Art Elements Gnome Blog Hop

This months theme for the Art Elements Blog Hop is Gnomes. I was delighted that Jenny picked this theme because I’ve got a thing for gnomes and love making them out of wool. You can see some previous posts I’ve written up about Bottle Toppers and Gnome Ornaments.

I usually create these gnomes with a bit of a theme to give them some character, and recently I’ve been making a lot of bunnies due to teaching a class in early March, so I thought it would be fun to put some bunny ears on this gnome.

This is the Sarafina Fiber Art way of making bunny ears. Sara created the Zullitool which makes really great shapes perfect for ears.
Top Row – lay out fibers and add blenders. Flip fibers, then use the zullitool to shape the ear.
Middle Row – create the basic bunny ear shape and use the multi-needle tools to flatten and make the shape secure. Add some pink for the inside ear color.
Bottom Row – the wide bottom gets folded and felted to create a tapered bottom with fringy edges that get felted onto the hat of the bottle topper gnome.
I made the base of the ears to blend with the hat. To cover seams, I used a bit more of the hat color to blend the ear bases. Then added a hat rim color around the hat, and used it to also felt into the ears a bit more for added support. Also added a dried bit of plant material into the had (because this gnome was definitely hanging out in a garden).
Here is the detail of the hat ear area where I used some of the Sarafina Moose Moss dyed curls to help secure the plant material to the hat a bit more (the headpins at the top of the hat are Sue Kennedy’s creation).

I really had fun making this guy up and want to make a few more like him. And possibly the teeny gnome ornaments with bunny ears too. Those would be lots of fun!

Here are the rest of the Blog Hop Participants:

AE team:
Cathy
Jen
Jenny
Lesley
Claire
Niky

Guests:
Tammy.
Linda
Hope
Cat
Sarajo

Comments
39 Responses to “Art Elements Gnome Blog Hop”
  1. Claire says:

    Oh gosh, he is wonderful! The perfect mix of grunginess (i that a word?) and being cute with those wonderful ears! i love the details of the extra organic material felted in the hat and that it looks like it has grown on top!

  2. Cat says:

    He’s wonderful! What a clever way to give him more personality by adding to his hat like that!

  3. Ohmygoodness, he is amazing! The addition of the bunny ears onto one of your gnomes was such a splendid idea. It works so wonderfully. I’ve never had any luck with felting, but you make it look so easy. I’m glad I can just admire your beautiful work. Of course, if I lived anywhere near you, I might just be tempted to take one of your classes!!

  4. Tammy says:

    OMG, he’s stinkin’ adorable. I loved seeing parts of the process for how you made it. The colors are great and perfectly earthy.

  5. OMG!! I just love those bunny ears on the gnome. What a great addition to this forest/garden creature. Perfect placement of the stick and ‘moss’ also. Everything comes together to create such a fun little character.

  6. Lesley Watt says:

    This is just wonderful Marsha…I love the rustic additions of the twigs and moss especially.

  7. Jennifer Cameron says:

    OMG! I love him! The EARS!!!! lol! What a fund surprise.

  8. He is delightfully wonderful, Marsha! Who would have thought to add bunny ears to a gnome – true creative thinking! Love it. He looks so woodsy, you captured that perfectly.

  9. Jenny says:

    OK – he is a silly and superbly adorable mash up. I love his woodland palette! Yeah for Sarafina! Thanks for playing along!

  10. niky says:

    Oh, he is adorable!!! I love bunny rabbit ears hat!!!!

  11. Kathy Lindemer says:

    I love your bunny gnome. You make sure beautiful creatures out of wool.

  12. Sarajo Wentling says:

    OMG. I love the addition of those bunny ears to your gnome. So stinkin’ adorable! Thanks for sharing a bit about your process.

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