"Black Face Tup" - A new print & card

This is my latest needle felted Harris Tweed painting and I am really pleased with how it's turned out. I was working on it throughout the recent Knit and Stitch Show at Rheged in Cumbria and a lady who saw at the show bought it before it was finished. So it has now been framed and has gone back to live in rural Cumbria, which is very apt. 

I really enjoyed doing the tup's horns, which were quite straight forward, if very time consuming. The bit that was challenging was the eyes. Animals eyes are always difficult to get just right anyway, but sheep and goat eyes are especially difficult as their eyes are rather "demonic" looking in nature. Also it's quite difficult to incorporate really, really fine detail when you're needle felting with tweed and yarns. So with a single misplaced stab of a felting needle an animal can lurch from being demonic, to squint eyed, to having ridiculously over the top cute eyes that look totally unrealistic. Anyway this tup's eyes came out just right first time.

I usually only work with Harris Tweed, but this picture also has some green Donegal tweed in the background. Donegal tweed has a looser weave than Harris Tweed and it's made from thicker Aran wool yarn, which contains flecks of colour. I like the contrast between the two textures of the different tweeds, but I prefer the way Harris Tweed felts.
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This picture is currently available as a £25 mounted 7" square print and will be available as a card soon.