3 kitties

Further to the sculpting a cat post, here's the kitties finished. They're roughly 1:6th, play scale. Made with Puppen fimo and painted and sealed with a matt glaze, then flocked and furred using merino wool, alpaca and tussah silk.

Their names are Kobie

Sully

and Mason.

They were done for Moxie's mum. Who is nuts for having faith in me to do her pets justice. These are the only cats I've furred apart from a little head and the first realistic ones I've done. I've only done two kinda cartoony ones other than that. I guess these still look a bit cartoony, I'm not good enough to get them realistic yet. I'm not very happy with Mason but pretty pleased with the other two. Strangely, Kobie was my favourite sculpt, but my least favourite to fur and Mason was my least favourite sculpt but my favourite to fur.

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A store?

I'm considering opening up a 'store' (etsy, artfire etc) to offer a couple of bits for sale. There'd be a custom dog obviously but I've been creating a couple of other bits that could go in, here's a sneaky peak... Or they will sit on my mantlepiece (Ludo safe) forever more.


I've made some more book buddies, the last litter all sold to rabbits united members with profits going to HoneyBunny's rescue, so thanks to everyone who bought one or more! I've decided that any future ones that might sell will also have a percentage go to rabbit rescue.

In my last clay order I got some sculpey 'bake and bend' clay. I had envisioned this being really rubbery and with a multitude of uses but I think I was being too hopeful. I had to experiment with baking temps to get it right, but it needs to be baked hotter than the puppen fimo I use so my plan to use it in conjunction with that might not work. This bunny has flexible ears anyway. And google eyes from Bree!

I've also decided to try and make some christmas ornaments. I found some cute ribbon at my local haberdashery and thought of making some little angels. Their wings aren't big enough to fly yet so they will have to grab onto the stars to keep from falling from the sky.

Speaking of rabbits someone posted a link to a dolls house rabbit hutch on RU the other day and I was inspired to make a miniature rabbit. I asked for models from RU and picked a bun named Rosie, a netherland dwarf. It was tricky working that small! I prebaked her eyes and ears and kept loosing them on the way out of the oven, they were so tiny. lol. I probably shouldn't have started with such a small breed of rabbit. So here's my 1:12th rabbit. I preferred it before flocking, but it's all a learning curve, needed to make it thinner... I'm going to try some 1:6th ones too. Sorry about the poor picture qualities here, It's dark and dreary and I'm no photographer.

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Sculpting a cat

I thought I'd take some progression photos of my sculpting process. This does change all the time though, especially as this is only my third cat.

I tend to do a quick sketch of how I want it to look (unless I'm copying a specific pose from a photo) Since I'm not familiar with doing cats. I printed off an anatomy and I like to have a picute of the animal I'm creating too. I then make the armature bits and the basic body shape. The tool you can see is my trusty blending spatula. I use the bottom end rather than the knifey bit. It came in a kit with my first clay order.

 

I attach the legs, then create definition, paw pads etc,

I then bake the body so I don't smush it. Usually I will only bake the body if the paws will be on show so that I don't mess them up, otherwise I don't since I am TERRIBLE at attaching unbaked clay to baked clay. I put a bit of wire into the head so I don't need to touch it too much. I make the basic shape with my fingers then mark out the eyes and nose then add the eyes and definition with needle, knife and an embossing tool. Ears come last.

 

Then I try and attach the head, with much aggro. In this case I made the next too long and it kept on bugging me so I had to saw poor Kobie's head off and remove his neck and reattach and file to smooth. That's the joy of polymer clay. :)

Two naked kitties.

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Reilly

I've needed to post Reilly for a while, but one thing and another has stopped me getting to the post office. He's all boxed up now and ready to go.

Pictures are in read more so that Bree can choose not to click if she doesn't want to see.

Reilly's another real fur plush sculture in 1:9th / playscale size. I've made some slight adjustments to the fur, especially round the feet since these were taken but my camera needs batteries. Bree and I were doing a sort of art swap for Reilly. If you read back you'll see Reilly was one of the first dogs I tried to create and send off to the owner so I was pleased to be asked to make an updated version now I've got better. I hope I've done him justice. Bree designed the whole blog look, background buttons etc that you see here for me. She also sent a hugely generous crafty care package along with Reilly's fur. I was so chuffed with all the stuff! I have some pictures...

I was really overwhelmed by the huge package and the best part was a beautiful cd scrapbook of Ludo, I forgot to take photos of that, but it's something I really treasure.


Reilly is a combination of his own fur and some soft wool for the black mixed with his own. Due to to sheltie double coat the colour wasn't rich enough to use just his own fur. He's sculpted from puppenfimo over a wire armature and painted in acrylics. His eyes are glass. and come from glass eyes online his collar is made from ribbon, and trims and fastens with a tiny hook and eye. I got all the supplies for it from Little trimmings.


The sculpting I didn't find too difficut and I really love the depth the little glass eyes give his face. I always picture Reilly as quite regal and important but also very friendly and down to earth with an ever so slightly worried look about him (shelties tend to be kinda scaredy cats) so that's what I tried to sculpt.


Furring him turned out to be more tricky. He's the largest plush figure with long hair I've attempted, which meant his fur had to be cut longer and so it proved more tricky to get to stick. Once I'd got used to the idea of letting a section thoroughly dry though it was ok and he came together quite nicely. I hope I've got his markings right!

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work in progress

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furred cavalier

Oh, btw, I've activated the post summary thing that was there before, so if you click read more you can see the rest of the post.



My first actual proper sized dollhouse miniature. Hooray, I finally got one small enough. I also got a new (well, second hand) camera and I think it makes the pictures look better. This is a cavalier king charles spaniel in a 'froggy doggy' pose. Made with puppen fimo, painted in acrylics with hand painted eyes (I bought a really teeny paintbrush) and applied wool coat and flocking. Here she is naked.


Her nose is a bit wonky but on this occassion I think that's all I'd change.

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needle felting and eyes

I ordered some more needlefelting supplies so I was able to try a couple of projects from this book that I ordered. One of them met it's end in Ludo's mouth before I could take a photo but this one's still alive.



I need to learn to be more careful with the needle I jabbed it right through my thumb. Ouch.

I love the little rabbit and would highly recommend this book to anyone. I'm a complete amateur and it gave clear, uncomplicated instructions and has a good range of projects which are all adorable.


I think I'm ready to order some better quality wools now.

Also, the glass eyes that I ordered arrived very speedily. I ordered some with loops for needle felting sculptures and some on wires for clay sculptures. So far I've only used them in the little rabbit, but they really bring it to life!

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