A couple of my friends have recently moved house and I wanted to be able to send them a housewarming gift but if I’m honest, I was a bit stumped.
You see, this house move saw a massive declutter for the pair and therefore I didn’t want to go giving them more clutter when they had worked so hard at downsizing so what I was to send had to have meaning and purpose.
I, therefore, racked my brains, of which there isn’t much in working order.
Whilst thinking I had a random scroll through Twitter when I came across some needle felting awesomeness by @GaiButton.
Gai does some amazing scale models of dogs in needle felting and also some beautiful pet portraits too. Here are a couple of examples that I found on her Twitter timeline.
I think that you can see why I fell in love with them!
Seeing the pet portrait reminded me of my furry niece, Kira. You’ve seen her on this blog and my Facebook page before. In case you haven’t, her she is.
Such a pretty wee woofer :)
The friends that moved house are her parents. Despite the number of times I have tried to convince Kira to come and live with me, she just keeps heading back home :(
Bingo! A needle felted portrait of Kira would be an awesome housewarming gift! So I popped a message over to Gai and she accepted the commission!
I sent over an image of the lady in question and a couple of back and forth emails happened to confirm choices in design and style, and we were off!
A few days later I received an update. It has begun!
I squealed with delight! Oh my, the colour is right, and I can already see the attentive character of Kira coming through.
As time went on, I received further updates on progress.
Then, on the final update, I was blown away!
Amazing!
My awestruck status will probs make more sense if you see the image and the needle felted portrait side by side …
See! Incredible!
It was at this point that I thought, ‘Bugger, I should have ordered two!’. Lol, anyhoo, I may treat myself to one in the future but for now, Gai made a couple of final tweaks that meant we were both happy and then Gai kindly framed it too.
I think you’ll agree, my friends are going to love it! I sure do.
If you love Gai’s work and would like to commission your own pet portrait, you can reach Gai via…
- Facebook – @needlefeltinginkent
- Twitter – @GaiButton
Anyhoo, that’s it for this post. Hope you enjoyed my little yarn.
See you again soon.
J :)
GENTLEMAN CRAFTER 
Wow that’s amazing. I hope they were happy with it John. xx
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WowJohn! Such a lovely gift for them and so thoughtful! They will love it, I am sure of that. What a talented lady too. I will give some thought to having one done of my 2 little fur babies. Was it expensive? X
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No. Exceptionally reasonable for a framed, unique handmade gift.
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Wooooo! Never seen felting used as a drawing medium (where have I been?!) Beeeeautiful!
WheelyBad thanks for your thoughts and sending couple of spoons your way..
Cheers
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What a talented lady. A fantastic gift.
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What a talented lady. This would be a fantastic and unique gift for my daughter (obviously her dog not Kira. lol). I really struggle to find images of Patterdales.
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This is great workmanship ( or can I say workwomanship LOL) It’s a awesome portrait from Kira, I think your friend will be over the moon!
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Gave me goosebumps just looking at it!
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Hi John
What an amazingly talented artist Gai is, and what a pretty little Shiba Inu Kira is. My sister had one and they are terrific little dogs.
Saw your Inktober post yesterday, I tried it two or three years ago but got really ill after a week and a half and had to stop, I posted my crazy scribbles on Deviant Art, really worth looking at the other artists posts. If I don’t use all my spoons I may try a few doodles myself.
Will have a more extensive look at Gai’s work later today.
Hugs all round. I hope the weather getting greyer hasn’t affected people too badly, my friend has a long standing MH issue and grey days really affect her (convinced her to look at getting a SAD lamp) so if this applies to anyone out there extra hugs to you
T x
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Just WOW :)
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Wow, my favourite go to word, when I can’t think of anything appropriate to say. Phenomenal springs to mind. What a talented lady. xx
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Amazing, such a wonderful gift xx hazel
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It is absolutely gorgeous. I would so love to receive something like that from a friend. Am sure they will be very pleased. Let us know, won’t you.
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very nice
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