The Woosels from Scratching at the Window, soft sculpture creations by Karen Waschinski

The Woosels

I very much like domestic ferrets but for various reasons can’t have one as a pet. So, I created my woosels to fill the void. Sort of a combination of ferret and pine marten, woosels are weasels of the type "Mustela stationarius": they don’t obey any command other than "Stay!" but otherwise are very agreeable. I have a mating pair, Woosel and Moon’s Cradle, but their offspring are of an incredible variety and are definitely born to play.

In general, woosels are about 19 inches long (the tail being about 8 inches), made of two or three-tone synthetic fur with a white or off-white belly and coordinated paw pads, hand-painted inner ears, hand-stitched nose, mouth and claws, safety-lock eyes and stuffed with polyester fiberfill. They have flexible spines and their tails are wired. Newborns come in all kinds of colours and even mohair and alpaca woosels have been seen!

Up top on the left in the flowers, that's Womble, a dark two-tone synthetic. Sniffling each other are Trillia, an albino alpaca woosel, and the sire of them all, Woosel, also a dark two-tone synthetic. In the mums getting a close-up, that's Trillia again, a very pretty little girl. Not recommended for young children.