Watch out, Cyril the Squirrel's about!

Cyril the Squirrel - September BJP piece

Every year we get a couple of litters of squirrel kits in our chimney pots - another one due any time now!  I know they're pests and dig holes in the lawn and steal the bird nuts, but they're so cute. 

Cyril was worked entirely in 15s and the design is based on a close-up photo I took of a baby squirrel last year. I used an antique button for his eye and stuck on a high-light. His whiskers are cut from thickish nylon thread. Most of the embroidery is backstitch, but his tail and tummy are different lengths of fringing - please don't ask how many 15s I've used!

I'm still keeping to the original oval shape to present the BJP pieces but, over the last few months, I've moved away from bead pictures and have been making the animals complete in themselves. They are worked on ultrasuede, lightly padded and then backed with more ultrasuede. I've put pins on a couple of the smaller ones so they can be worn or attached to some kind of decorative backing - fabric or painting - and changed around at will. All part of the fun!

I cut the autumn leaves out of leather scraps and will perhaps draw veins on them with a pyrography pen and shade them with boot polish, but they do the job as they are for the moment.