for different breeds. I kept searching for the type of charts you find for horse or dog breeds. There were a few stylized poster with a few sheep breeds, but not enough for me to work with.

My second choice for the sheep base

I have included Amazon affiliate links for some of the items below. This means I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase.

Making the sheep a similar size was not my first choice. That said, making them to scale was not going to be feasible. I switched my focus to designing a repeatable foundation for a series of fairly realistic needle felted sheep.

I started by working from photos of different angles of sheep. Careful measurements and lots of referencing the photos helped me I create an armature. I felted core wool over it and it looked like a cow. I’m not sure how that happened but it didn’t say sheep to me.

I remembered I had a small sheep figurine on my computer case. It’s a toy made by Schleich. It’s an amazing sculpt for a toy. I thought using it as a tiny model would help me figure out my “starter sheep” proportions.

Referencing the model, I created a wire armature using 22g cloth wrapped wire. I made the neck and legs longer than the model to give me some flexibility. Some breeds are taller and some are stouter. That extra length in the neck and legs would should allow me to adapt the armature accordingly. It seemed to work!

I needle felted core wool around the armature. It would be a fantastic base for a small sculpture. But it was a little too small if I needed space for detail. A larger version was going to be necessary.

A sheep that could include detail

Doubling the measurements and using 14g aluminum wire, I created a second version. I included the longer neck and legs again so it could be used across different breeds.

I added the core wool and love this size! This will work.

It’s large enough to include more detail. But it isn’t so large that it would take weeks to make one sheep. I’m very happy with both versions of the sheep base.

What do I do about those eyes?

Progress! I still need to figure out how to handle the eyes. I prefer glass eyes in my sculptures but they usually have round pupils. Sheep have more of an oval pupil that looks rectangular in bright light. I will have to start from scratch and figure out how to make sheep eyes.

I remembered some glass cabochons in my supplies stash. I’ve watched several videos of artists painting irises on paper and gluing them to glass cabochons with UV resin. I have never tried this technique but I think I’ll try that on the first breed of my breed study.

I have my sheep and a plan for making the eyes. The next box to check off on my list is choosing the animal for the project I’ll make with each breed’s wool. Follow along and I’ll share that in my next breed study post!

Last Updated on April 2, 2024