Needle Felted Frog: Folded Hind Legs and Eyes on Top of the Head

Look down on a sitting frog from directly above. The widest part of it is not the shoulders and not the belly — it is the two knees, standing out either side and level with the back. Each hind leg is folded into a flat Z pressed against the flank, and that fold is what puts them there.

Now look at the same frog from the front. The eyes are not in the face at all. They sit on top of the skull as two separate domes that break its outline, wide apart and well back. Those two features are the animal: legs out sideways with eyes in the middle of the face gives you a small green gecko, and everything else you do afterwards is decoration on a gecko.

What you need

• Core wool — 20 g
• Olive, mid brown and pale cream corriedale — 10 g in total
• A scrap of dark brown or black for eye rims, mouth line and back markings
• 38 gauge needle for shaping, 40 for the surface, 42 for the eyelids if you have one
• Two 15 cm pipe cleaners or lengths of 1 mm florist's wire — only for frogs over 7 cm
• Optional: 4 mm gold or copper glass eyes on wire

Building the frog

1. Roll the body. Start with a firm mass of core wool about 6 cm long and needle it into a rounded triangle seen from above — widest at the shoulders, narrowing to a blunt rear. It is a felted ball squashed along one axis.
2. Flatten the underside. Work the belly against the mat until the frog sits without rocking. The body should be roughly twice as wide as it is tall.
3. Continue the head out of the body. There is no neck. Needle the front third into a flattened wedge running on from the shoulders to a blunt snout. Keep the top of the skull flat.
4. Cut in the mouth line. One deep groove with the 40 gauge needle, from the snout tip back along the side of the head to below the eye, curving up slightly at the corner. Go over it twenty or thirty times so it holds.
5. Make the front legs. Two short straight sausages about 2 cm long, a slight bend at the elbow, four blunt toes at the end. Attach them close together under the chest, nearly vertical.
6. Make the hind legs. Each is three roughly equal segments — thigh, shin, foot — folded into a Z. Build both as described below and check them against each other before attaching.
7. Attach the hind legs high. They join at the top of the flank, not the bottom, so the folded knee stands level with or above the back line. Press each leg flat to the body and needle through the thigh into the flank from several angles.
8. Colour the frog. Olive over the back and the outer faces of all four legs, fading through mid brown on the flanks to cream on the throat and belly. Blend that boundary rather than laying it as a stripe: on a smooth surface every hard edge shows, so blending wool colours matters more here than on a furry animal.
9. Build the eyes last. Two domes on top of the skull, wide apart and well back. This step decides whether it reads as a frog at all.

The folded hind leg

From the side, the hind leg is a flattened Z. The thigh runs forward and upward from the hip, so the knee ends up alongside the mid-flank, a little behind the shoulder, and above the back line. The shin folds back down and rearward. The ankle then turns the long foot forward again, so the toes point along the body, roughly under the frog's middle.

That is what puts the knees at the widest point. Legs at ninety degrees to the body are the lizard pose; legs trailing straight behind are the swimming pose. Neither belongs on a sitting frog, so settle the leg position before you lay a single veil of olive over anything.

Felting the fold solid

For frogs up to about 7 cm of body, make each hind leg as one piece with the bends felted in. Roll a long thin sausage, leave 1 cm loose at one end for attaching, then fold at the knee and needle straight through the fold from both faces. The fibres lock across the bend and the joint stiffens as it compacts. Fold again at the ankle. Firm the leg hard afterwards, because a soft fold opens out under its own weight.

This is quicker, has no wire ends to work their way out, and at small scale the leg cannot sag. It is also the only sensible choice for anything a child will handle.

A wire armature

Above about 7 cm, felt alone will not hold the fold. Bend one pipe cleaner into the Z — thigh, shin, foot — leaving a straight tail at the hip end to push into the body. Wrap the wire thinly before adding bulk, or the wool will spin around it. Build the thigh thick, the shin tapering, the foot flat and wide.

The advantage is that you can adjust the knee angle after the frog is coloured, which is worth a great deal when the two legs do not match; the method is in wire armature for needle felting. Never mix the two on one frog: a wired leg and a solid leg firm up differently and the frog sits crooked.

The eyes sit on top

Build each eye as a separate ball of core wool about 5 mm across and needle it onto the top of the skull rather than into it. It should stand proud, so a profile view shows two clear bumps above the flat line of the head. Set them wide, near the outer edge of the skull, and well back.

Then skin each dome: a thin veil of olive over the outer half and a dark lid line around the lower edge. With glass eyes, sink them into the front face of the dome, not the top, and rim each with a fine dark line so the colour does not float — see needle felting eyes. Last, add the tympanum, a flat disc slightly smaller than the eye, just behind and below it.

Common problems

• It looks like a lizard. The hind legs are splayed and the eyes are on the face. Detach the legs, fold them, and move the eyes on top of the skull.
• The frog sits back on its rear. The front legs are too short or angled forward. They should be near vertical and long enough to lift the chest clear.
• The folded knee droops. The fold was needled from one face only, or the leg is under-felted. Work through it from both sides, or move up to wire.
• The head looks like a separate ball. You built it as one. Needle the join away entirely — the skull is a continuation of the body, with no step and no neck.
• The green looks like felt-tip. Flat single-shade olive. Mix in brown and a little grey, and see needle felting mistakes for the other usual suspects.

Variations

• Tree frog. Bright green body, orange feet, and large round toe pads needled as flat discs. The eyes are much bigger and redder.
• Toad. Wider, flatter, browner, with a lumpy back made by needling small balls on before the final colour.
• Mid-leap. Hind legs straight back, front legs forward. Needs wire in all four limbs and a stand.
• Palm-sized frog. A 4 cm body with the legs folded and felted solid, no wire anywhere. About forty minutes, and at that scale the fold physically cannot sag.
• Frog on a lily pad. A flat felted disc with a wedge notch cut out, which also solves balance for good.

The folded-limb trick transfers to any animal that tucks its legs, and the smooth blended surface is the same skill as a bee. For the opposite problem — easy silhouette, hard surface — try an owl or needle felted animals for beginners.