The rook appearing from the wool

Making this rook marked the beginning of a long-term project ~ a collection of bird sculptures representing individual birds who have become famous for one reason or another.

The particular individual rook who inspired this make has a fascinating story as an individual bird and he is a bird that you can still go and meet in person for yourself (albeit he is no longer alive). More on that in a later post. However, I have also wanted to specifically make myself a rook for a very long time, as I became fascinated with them having read The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper first published in 1973. Rooks are a symbol of the dark and a bad omen in that story, and I couldn't help but feel that was a little unfair.

In the vlog posted here you can observe the initial stages of my process when needle felting a bird in wool. I recorded this video in June 2024. This bird is white because I start every bird using carded core wool (wool which isn't prepared finely in order to make it a good top decorating layer, but is rougher, cheaper and more readily felts when I stab into it with my barbed needles). In the main, my process includes building the head of each bird and the core body at the same time and together, in order to get the proportions right (they don't necessarily stay together for the whole process though). Sometimes, but not always, I will build these two sections together on a wire armature. You don't actually need an armature inside every model, but it can help you to keep the body, head and other parts of the bird's anatomy scaled better to each other.

For this rook I have also built the beak first, as you can see in the video. Again, I don't always do this. I tend to adapt my techniques and the order of my work depending on each indivdiual bird I am making. I have some pretty set processes in my makes (using wool to make beaks and wire wrapped in wool for legs etc) but everything else is pretty adaptable to the context in which I find myself working. Every bird and every make is unique because, for me, that is what keeps me needle felting. That's what I really like about making, and I don't think I will ever be someone who has one set way of doing a thing - that would be far too organised and to be honest a little tedious for me as a maker.

The Rook you see me starting here was finished in June 2025. He really was a bird I picked up and did a little more on here and there, until it came to feather making. My fibre feather making process is one I have focused on in the last year and a half, and it is best started and finished in one prolonged making session across at least two days (mainly as it takes space and can make quite a mess). There are some photos and videos in the Gallery (to be launched here on my website very soon) of this rook as a completely finished piece, called 'The Rook in the Red Coat'. You can also find some images of him on my socials and particularly on Instagram @mindfulfelting.

My next famous bird is much tinier and was started in December 2025, whilst I re-listened to the brilliant BBC full cast audio drama of The Dark is Rising on BBC Sounds. If you enjoy folklore and fantasy, I would recommend this classic Christmas and Winter Solstice book to you for next year.