Remember the needle felted anteater I was working on way back in August? You can see the in-progress photos here.

Here is the finished tamandua!

This was such a fun project! Using the bright fantastical colors to make those crazy patterns was very exciting! I love the natural look, too, though so don’t be surprised if you find another anteater come along… Hehe.

I kept reassessing the basic body shape and adding more and more roving (the wool) to bulk him out. Consequently, this is probably the most densely felted piece I’ve ever made. She has a really solid feel and the patterns are so cleanly placed because I had to keep adding more and more layers of roving and each layer added had to redefine the color patterns.

The claws are made from Lumina Clay, which is a type of air drying clay that’s resin based. I added a dab of black watercolor paint to transparent Lumina Clay to make the claws nice and dark. Then I glued the claws to the pipe cleaner “toes” I left exposed on the armature (see the in-progress photo). E6000 is a very good glue for something small and needing a little flex.

You can purchase this Fantastic Anteater in my etsy shop here.