Felted Zombie Bunnies

Last time I wrote about how I learned to felt using basic shapes.  Bunnies are no different.  In fact I made the simplest bunny ever.  One body ball, one tail ball, couple of eyes, a nose and two ears. 

And then I decided enough of the cutesy crap, school time is over.  Let's get into the good stuff. I started with simple shapes again for the zombie bunny. Sphere head, flat triangles for ears; long cones for arms, legs and body. Note that the neck and where the arms and legs will attach is not as firmly felted.  It's easier to attach bits if you leave the wool a little wispy. 

You might think pink is an odd zombie color unless you are making brains.  When I thought I was going to make the most awesome hamster ever I bought a small package of pink wool for the ears and nose.  A small half ounce package is actually a lot and I had all this pink left over. I thought I could get away with using it as filler, which is what I did will the ball bunny. It looks mottled because I used pink as the base with white over the top.  I didn't realize how much I'd have to cover it in white for the pink not to show and decided it wasn't worth it anyway.  It's already cute, it might as well be pink too. For my zombie bunny I decided to use that to my advantage.

I went with a mixture of green for the zombie bunny's main color.  It's a lot of olive green, with some green green, a bit of tan and a smidge of dark green.  I just pulled bits of wool and randomly layered them together and did that a few more times to mix it all up. Don't ever feel like you have to use one color at a time, in fact I think it's more fun if you don't. 

Originally I bought just a few colors of wool for specific projects, but  then I ended up buying these multi-color rolls in the brights, pastels and earth tones.  Various craft stores carrying them packaged under different brand names, but as far as I can tell it's all the same stuff.  By mixing the colors I can get close to any shade I want and I have a better idea of which colors I use enough to buy separately. 

Update: Now that warm weather is upon us, I've been hitting the local farmer's markets and there is a lot of wool roving popping up.  The prices are better than what I've found in the stores, with lots of colors to choose from.  I'm no expert, but the quality seems better too.  The store bought seems a bit matted in comparison, maybe a result of the packaging process? Also pay attention to the type of wool.  My eye always travels to the Merino wool which is gorgeous and silky, but from what I understand is difficult to needle felt and used more in wet felting.  Romney and Corriedale seem to be the most popular for needle felting.  

  

And here is where I covered the pink pieces in the green mix. Some areas the layer of green wool was a little thin and after felting it disappeared into the pink wool.   

Here more green has been added until everything was as thick and firm as I wanted it. [I feel morally obligated to insert a "That's what she said." joke here.] All the pieces have been attached and just starting to poke in a few details.

After that everything came together so fast I didn't get pictures. More green wool was added to the face to fill out the cheeks, add brows and a nose. The teeth and bones were made with white wool mixed with a little yellow and brown. The eyes are a mix of red and black. 

The bloody bits are mostly red with brown and black. Needle felting is naturally conducive to making bloody wounds.  Whenever you poke the needle in it creates an indent.  If you want to make a smooth ball you have to keep moving it so you poke evenly all the way around.  If you want a bloody gash, you lay down a bit of red wool and concentrate your needle in that area. 

I don't have many pictures of this guy.  Sadly I had used up all my pink, so he started out as a white ball. Overall I think he's an adorable zombie bunny, but I have to say I prefer having meaty pink undertones showing through here and there.  Not at all ironic that in trying to use up the pink wool, I've found a use that will lead to me having to buy more pink wool.

He was just going to be a toothy zombie bunny head, but I didn't really think that through. It kept tipping over because of the big ears, so I gave him a body.  I used familiar shapes from my unicorn days.

Here is the white ball covered in zombie green.  I poked a line where I wanted the mouth to go, cut along it with small scissors to open it up and then kept poking the inside of the ball until the mouth was big enough. 

Otherwise the rotting green fur, the bloody bits and the crusty teeth use the same colors as the other bunny.  I used a mix of pink, red and black for gums and to attach the teeth.  He has a bunch of teeth you can't see in the picture. He also has a lovely neck gash you can't quite see that I'm quite proud of.  For the eyes I went with the cataract zombie look.  A little bit of light blue, grey and white over black balls.

While I'm on the topic of zombies and bunnies, I got the best book from the Easter Bunny this year, Pat The Zombie by Aaron Ximm and Kaveh Soofi.  Now I don't love just anything that's been zombiefied, a girl has to have standards, but this book is awesome.  It stays true to the original while creativity embracing the zombie theme.   

This book is so much fun, but one of my favorites is the scratch n' sniff remains.  I recommend getting someone else to scratch it, because the putrid smell lingers on your fingers, even after soap and water.  Reminds of that one time in Mallrats.

I don't know why, maybe it's the bloody trail, but the last page of Judy's survival manual makes me giggle. "Sss-sh! Bunny is creeping!" In the original it was "Bunny is sleeping."