An “OST” is a small, incredible cute dragon-like creature that I created for a role-playing game I wrote 40 years ago. They have been constant companions in one form or another in my home ever since.
My husband’s ost was nicknamed BE (short for BrightEyes); mine was WD (dubbadee) short for WindDancer, and our son’s was Rascal.
This past year I’ve been working to restore my role-playing game (eventually to publish) and currently I’m actually running a game again with my son’s friends. While my son “grew up” with osts this will be his first opportunity to “be the ost” (he’s actually playing two characters: a Magician (entertainment and rather bumbling) and the ost that has made a home in the Magician’s cloak of 16 pockets! So I had to make him his ost:
NORMALLY I would pinch together the wire tips of the toe to form the claws, but since Jackson will be handling the ost and those claws tend to catch on everything we opted to leave them as they are for now.
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AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
2
Ost is adorable…such an expressive face!
The little claws makes him harmless. I also love the color blending you do…the wings and his chest…such nice details!
I’ve made other osts over the years - the first were “shoulder osts” made of chamois with just enough wire for them to hug a shoulder. Those first two osts went to a Gamers’ Forum get together in Boston and Neil Rubenstein borrowed one of them and had it on his shoulder all weekend long. I later made him his own. lol!
I’ve made polymer clay osts and I embroidered a lot of osts onto patches that got sewn onto Jack’s shirts and jackets. Most of those are all gone in the fire.
For * this * ost - I think it took 4 good days of work. It’s hard for me to estimate because we had to wait on eyes and I’m the only one available to drive during the day so if shopping or other errands are needed I’m needed.
I will make another most likely and I’ll have enough interruptions in my work process that I still will have no idea how long it takes, but I’ll have two osts instead of one.
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
5
I loved seeing the progress pictures…gives a true appreciation of the time and care that goes into this…just lovely…and thanks for the belly shot in the Snapshot thread…incredible detail!
I hope you find one! Everyone should have an ost (or be an ost)!
Osts are great companions!! Silly and wise at the same time and fundamentally practical when it comes to solving problems.
I’m wondering if my son is going to feel uninhibited enough to “be his ost” in game play!
It’s delicate balance to get the wings’ felt just right. Wool has a memory which can work for you (as in horns on the head) or against you if the felt cloth for the wings is too ridged. IF I were following the lessons I learned from taking Strongfelt’s workshop, I would have figured out to the .0x gram how much fiber I need to use per square inch and I could do that (and there are times when I do do that), but when I’m making creatures I don’t like to be “that” calculating. Slight variables in thickness and rigidity (compare these wings to those on Cabernet) are part of the creature’s character.
My son and I decided that the evolutionary reason for all the horns on his head were to hold berries - I do not have the necessary ambition to make 8 berries to see how he would look. I’m sure if he was bedecked with berries he would be quite the catch for any lady-ost that happened to be about.
I made Rascal with a stronger armature (except in the wings) because I anticipate that he will get some posing during his lifetime. He’s also more densely felted than the other recent dragons again because I expect he will get more handling and repositioning.
Wow, what a fantastic creation!
After a recent frustrating attempt at needle felting, I am so impressed with this!
So much skill and patience involved in making the little ost (and I added a new word to my vocabulary)
tiny eggs for a little Easter basket for a swap –
and yes! I was wishing I had had some type of thimbles to protect the fingers…
I think my problem was that the videos I watched looked like it took 5 seconds to complete, which wasn’t the case in reality felted eggs photo by my swap partner
I wound up buying a couple of kits during my research on this craft, so I may give it another shot…
