Halloween Cat Bat

Here's a little paper clay cat bat I made for the Vintage Halloween swap on Craftster. I don't often work with clay, so each time I try, it's a real adventure. He stands about 6" tall, and is dressed to go trick or treating. To help him stand, I bent a wire hanger into a U shape, turned it upside down, and built his body onto the wire with the two ends of the U becoming his legs.

 

The open polka dots on his costume were the result of a happy accident. When I first painted them, I wasn't happy with the color, so I attempted to wipe them off. They had already partially dried, so I was left with a little ring of color that I happened to like. I did the rest of the dots in that same way: putting dots in a small area, and then wiping out the centers. Once he was all painted, I used some ink to dirty him up, and then painted him with glaze to make him shiny.  

My partner in the swap said she liked a bit of humor, so oops! cat bat has lost a button and his little rear end is exposed.

Ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.

Luck of the Irish: A Leprechaun

I did a swap with a friend on Craftster, and one thing she said she'd really like is something Irish.  I saw she had some cute leprechauns posted on Pinterest, and thought it would be fun to try and make her one. I am not a clay person, but I had some paper clay and really wanted to give it a shot. I know a lot of people use foil as the bases for clay things, but for the shape of this guy, I used a plastic Easter egg. The egg was a nice smooth surface to work on. If I were to do it again, I'd glue it shut before working with it, because for a while there, it was popping open and that was a bit frustrating, to say the least.

So here he is, with his lovely egg-shaped figure. I used inks to age him and glaze to make him shiny.

 

My daughter found the rusty shamrock years ago. It's the perfect thing for him to hold, and really helped me deal with the question of what to do with his arms.

Because he was formed over an egg, he didn't sit well at all, until I gave him a bit of a bum.

Here's a closeup of his freckly face.

The Doubtful Guest

I love the works of Edward Gorey. I just participated in a Gorey swap on Craftster.org. It was harder than I thought it would be to think of things to make. I didn't want to try to do illustrations like his; he's definitely one of a kind. I finally settled on trying to recreate The Doubtful Guest, an interesting little fellow that popped up one day and unexpectedly moved in with family, creating chaos and discomfort. I made my doubtful guest out of paperclay. He's a little fatter than the original, but maybe that's because he made himself at home in the pantry and fridge.

 

Instead of trying to paint the texture from the drawing, I drew on the figure with a Sharpie. Actually, a couple of Sharpies; they tend to dry out and die fairly quickly when drawing on paperclay. I was lucky enough to have some black and white striped fabric that was perfect for his scarf. It's even got enough body to it to look like it's flowing out behind him. A painted trinket box from Michaels is the base. I really love the stark black and white: just like a Gorey illustration!

I don't work much with clay at all, but I am pretty happy with this Doubtful Guest. I hope my swap partner liked him as well.