I have been wanting a donkey for my dollhouse livery stable, and decided to try updating another flocked horse toy.
Here is the horse I started out with. I had already removed his mane and tail as they were in pretty bad shape.I used a box cutter (or you could use a craft knife or something similar) to hollow a groove down the back of his neck where the mane will be.Deepened the groove so it goes down into the hollow area of his body.Working on colors.
I used different colors of Prismacolor art pencils to highlight areas and darken lines so he has a more contoured feel even though his body isn’t very anatomically correct. I even added some lines and shading in flat areas that I know would have certain wrinkles or grooves.
Different colors of pencils that I used on his body.Looking better! I will eventually have to find a replacement eye, or just have him be disabled.His other side
I decided to work on the mane, next. I cut small sections of soft, black, acrylic yarn.
I used Hometown brand acrylic yarn. It is soft, thick, and unravels well.I cut enough pieces so that, when laid out alongside each other, they should be enough to cover his whole neckline.I Lined up the yarns so they were close together, and then made a line of superglue going down the middle.Next I added a longer string over the line to hopefully glue all of the yarns together in a more easily managed section.After the glue on my mane has dried for a while, i put a little glue around the trench on his neck where the mane will be added. It should help keep the mane in place once i push it in.I carefully place the hair on his neck so that the middle strip is centered over the trench.Using an old butter knife, i gently push the ‘hair’ into the trench.Now I gently arrange and trim his hair to be more ‘donkey like.’I decided to add a little more color to his hair, so I took a very few fibers of tan and brown and placed them over the mane where i wanted them to be, and used a felting needle to gently tuck them into the trench with the rest of the hair.After some more colors have been added. I can trim these to match the rest of the hair. I eventually used a little black marker to shade the colored areas to darken them and make them more subtle.Feeling good about how it is turning out for now. I can always come back and alter it later.
