She looked ok on the salt block in the barn.

Pretty cute in the dead grass.

While photographing the Holstein, I noticed one of our cows peeking at me through the fence.

I think cow lips are cute.

She was thirsty.

Had to text this to my husband at work.  Hi from H9. 

So then the sheep arrived on the scene.  They didn’t want the cows getting all the attention. 

• Shearing day- Shearing day is BIG here at Bear Creek. We hire a professional shearer to come and shear our sheep. We shear our 25 sheep in March right before lambing. We lay out big sheets of plywood for the shearer to stand on and shear the sheep where it is clean. My 4 children are in charge of catching the sheep and bringing them to the shearer. This is usually not a big task as most of our sheep have been shown for 4-H and are already halter-broke. The entire fleece is shorn off in one piece. My husband grabs the fleece and throws it on a mesh table where we skirt the fleece. When skirting we remove the entire outside edge of the fleece to remove the unwanted wool from the neck, belly and rear end. We then pick out any vegetable matter and roll up the fleece and put it in a gunny sack.

• Wool Processing- The wool is then sent to a woolen mill to be washed and carded. The lower quality wool is washed here at Bear Creek and used in the insides of the sculptures.

• I use the washed low quality wool from the sheep bellies and necks for the insides of the snowmen. I wet felt the wool into ball shapes. This is such a long stinky process that the kids will sometimes run and hide when it is time to take this project on.

• Once the balls are made out of the yucky wool, I take the beautiful carded wool and felt it onto the balls.

• Spinning – I make my yarn the old fashioned way. I dye my own wool or purchase beautifully hand painted wool and then I spin it into yarn using my spinning wheel. I usually spin about 4 ounces of wool at a time, and this can take an entire day. I can make many hats and scarves out of 4 ounces.

• Knitting – I hand knit the scarves and hats while listening to my boys read to me. (this helps me with my patience)

• I felt the snowman balls together, put on their hats and scarves, make them a nose, and then the part that gives them their personality . . . Their eyes and mouth.

When you look at the pictures of these snowmen and they can’t help but make you smile, now you will know that it takes A LONG TIME to make a snowman.

North American Felted Bison

The newest addition to the Wildlife collection at Bear Creek Felting.

You can find him in my Etsy Shop.

"Little silly bunny"

The Fair is over, the kids did great, mommy got tired!!  I am back to needle felting again after helping the kids with their 4-H projects.  Here are a few of the things that I have completed this week.  They are all available to purchase in my Etsy shop.

She cracks me up!

Brightly dress snowman

Moose #2

a closeup of Moose #2

Moose #2

She is available to purchase in my Etsy Shop.

The Mouse kit is the newest kit available at Bear Creek Design.  The instructions include over 50 color pictures.  There are pictures of every step along with tips and methods that I use in making needle felted sculptures.  5 full pages of instructions printed on top quality paper along with general felting information.  I have also included information on the sheep at our ranch that provide the wool for this kit.  There is a lot of information in this kit that will help you learn how to make realistic looking sculptures out of wool.

The kit includes:
*grey wool
*glass eyes
*wool for making cheese
*2 felting needles, the perfect sizes for working with Romney wool
*Felting Cushion
*Instructions that will help you learn many new skills in the art of needle felting.  Over 50 color photographs and 5 pages of information.  Written by Fiber Artist Teresa Perleberg.

She is available to purchase in my Etsy shop.

Thank you everybody for participating, I had so much fun with this promotion!  I am planning many more giveaways in the future so keep trying.

Teresa Perleberg