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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Reynard, the Red Fox



I just finished this little red fox this morning. He stands at 5 inches tall ears included. I did something a little different with this one. His fur is light brown baby alpaca that has been hand-dyed with onion skins. The onion skins gave his fur a nice orangish gold color.

13 comments:

Fiver said... [Reply]

He's precious Robin!! Such a sweet face, and I love his bushy tail. I've never heard of dying alpaca with onion skins - how interesting.

Bossy Betty said... [Reply]

Wow! You do amazing things! I am fascinated by your art!

Robin Andreae said... [Reply]

Thanks Fiver & Betty :-)! I used to dye Easter eggs with onion skins. I just recently found out that it is fairly colorfast. So I decided to give it a try with the alpaca. It takes heat and some vinegar to make sure that it is set properly. The white wool that I dyed ended up with a rosey flesh colored hue. The only problem with onion skins is that the color may vary from one dye lot to the next. Most of the time, it's kind of a golden yellow.

CWPoppets said... [Reply]

I volunteered at some wildlife centre feeding and playing with the little fox there. She exactly looked like your fox. I think that the colour changes are the interesting thing about natural dyes. I thought about trying it myself but chickened out because it's a lot of work.

Unknown said... [Reply]

Awesome! Looks just like the guy I had running through my yard yesterday! :)

Heather said... [Reply]

He is beautiful! I am so picky about how people make red fox... usually they end up looking wrong and badly proportioned... but this guy... exquisite!

Wendy Luane Barber said... [Reply]

The both of you are truly amazing.

Joanne@ Desertmountainbear said... [Reply]

Love him. Onion skins, hmmm, I am going to have to try them, what a gorgeous color.

Bearly Sane said... [Reply]

Wonderful fox Robyn...he's a very handsome fox indeed!

Don't you just love onion skins? They give a quite a varied finish when dying, depending on the type of onions...I love experimenting with them.

Warmest Hugs,
Sandi @ Bearly Sane

Robin Andreae said... [Reply]

I read that if you use different mordants that will change the color, too. Chrome will usually give a color like the one I got. I think it dyed that color because of all the minerals in this desert water.

Leedra said... [Reply]

So real looking.

I have been to visit your blog several times, but from my other computer I cannot post at all to embedded comments. I would suggest changing to half page or full page, because this is a common problem. It is at settings, comments, with a save at the bottom of the page.

Robin Andreae said... [Reply]

Hi Leedra, I changed it to the pop-up window and now it's not working good for me. I guess I'll have to play around with it.

Caitlin said... [Reply]

Your felted creatures are charming and adorable! Love the mice and the fox especially! Thank you.