Castlemilk Moorit Ram – Jane Firth

I am member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and have been needle felting the RBST watchlist for 6 years. I photograph my subjects at shows and rare breed events and use the wool from the breed of sheep wherever possible. Most of my wool is sourced from local farmers and I carry out every stage of the process from raw fleece to finished picture, including framing. To create this piece, I wet felted a large piece of felt using dark brown Zwartbles fleece from a neighbour. I cut out the face, horns and ears from this felt and needle felted the detail into it, using locally sourced or home dyed colours. After needle felting these separate elements, I used free machine embroidery on the horns. The body of the sheep used needle felted Castlemilk Moorit fleece. The needle felted background comprises a variety of locally or home dyed wool and silk.