These are my newest toys.  The royals are all my design but the dragon is from a pattern in the Fall 2011 issue of Living Crafts magazine.  Before putting the dragon “into production”, I’ll be creating my own pattern, both to make it faster to sew and to avoid copyright issues.  I’m choosing to leave the faces off the dolls this time to be more true to the Waldorf philosophy they are inspired by.  In the Waldorf philosophy of education, dolls for young children do not have faces so that the child has the freedom to imagine any face he or she wants, whether it is the face of her mother or father or whether the doll has a happy, sad or angry face depending on the child’s mood.

Here’s a picture of the heads before they were attached to the bodies.  I’m trying to find ways to create my products in an assembly fashion, which is not the way I’m used to doing things.  However I am finding that it really does save a lot of time.  It takes time to gather materials for each stage of the process and then to put them away again to ready the work space for the next project.

I’ve been branching out into sewn felt toys.  I made this play mat to display my toys, but if someone buys it I will make more to sell.

I’ve made some horses…

and rabbits,

and people.

And here’s the whole gang so far!

I’ve been using some of my wool and felt scraps to create some toys for my preschool classroom.

In these dolls you don’t see the wool, but they are stuffed with it, which creates a doll that holds some of the warmth of the child holding it.   These dolls are called Waldorf dolls because they are used in Waldorf Schools, a style of education that values simple, open ended toys made from natural materials.

I also made a Three Billy Goats Gruff story set, entirely made from felt scraps.  Young children love to tell this favorite story over and over. 

First lets note that it is almost impossible to take a picture of the full image on a ball.  Balls just look better in person.

This design is the heraldry of my local barony, Cynnabar.

Again I’m using the prefelt technique.   However there is a small bit of needle felting here.   The only time I use it is when making balls, and then it is only used to tack the design to the ball until it can be more properly wet felted.

I made this batch of balls for my nephew last year.  I’ve made so many of these fun little things.  The wool is wound tightly into a ball, a design is lightly needle felted on, then I tie the balls in nylon stocking and throw them in the washing machine.  They come out fuzzy and egg shaped, but I simply roll them into a round shape and trim off the fuzz.

A medieval games geek friend of mine told me that a lot of game boards in medieval times were made of felt.  Especially for nomadic type people this makes a lot of sense.  They are light, foldable and very durable.  I made the chess board for him and the alqurques board for me.