Canine Brief Encounter a Woolly Cocker and Door Signs for Christmas

Have been travelling quite a bit of late, and so alas the blog has suffered. But no I have a few moments to catch up with bits and pieces...

Poor Frank is Broken Hearted...

A couple of weeks ago now, walking through a meadow near the house early one morning I spied a black dog in the distance. Dog owners don't often stop to chat in these parts and this time was no different. The owner was intent on walking away from us, and tugged hard on the lead, but the black dog kept on turning back to look at Frank the dog. No matter how hard they tugged, that dog was not going to move, and my pair were all wags and barks, so there was nothing for it. Breaking all rules of Swedish reserve and dog walking ettiquette we approached on another, like an old western movie. Frank and the black dog who looked like his dopple ganger, but all in black, whooped and played like old friends. Maggie looked on baffled. It turned out that the black dog was a rescue dog from Romania, just like Frank. We wondered if they recognised it in each other, they were really smitten. 

Time ticked by, and we had to move on, and so we each pulled our dogs away and went on our way, without an exchange of address or mail. And here's the thing, every morning since Frank drags me to the meadow, sniffs at every corner, and looks in forlornly at every nearby driveway, looking for her, the one... I am minded on the Madness track "I never knew your name" and wonder if Frank hums it to himself as he plays sentinel looking out of our kitchen window..

Woolly Friends for Christmas

Standing around a fire at Guy Fawkes Night in November I met someone who was really missing her old dog, a black Cocker Spaniel and I mentioned that have been known to make the odd dog, and I tried to make her a likeness. So, that is where it began.... 

I really enjoyed making this one, "mini-Maggie" I have called her and she is on her way to Malmo to her new home. She was modelled on my Maggie, and I think that you will be able to see the Cocker likeness.  

I don't know if you have tried it, but doing curly haired dogs is always a challenge, and yet the curls are the thing that makes the animal look just right. I tried needle felting wool onto the boiled wool body but no joy... 

So.... to get the ears and lovely Cocker chest right I used lamb's fur from an old hat, and the new hand made hand felted eyes. The weight of the ears and the hang is just what I wanted. 

Her sitting pose is a new one, and I designed the pattern using inspiration from Abby Glassenberg and her ideas on how to make sitting, (or in this case slouching) animals.   

Good luck Mini Maggie, and I look forward to doing this combination again. 

Stenciled Door Sign

Finally, here is the latest effort from me using the Cameo Silhouette. I ummed and arred for ages about how to do the hand, before opting simply to cut and stick it onto the matt black background and stencil the letters. As ever the vintage hand image came from the graphic fairy and I used standard Cameo fonts for the letters.