I said I was going to leave the ‘antler redo ‘ for now…but I just couldn’t. They bugged me too much.

I went on a google search. This is a kudu…and I looked at hundreds of pictures. I finally found a black and white drawing of one. By copying the shading somewhat..I was able to get a result I was happier with.

(Just an aside….one site…kudu trophies….was entirely of hunters posing with their ‘kudu kill’…it really upset me…and I left it in a hurry)

I really like the bottom antler….the top one not so much. It may need more tweeking.

Just the birds to do now.

Once again I used the pale green shading. My favourite part of this bird is his beak. The top of it is a bit of brown plaid left over from my summer swap piece.

This fat little fellow gave me more trouble than all the others. His original head seemed to small for his small, but powerful body…so I redid it.  I think I will move his eye (again). I think I did about four different beaks, and finally settled on this one.

I kept looking at the placement of this bird, and finally decided that he had to move. It was a fairly simple process to pin that portion of the pattern in the new location and re-trace it….this time in red so I wouldn’t get mixed up.

This is the only all-black critter…and he’s actually a very dark navy cashmere. The ‘bumps’ at the top of the ‘crown’ I did with embroidery floss french knots. Filling in between them will be tricky.

The tail of this elegant fellow is black watch, and the beak once again bits from my summer swatch.

There……All the animals are done. That was so much fun….and very rewarding to do….each one felt like a little project in itself.

I’ve been dyeing up a storm…trying to get the right colours for the background. That always seems to be an issue I struggle with…what looks good as a colour palette takes on a whole new aspect when it’s hooked….but I’m anxious to jump in and give it a try…..thank goodness ripping out loops is so easy!