Waldorf Doll Penny and Her Pink Felted Horse

I can't wait to introduce you to my newest 

Waldorf doll Penny! She needs help naming her beautiful new needle felted wool horse!

I AM HOLDING A NEW CONTEST TO NAME HER HORSE.....KEEP READING TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN ENTER AND HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN! 

  WINNER will receive

wool ball to felt, wool roving and 

a felting needle with instructions.

 Penny loves horses. She loves to play horses with her friends!! She loves to read books about horses. All night she dreams about growing up and riding far away on the fastest horse ever!

Other Waldorf dolls love to play house with their best friends, or dress up, or love to cook, but Penny loves to play horses with her friends. She is happiest when her friends bring all their horses over and they have a sleepover and play together all night.

I decided to surprise her by making her a new dress with the new Dancing Horses fabric by Laurel Burch for Clothworks. The bodice and sleeves are Dancing Horses Dark Wine Swirls and Dots and the skirt of the dress is Dancing Horses Dark Wine Metallic Mini Horses. Her matching under panties are made in the mini horses fabric. When the dress was ready and I brought it to her, I told her to close her eyes and not peak. I helped her put on the dress, her eyes squeezed shut. She was talking a mile a minute, wondering what I could be up too and asking so many questions.

I placed her in front of the mirror and told her to open her eyes. She almost fainted with delight! But my surprises were not over. She didn't know it, but I was setting about to make her the prettiest horse ever and all for her!

I decided to make her a gorgeous and unique friend - a horse that I would fashion out of pure sheep's wool. I started by making a wire armature frame that allows for careful posing during play. The frame is covered with over 3 ounces of wool that I have needle felted together.

The process is a traditional art form used before the colonial days. After shaping the armature to have 4 legs, a back, neck and head, I began to cover the frame with fluffy, undyed wool. The tools I used were a long barbed needle and a large flat brush for a base. I then took lengths of fluffy wool and rolled it around the wire, covering it completely. I added more wool and then as I rotated the form of the horse I poked the barbed needle deep into the wool and up again, deep into the wool and up again - thousands and thousands of times.This process causes the wool to felt and to become firm yet remains soft and squishy to touch.

As I needled felted the wool it lost its loft and I added more and more until the thickness and desired shape was achieved with the needle. After many hours of this process of adding wool and punching and shaping it with the needle, the final shape and form of the horse was complete.

Then I held Penny up to my selection of wool roving that hangs in my studio. I told her we were now going to decide the color her horse would be. It took her like one second to choose the bright pink. She sat near me, watching as I continued needle felting the pink roving to the raw wool and before our eyes the horse became so colorful and bright and happy!

Every horse has a mane and tail of course and Penny helped me pick out the prettiest colors to make her horse the most beautiful and magical that has ever been! I attached, twisted and tucked the roving to get the effect we were after. I secured the ends of the tail and mane. After adding a "blanket", "reins", swirls and embellishments Penny's horse was ready to nuzzle and play with her!
Penny is in her glory!

Already she has hosted a tea party for her new friend.

 They have "traveled" away to places unexplored and back.

And all the other Waldorf dolls around here think that Penny has the most wonderful horse they have ever seen.


Oh, and Penny? She is of classic Waldorf design. Her legs are one piece with her body.

She can sit and her arms are attached. She is fashioned, like her horse out of 100% pure sheeps wool. The wool is rolled and inserted into "skin" that is made from long stapled cotton grown only in Turkey. The fabric is from Europe and is organic and all natural. The quality is superior to any doll "skin" fabric I have ever used. She has an inner head that is tightly rolled wool that is tied and shaped before the skin fabric is applied. She has a little nose and hand embroidered brown eyes and pink mouth. Her gorgeous mane of thick brown hair is hand dyed wool yarn in eight different textures. I crocheted a yarn wig that caps her head and then I cut and pulled through and tied off every strand of her hair. Her hair is in pig tails now, but can be let down and played with and styled in so many ways. Please do not use a brush however, the hair can only be finger combed due to the way some of the yarn is made.

Both toys' wool bodies will warm when hugged. Imagine sleeping with a doll that shares your body heat and in turn warms you?! This is a gift a child will cherish! Penny is heirloom quality and while she can be handed down to the next generation, my Waldorf dolls are made to be played with everyday by this generation of children!

Thank you for shopping my Etsy shop. I would love to make a custom doll like this or of a different style and size. Just let me know!

~debbie :)

CONTEST

Penny has thought and thought, but cannot think of an amazing name for her little horse. She is trying to come up with a "P" name for her little friend. I am hoping some of you will leave a comment helping her name her horse. For the person who gives us the perfect name (Penny will be the final judge) I will happily send out a ball of pure felted plain wool (that I have already rolled then wetted with very warm water and added soap.Then I squeezed and squeezed and rolled it around in my hand till it became a more solid ball. It was then rinsed and squeezed dry and set out to air dry completely.)  It is 9 inches around and about 3 inches high. It is now ready to decorate so I will also send the winner some colored roving and I will include a barbed felting needle and instructions. Have you always wanted to try needled felting, but didn't want to invest in all the supplies? Then this is your chance to try it!

So to enter: go to the blog post entitled NEW CONTEST... posted on Sunday, Feb.14th
leave your idea for the name for Penny's horse in the comments section of the Feb.14th post (not this post). Good luck everybody!