Steve Jobs Reportedly Felting Better

As a socially responsible nerd, I consider it part of my duties to find cool software and share it with you all, uncover big business' security lapses, and help friends and family out with their personal computing problems. It was in this last capacity that I found myself spending a few days remote accessing a computer that belonged to the parents of an old and close friend, reinstalling software, replacing lost (but fortunately backed up) files, and setting up a security plan after Dell's stellar, one-size-fits-all-problems advice to simply reformat and reinstall Windows.

Knowing I spent a lot of time on their computer, they tried to compensate me, but I refused (as any self-respecting nerd would, for friends). A week and a couple problems later, though, I decided I could reasonably ask for a favor in return. My friend's mother, Marguerite, produces the most exquisite needle felted dolls and I've been dying to ask her to make one for me for ages.

Although she had never felted the realistic likeness of a human before, Marguerite took on the task of felting me a beautiful Steve Jobs doll from this well-known portrait of him. And boy, was it a task. Marguerite told me, "Steve took me 50 hours, 30 of which were spent on his face. Roland [in the first photo above] took me about 17 hours, so much less because I didn't need to make him look like anyone specific. I could more or less go with whatever he turned out to be." All that time certainly shows in these photos. Thanks, Marguerite!


View more of Marguerite's felting.