Needle Felted Black Wyvern

This is a needle felted black wyvern--a wyvern being a draconic creature with only two wings and two legs (no forelegs). This guy was a real challenge! I've been working on him since before I started the green dragon (he went on hiatus for awhile).

Needle felting, to summarize briefly, is a technique used to create what are essentially 'wool sculptures'. There's no sewing involved; instead, by punching the raw wool thousands of times with special barbed needles, you transform it into felt, and can control the shape of the felt.

This guy's insides are a coarse, rough wool (this felts densely, for strength) from the Iron Horse Farm, which is covered on the outside with soft black wool from the Flying Ewe website. His wing membranes and underbelly are made out of coal colored storebought felt. He's got glass eyes and has horns and claws made out of wire and apoxie sculpt. I painted the horns/claws a mottled gray, then added pearlescent gloss, then added matte varnish...which, to my dismay, looks exactly like silver paint (live and learn, I suppose).

He's quite a bit larger than the green dragon, and his wire understructure is more complex: he has a separate wire in each wingfinger, as well as wires in the legs and tail, making him gently poseable. This is because the green dragon was made for perching, but this guy was made for standing; he's a quadrupedal wyvern, not a biped, and stands propped up on his wingthumbs and first wingfinger (I have this whole hypothetical biology mapped out in my head. I even gave him a keel.). He's fun to hold too though, as you can see. ^_~

More pics of this guy are coming! (soon as I catch up on some sleep)

Colored wools, glass eyes, wire, felt, apoxie sculpt, acrylics, matte varnish, pearlescent gloss.