Character Design!

I whipped out my gouache last night and went to town! I want to try to stay as true to my initial design as possible, which means I'll need to be able to control the hair...and there will be A LOT of hair. Ah, challenges. :)

Me and my resourceful self are considering using this HUGE bag of wool roving for my film. I tried out painting a little needle felted ball with gouache (I'm waiting for it to dry now), just to see how it would look. As far as I can tell now, it looks like it would make some interesting rocks and scenery, but for use on a character...not so much. I'll have to break down and buy some acid dyes to play with.

I'm thinking that I will felt a base for my character and then punch in synthetic hair of some kind (sort of like how they did the hair for Coraline) with wire. This way I can show it blowing in the wind, and bounce a little when they walk. I would love to do it with silicone, but I have a very limited budget, and am trying to use what I've got sitting around here...which is a ton of wool. :D

Any ideas you might have would be crazy helpful! Thanks for reading :)