Monday, September 9, 2013

Starting a New Kitten

(Yes this is my small and slightly messy workspace for my soft sculptures. I have a laptop for entertainment, beading wire & duct tape of some sort for armature, jewelry plyers, darning needles, embroidery & fabric scissors, hemostat, tweezers, isopropyl alcohol for clay work, tea and magnesium for headaches)

It's cloudy outside this morning which makes it a perfect time to blog. I actually meant to write this yesterday, but didn't get around to it. The commissioner requested that this kitten be able to reach up for something, so I put my hand to understanding and working armature. This is my first time trying to wiring the limbs and tail, and while I had a general idea of how it was done I could not figure out the specifics on how to get the wiring to stay in one place while stuffing. I went searching in other places and became especially curious on how artist dolls (dolls with resin heads and limbs, but soft pose-able bodies) were assembled. Luckily, Magweno (magweno.com) had an old tutorial that provided some insight. The solution to my problem was to wrap the armature in quilt batting so that I would not have to stuff it afterwards. I would sew one side of the arm, flip it, put the batting wrapped armature in it, and ladder stitch it closed. I am not sure yet if this is more time consuming than how I usually work, but it works very well. The armature doesn't shift and I'm able to pose the arm as I like.

Since then, I have started prepping the face for needle felting, and will work on the later in the week when I have more time. Mondays and Tuesdays are always the busiest days for me.

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