Darwin the Piecemeal Pony

I made this freaky little guy using scraps recycled from a useless bedsheet, a ruined pair of pajama pants, and some bits of fake fur. He's sewn by hand (and wouldn't have been, if I only had a sewing machine) with cotton floss of various bright colors.

He features mismatched embroidered eyes (one of which is merely a red X), a red spiral on his bum, asymmetrical legs, inside-out ears, and one fluffy hoof. What's not to love?

I named him Darwin because evolution favors freaks and mutants.

The pattern I used (and slightly altered) was courtesy of Nocturnal Equine and his final design was somewhat inspired by Uglydolls.

Anubis mask: Progress pictures

(To see the start of the project, see this post.)

Here is the mask base, all dry and resting on the original clay sculpture. To make the mask form, I used muslin mache - basically just paper mache but with cloth instead of paper and a slightly stronger glue formula. To make it extra sturdy, I coated the mask inside and out with a super-thick layer of Sobo brand glue (non-toxic and non-smelly) and then lined the edges with black duct tape. It is quite flexible and surprisingly strong — it took over an hour just to cut out one of the eye holes.

The ears are not attached yet — they're just there to see how they look proportionally. Anubis is a jackal god, so his ears are quite tall and narrow.

Gold satin glued over the right eye. This will later serve as the swirly markings around his eye.

The ears are also lined with the same gold satin. I cut up a plastic Arizona iced tea jug to form their basic shape — the jug's shape is also the source of the ears' curvature, as well as the droopy tips... which, while I didn't plan for them, I kind of like the way they look.

The head is mostly furred here. The ears still aren't attached, and the nose has not been added yet.
(The deer-crossing sign, by the way, was found lying in the woods near the local college. I didn't steal it off the road or anything.)

With the nose added! It was originally going to be black, either folded leather or Sculpey covered with that rubberized tool-dip stuff. But I was in a hurry, and thought the gold nose added to the stylized look of the head.

Next on the list:

• Figure out an effective way to attach the ears
• Finish (or perhaps scrap and re-start) constructing the lower jaw
• Fur the neck and the back of the head
• Paws and tail!
  

DIY bike saddlebag

Check out my pimpin' new saddlebag, kindly modeled by my steed, Huckabee.

Click for larger image.


Mm, beautiful.

Now that the world knows what brand of peanut butter I prefer... Want to make your own? It's as easy as... well, as finishing a jar of peanut butter. -LINK-

Cardboard coffee table: In progress!

Coffee tables are, if not my favorite furniture, then at least in my top five. DIY and design pages are chock full of awesome coffee tables scrounged, scavenged, and brought to glorious useful life by people who are lucky enough to be able to find either old tables to refurbish or suitable materials.

Me, I had cardboard, a masonite(?) frame I found behind a furniture store, cheap plastic tubing leftover from a Big Box modular shelving unit, and some glue.

I'm in love with the built-in box, though. I only wish it were my idea originally; I first saw it on The Cartonnistes.

The legs are the weakest link, surprisingly; the cardboard top holds up extremely well, especially since I went around all the joined edges using hot glue like caulk and then sealing that over with tape, but keeping the legs connected to the table surface is tricky. A friend of mine suggested a solution involving pie tins that I'm going to try once I get my next paycheck.

I'm also going to decorate it using colored duct tape. Turquoise and blaze orange, anyone?

Anubis Mask: In progress!

Oh man, I'm so stoked about this project I started today. I've had a specific design in mind for an Anubis-esque mask that I've wanted to make for at least a year, but I've never had the resources.

Then a couple days ago I splurged on a big container of cheap air-dry clay, and I spent all this morning getting a good start on it. I made the base out of a duct-tape dummy of my face (naturally I just had one of these lying around), a plastic bottle, and a paper towel roll, and then I plopped myself on the floor and mucked around with clay!

It's been years since I worked with any sort of modeling compound, and what a glorious change of medium it is. What is it about clay that makes you feel compelled to sit on the floor while you're working with it? Something about the earthiness, or is it all the childhood Play-Doh memories it evokes?

Dog Shelf

I made this shelf for my studio out of culled wall shelf units that a former neighbor threw out, a couple of cheapo L brackets, and some paint.

It had to fit well below the windowsill and be high enough that the heater running along the floor wouldn't catch anything on fire. It also had to use almost exclusively things that I already had on hand.

One of the wood pieces had a dark veneer on it. I used this piece for the top shelf. To make the silhouettes, I layered some extra-wide masking tape onto a cutting board, sketched the images onto the tape, then X-acto'd the little buggers out. (I used various images on the web for reference... didn't save the links, though.) The masking-tape dogs got stuck onto the wood, then I painted over the whole thing with glossy, sunshine yellow Rustoleum paint.

The paint has a rubbery texture when dry, and the edges left behind when I peeled up the stencils were fragile. I coated the whole top shelf with matte Mod Podge, which so far has held the dogs' shapes nicely.

The only thing I had to buy for the project were some small metal L brackets that I picked up from the Big Box for about $2. The structure isn't quite as stable as I'd like, but I can always add on later. It's strong enough for my current purposes, anyway.