Needle-Felted Wool Sculpture

Indian Brave Needle-Felted Wool Sculpture

Written and Posted by Sarah on March 5, 2012
I've finished another wool needle-felted doll! I didn't do much felting last Fall, so it's been over five months since I finished one of these little dollies. I had decided to make a sitting doll, which would be a kind of fun experience and totally different. So, it would be really cute to make an American Indian sitting cross-legged, right?! Even more fun, lets make him doing Indian Sign Language. Here are the results.

This little Indian Brave is a "generic" Indian --- that is, he is not from any particular tribe. The problem was trying to find an actual tribe was the fact that if they wore clothes on top, then there wasn't much on bottom and vice versa. So, this is the "Hollywood" style Indian as seen in the classic-era Westerns. Fully clothed, and with the typical feather!

The Brave is made of 100% Merino Wool roving that has been felted with .40 and .42 gauge needles. He stands 4-7/8 inches tall (seated), weighs 1.75 ounces and took approx. 45 hours to complete. His necklace is actually made from some dyed-cotton string that I braided with wood and metal beads from decoration. Mom actually had one odd hoop earring that came just like that, so all that I had to do was to substitute the wire hoop for the braided cotton. This is the first doll that I've made with jewelry! The feather is from Alex's pet Conure (whose name is 'Pita'), and has one blue-green side on it. It is held in place with a headband of leather thong.

A real Indian Brave can't just sit on the floor of his wigwam, so this little fellow has his very own Buffalo hide to sit on. It is made of 100% Buffalo fiber, which I felted into the shape of a hide, then that is sewn onto a piece of genuine leather hide (most likely a deer hide). This makes a seat that any Brave would be proud of! ;) By the way, he is signing the Indian Sign Language sign for "chief".