Spotlight

Would you like to meet some of the soft sculpture characters in the display cases here at the Flying Leap?  

Our landing on the second floor provides a great location for a little display area, and here's where the Scratching at the Window
creatures who are looking for new homes await adoption.  All were handmade by me from my own original designs.

Of course, it's hard not to be up-staged by a dragon with a 6-foot wingspan!  Fawn impressively oversees the landing as you climb up the stairs.  She took 2 1/2 years to construct and is not looking for a new home.




In the display case await the lady bears, with Lorelei the Merbear on the top shelf,  Emralda and Annette on the middle and Venus, Caviara and Seian on the third.

 Venus, Annette and Emralda are all about 14 inches tall, made of European mohair and built over a wire frame so they're very poseable.  They have glass eyes and doll wigs, and handmade costumes that were a lot of fun to create! 

Here's Seian as a bellydancer.  She also is not looking for a home.

 On the wooden shelf, we have 

Cere and Bella, two ratty brothers

Devina, a lady rat in her Hallowe'en best

Squirt and his mom Pearl

and my Titanic bear, with the commemorative 100th anniversary postage stamp.

If your keen to know more about these critters, please visit my Scratching at the Window website.  As you'll probably notice, some of the girls are not there yet so just contact me and I'll send you the adoption details.

Suffocatingly slow... but progress!

I thought this would be a good Winter for the bears but they always seem to get bumped, it really makes me question my devotion to making critters... I started these three in December and they are still not finished, although they are finally ready to have their papier maché masks made!  

Instead of attaching their heads to their bodies, I've decided to keep them separate (so they can't get damaged by dribbling glue), inserting their neck rods into boxes.  This way I can work on the masks better and have them dry in a safe way.  

Mosel, the completed white bear, is also getting a mask.  This way I can use the three best and experiment on one of them.   

No, they don't like being wrapped in Saran Wrap so maybe this will motivate me to hurry up!

3 little faces!!

Are they not adorable?  

Angelina, Spiro and Samuel are coming to life!  They now even have ears and I'm stuffing their legs!  It was a productive weekend.

3 on the way

This is the scene in my studio the last few days!  My 3 Day of the Dead bears are coming together!  In this first photo most of the machine sewing is done and I'm working on the foot pads, which I always do by hand to get just the right curvature.

And here, after the feet are finished, the noses are being worked on.  This is my first time working on multiple bears at once and I have to say it's easier than doing them singly.  Especially with the noses, I started on one and it was tough, then I began the second and it was easier and then the third was stitch-stitch-stitch and it was done!

And once the noses are on their way, I put in eyes to get a real feel for what was going right and what needed work (like those darn noses).  After trying colored eyes and different sizes, all 3 went for black 9mm, which will help make them have a more uniform look and together they will sit as a mini collection. 

  

This will be Spiro, Angelina and Samuel!

In the beginning...

We were at Michaels on the weekend, with our trusty coupons.  Did you see us?  We were the ones buying everything NOT Christmas, all the orange paper, orange ribbon, Monarchs, etc... and the huge 2 x 3 foot frame for my Trick 'r Treat poster.  It now is framed, hung and gorgeous!  

This poster is an inspiration, we're already planning what we'll do for Hallowe'en 2014!

 

 
Well, our entire Los Angeles trip was an inspiration and I've started working on three bears that will be Day of the Dead bears.  The male will be black, the female white (oh so soft!) and traditionally decorated/dressed.  The third will be orange, a Hallowe'en/Day of the Dead mixture.  All will have removable paper maché masks. 

Perhaps a little too ambitious but it's brewing:  how about a creepy caged rat?  I'm drawn to this creature made by etsy artist YoltansArt and since I already make rats this could be a very cool new extension of my critters to make a Hallowe'en prop for my haunt in 2014.  We'll see...      

Onward!

So, what's next?

Well, as you may know, rats are my "thing" and I'd be foolish to show up without any, so 2 rats are in the works! A milk chocolate and an old-bone white!

Also a bear, a bare Teddy bear in black with a raspberry nose. I bought this gorgeous multi-tone raspberry Pearl cotton years ago and will now create the bear! Some ideas just take time to re-surface...

It was a productive day, pinning and cutting these 3 critters. I'm listening to Stephen King's "The Green Mile" and this ordinarily somewhat tedious task has been flying along: what a Master storyteller! Mr. King is truly awesome!