This has been a busy week family wise. Lots to do around the house and school : ) I have been planning to redo the mouse and have made the pattern bigger and plan to use costume suede on the paws. Not as elegant but a lot easier to turn if I have to make plenty of them. I have also developed a pattern for a dragon that stands about 20" tall and am going to start making him too. This will be my first fuzzy prototype.

Been making more bears, and elephants...
I am trying a new thing for me. I want to make a cloth doll. I am planning a fairy in the style of Patti Medaris Culea- not a doll to play with but hers are so beautiful I have to try. Got a book written by her for my birthday and have been off playing with the fairies in my mind since ;)

Pirate mouse minus his bandana! He is as finished as I am going to get on him. E has already adopted him : )
He is way too tough for me to want to make 18 of these little guys. I used tiny safety joints as we have young kids at the party. The smaller they are the harder they are to assemble.

 

Step seven: Making a hole for the joints. I use a sharp awl and then put a spot of fray check on the hole to make sure it can handle some rough play and not stretch open. Nothing like an arm falling off to ruin your day!

 Step eight: All the joints are in place in the head, arms and legs. The white dots are where they come through the fur to go into the body. They were hard to place being so small. I like to finish the head totally before I do the rest of the body. To me the head is the first thing that will attract you to a creation and if it is not right it is not worth moving forward just to finish something.

 

 

Step nine: The body has been assembled, stuffed and finished. The little nose is needle felted on. I like using corriedale wool from Weir dolls and crafts. The wool is USA in source and quite lovely in color and texture. We added whiskers and he is done.

 

 

As I have already said. This is way too much fiddly work to want to make 18 of these. If all the kids come to the party that E wants to invite- we will be at 24 of them. I think a simpler mouse with no joints might be in order.

 

I found a lovely coloring in page of a pirates treasure chest so I plan to use that on the outside of the invitation. At least I have plenty of time for this. Right- on to design and make a pattern for the next pirate mouse attempt.

 

We settled on a cake- a sunken ship with a mermaid and treasure chest by it. I hope fondant sculpts as easy as Fimo clay...

Step three: Sew all the parts together. The seam allowance is tiny! 2 mm in width. This took a lot of time- if anything shifted it had to be redone. Maybe hand sewing would be easier?

Step four: When all the parts are sewn I turn them and check the seams again. Repairing any that are not good or not strong enough. The foot pads have to be hand sewn on.

Step five:

Prepare the airbrush kit! I use a special copic spray can with a copic marker. I have taken the ear pieces and stuck them to paper with double sided tape. This keeps them still as the blast of air from the can is quite strong and I do not want to be chasing pieces. First I spray the outer ear in bark brown. Practice before you spray your ear. Shading is not hard with this set up, but be sure you can do this before you spray your leather. Or cut out new ears : ) I used chamois leather for these ears.

When this is dry I turn the ears over and use the tape to hold them in place again. I use the marker itself, in bark brown, to outline the ear, and then use peach in the copic spray gun to do the inner part.

Step six: Lay all the turned pieces out and make sure you have your joints handy.

Now we stuff and joint....

I have started the pirate mouse!

Step one:
Trace the pattern onto fabric- since it is plush fur, I trace onto the back and be careful to cut the backing only.

Step two:
Lay out all the parts to make sure you have all that you need

 

 

Now I can start to sew it together. I am having a hard time with the pink ultrasuede as it is hard to turn as the parts are so small. Maybe on the next one I will try fleece? I am going to have to make about 18 of these....

My current challenge is to plan a pink pirate party on a budget. I have time as the party in in December. So far the ideas from Eden are: to make a small mouse dressed as a pirate as a party favor for each little girl and putting them into a handmade drawstring bag with their name on. I am thinking we should do a treasure hunt to find them. How to make a treasure chest? Did pirates use bags to hide loot?

The invite I am planning will be a trasure map on the front with the details on the back. Lots of sparkles and the X spot will have to be pink.

The challenge is how to do it all on a budget : ) Is that not a concern for all moms.

Any ideas?

Shelly

Well, here I am starting a new adventure. I am hoping that by "writing" things down I can clarify for myself what it is I am actually trying to achieve. I have always made toys, even as a kid I loved making marionettes, puppets and monsters. Now I am doing this for real- but making artist bears, other animals- oh - and monsters. At 40+ this is a whole new way to have a childhood : ) Never mind a mid life crisis, I am back to being a kid again.

I started an Etsy shop in March. EdenandFriends- yes, all one word. So far it has been easy to list creations and maintain the page. The Etsy teams do make it easy.

Peter, the detective bear

 

I am hoping that my bears are liked as they are original and the way O work i would be hard pressed to make more than one alike. As an artist I worry about the price I charge, is it well made, what should I do next? I also have a bit of a complex about skill level and is my work good enough. Always good to hear if it is. Let me know what you think of my first needle felted bear...
love to all, off to take care of family

Shelly