Arpilleras, Part 2

The backgrounds finished, it is time to make little people and animals to populate it. I found head beads in Oriental Trading Company several years ago and they work really well for this part of the project. (You will need to go to their website; the head beads never show up in their catalog) I make the bodies out of pipe cleaners, put the head on the bodies, and use sheep wool and alpaca fur for the hair. I would have the kids make the bodies, but it would take too much time and frankly, many of them don't have the fine motor to be able to do it without loads of assistance. Needless to say, it is a lot of prep for me, but well worth it.


We use pieces of fabric to dress the people and half a pipe cleaner for the belt.
The animals are wrapped with yarn to give them some 'fur' - super easy and super cute!