Tusker Felted Wool Brooch

$24.00 USD

100% New Zealand Wool
Open pasture, naturally soft, cleanly spun, and extraordinarily resilient.
Individually Hand-Sculpted
Wet-felted and needle-detailed so no two pieces are identical.
Naturally Fresh & Durable
Breathable, odor-resistant, and easy to spot clean.

Description

A small elephant sitting back on its haunches, front legs out, looking like it expects to be picked up.

This one is sculpted in the round rather than cut from flat felt — the body is packed solid with a barbed needle until it holds its own shape, so it has real volume and sits up on a lapel instead of lying against it. The ears are separate rounds felted on and lined in dusty pink, and the tusks and toenails are cream wool worked in afterwards, each toenail its own small piece.

The trunk hangs straight down with dark ridges stitched across it, spaced wider at the top and tighter toward the tip, which is what makes the eye read wrinkled skin rather than a felted tube.

Two colours, and neither is grey. Sage is a soft eucalyptus green; Marigold is a deep ochre gold. Both carry the same dusty pink ears, which is the pairing that makes them work.

A pin bar on the back. Made from New Zealand wool.

New Zealand wool, needle-felted solid in the round.
Dusty pink ear linings, cream tusks and toenails, felted in.
Black glass bead eyes, embroidered trunk ridges.
Metal pin bar stitched to the back.
No wire armature, no plastic core.

Sculptural needle felting, worked in the round rather than cut from flat felt.
Loose fleece is wound and punched repeatedly with a barbed needle until the body locks solid — firm enough to hold its shape with nothing inside it, which is why the piece sits up off a lapel instead of lying flat against it. On a brooch that density matters twice over, since a soft body would sag under the weight of its own pin.
The ears are felted as separate rounds and joined on, each lined with a disc of dusty pink. The tusks are cream wool worked in afterwards and shaped to a curve. Every toenail is its own small piece of cream fleece felted into the foot — four feet, three nails apiece, on an animal that fits in a palm.
The trunk ridges are stitched in dark thread, spaced wider at the top and tighter toward the tip. That spacing is what makes the eye read wrinkled skin instead of a felted tube; evenly spaced, it would look like a hose.

Pure New Zealand pasture wool naturally repels dust and light spills thanks to its dense, organic fiber structure.

Wearing itthis one has real depth to it, so pin it through a sturdy layer — wool coating, denim, canvas, a bag strap. A fine knit will sag under a sculpted brooch; go through a seam or a doubled section.

Day-to-daya soft brush lifts dust, following the curve of the body. Keep a lint roller away from the trunk, as it can catch the stitched ridges.

Spot cleaningblot with a barely damp cloth and dry fully before wearing again. Never soak and never machine wash — the pink ears will bleed into the body, and the marigold worst of all.

Reshapingif the body compresses in a bag, work it back between your fingers. The felt has memory. Store it sitting upright rather than stacked under weight.