Needle-Felted Wool Sculpture

Oin the Dwarf Needle-Felted Wool Sculpture (as seen in Peter Jackson's films of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit")


Oin is the eighth doll completed in our "Hobbit project". He is based on John Callen's portrayal of Tolkien's character, as seen in "The Hobbit" films by Peter Jackson. After making the Throin and Bilbo dolls, Elizabeth and I decided that it would be a fun idea to make all of the dwarves from Thorin's company in "The Hobbit" films. We are working on multiple dolls at one time, because a few of them are very intensive as far as leather work or embroidery (Elizabeth's department!). To keep things going ahead, we've got three dolls "in the works" at any given point. This gives Elizabeth time to work on the hand sewing and leather, while I'm felting on a different doll.

Oin is a one of my very favorite dolls so far! He stands 9-1/4" tall and weighs in at a solid 4-1/4 ounces. He was felted with .40 and .42 gauge needles and features some pretty fun fiber and yarn in his costume — along with a lot of knitted work. There are six different types of wool in the costume. The base of his body is made of dark brown Romney (though none of it shows), and his head and clothes feature Cotswold, Gotland, Tasmanian Polworth, Coopworth, Norwegian, Merino and Stansborough Grey wool – not forgetting the American Buffalo fiber and Camel Cashmere. His hair is made from two shades of "All Cooped Up" wool doll hair. In the end, it turned out that he is made of all natural-colored, undyed fibers --- save for his skin tone and a Merino underskirt that does not show unless the doll is tipped upside down. The coat is made of American Buffalo fiber with just enough Gotland wool carded in to keep it firm for felting.

The neatest part of this doll, though, is definitely the Stansborough wool! Stansborough is a special breed, found on just one farm in New Zealand. It's used in all the wool fabric and yarn in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films! So, this makes Oin very authentic! I've never felt wool as soft as the Stansborough curls on his boots. His pants are made of a piece of woven fabric from the Stansborough looms, his boot tops are made of some scraps of Stansborough pelt, and his hoodie is knitted from single-ply Stansborough yarn. The hoodie is really the prize piece on this doll, since it was such an undertaking. To keep it from being too large in scale and too bulky on a doll of this size, I used the single-ply yarn (thinner than crochet thread) on 0000-gauge dollhouse scale knitting needles. That was really tiny work . . . and twenty hours of knitting! But it was well worth it when viewing the final result.