Santa Progress

Just a bit of explanation of how

I put the bodies together.

So I made myself a little graph

that you see lying below the bodies.

  This way they will be accurately

proportioned.  The body is usually

8 heads tall.  This is how

I figure out his height and arm length.  

 

 

 Then the body parts are wired together

and then held in place with

duct tape. So it sort of

resembles a wire skeleton.

 

 

Then a rock is taped into the torso.

This gives the doll some

weight and substance.

 

 

 

 

Next batting is wrapped

around all the wire

body parts.

 

 

Once it's adequately quilted

You wrap the body with these

sticky bandage material, found in

all drug stores.

 

 

Then wa~la!  you have

a little bandage body

with pose able arms and legs

 

 

One of them has a longer neck, but I think

it'll be well hidden, by a nice white beard.

 

Next on to the sheep's wool beard, hair

and attaching eye lashes!

 

Am I hearing jingle bells

around the corner??

Yikes!  I hope the clothing won't be too difficult.

 

Introducing Hazel baby..

Would like to introduce you to 11 wk. old Hazel. 

 

 

So I felt like my Boo (his nickname) was sad

with the loss of Gwennie

 

 

All he did was hang out in her cage...

 

 

Even when I would force to  him downstairs, he

would hop back upstairs to his comfort zone.

 

So I looked at rescues for a

female Flemish giant and

 there were none to be found.

Benny is different from any other

 bun I've ever had. He's just very timid of 

everything.  It's just his personality.

  I didn't want a dominant female that

was set in her ways.  So I was thinking a

baby female Flemish Giant

might be easiest for the bonding process.

Giants are known for their gentleness.

 

 

This is the view from the top of her cage when they first met

 

 

Time will tell if I made the right choice. She has odd coloring,

brown and charcoal grey.  She came from 2 all white, pink eyed

parents.  Weird eh?

 

 

She's a smart little girl and has already learned her name

and will come when I call her. She's sweet

and affectionate with bunny licks.

 

 

She wants to bond with him, but

I have to say Benny has surprised me

and is showing that he's being territorial.

Which scares me due to his size, compared to hers.

I'm a nervous Nelly about the whole bonding thing.

I've had some serious bunny fighting injuries

in the past with other buns and don't

want to see it repeated. 

 

Just when I think "oh this will be a piece of cake," Benny shows

some displeasure and I have to swoop Hazel up.

Argh! Stressfull!   Wish I could just load them up,

drop them off to a professional bonder, and let them handle it

in an different location where they don't feel is

their territory and be done with it.

 

I'm going out of my way to make sure Ben knows he's the

top boy.  With cooler temps he got to go out in my

veggie garden for a change of scenery.

 

 

 

 

Hazel is all potty trained and yesterday was her first

day of being allowed out of her house all day

while I went to work. She will be spayed when she is old enough.

  She is in my art room, while

Benny has free reign of the house.  Like I said though

he just spends his day in his comfort zone, the bunny bedroom.

 

Fingers crossed on the whole bonding thing...

Any tips or input from you would be greatly

welcomed and appreciated!

 

 

Feels like lately I am spinning my wheels but getting no where.
With my projects and to do lists.  I have had paint
for my garage door now sitting by the door for over a month.
When I'm off it's either too hot or raining.  But it's on the list!

 

Here is one of my latest projects...progress.

but to understand the end vision, you need to see 

my Santa I made about 4 yrs. ago.

 



 

He sits about 20" tall,  I molded his face, hands and feet

out of polymer clay.  I am not a seamstress so

I kind of made my own

pattern for his clothes

and stitched it by hand because

I didn't feel comfortable with my sewing machine

sewing so small and in detail.

 

 

I am always teased by my Mom and sister...

"So how come you never make us one??"

 

 

So I decided this year would be the year.

This will be their Christmas gift and since they

never read my blog- I figure it's safe putting it on.

I have over the last couple of months off and on been

sculpting the body parts. 

 

 

 So this is the beginning.  I use Polymer clay which
you can bake in your oven.

I mold the doll skull out of tinfoil
 and on to a wire.  Then mold the clay over the  tinfoil.

You can see the first  head  I'm
 holding while the second skull is behind it on the table.

This part takes a while.  Molding and
getting the wrinkles.  I know he looks a bit creepy
at this point but you have to mentally visualize
rosy cheeks and lips plus hair and eyelashes.

 

The eyes I ordered online and

are actually flat glass eyes

that can be baked in with the heads.

I also sculpted hands on wires.  Below they

are getting ready to be baked.

If you are interested you can find
all kinds of info and supplies

on-line.  That's how I started.  I saw one
in am Christmas magazine and I

googled info on it. 

look for "polymer art dolls"

 

  

 

10- 15 min in a 275 degree oven and they

are all done and hard.

 

Next I tried to find boots on-line but I couldn't

find anything that I envisioned in my

head so I got some brown polymer clay and molded

my own.

 

 

All baked!

 

 

All these wires will be put together

and a body will be built.  I will show how it comes together

 as I go along.

 

Plus over the years I've been collecting props at garage sales.

A sled here, toys to go in his sack, doll chairs.

I have a ton of Santa props piled in my art closet.

 

fingers crossed I'll be done by Christmas....