365/2013 - Day 328

close to done

I think this guy might be close to done (if not all the way done).  Yay!

He doesn't look much like what I half-thought he might look like when we started out together.  Today he let me know how he wanted his hands finished.  I chose the look of his feet and (what turned out to be) cuffed pants.  I am very pleased with today's work.  Very.

"These...cut the tips off of theeeeeese...they will fit...trust me."

The edge of his hand/arm "before".

First hand with fingers...or claws.

He was right...they did fit.

Second hand...I finally caught on how to tame the edge of the clipped part after six fingers...seven and eight look better.

This is what I ended up with after about seven different looks...I had a couple of leftover fingers from the gloves that his head is made of.

A couple of years ago Andi made a cover for a tall cupboard I was using next to the Art-o-mat machine for a short stay in Northville...before Greeny moved to the Art House.  I've been cannibalizing the material for a while now and I still  have some of the edging.

I cut some of the machine stitched hem and folded it over and stitched it together...for me, those are teensy stitches...crampy hands after that bit!

But I like the result very much -- to me it looks like his paws/feetys are made of the same material as his head and his orange pants have finished cuffs...the fabric comes close to matching.

Ta-daaaaaa -- I think he might be done!

If I do any more to him it will just be little tweaks I think...I really like him a lot.

365 Day 360 -- part 5

experimental arms for an experimental plaster cloth dog

Okay -- one last quick project for tonight!

I made arms for the dog. I wanted them to be simple but I didn't want to spend as much time on them as I did on Chime Cat's arms. Although Chime Cat has simple-looking arms, they took me a long time to make and they frustrated me a bit because they are not even...but I guess that is part of Chime Cat's charm.






For these arms/paws I decided to skip the claws because there will be plenty of stuff to look at with the tie and clothes. And like I said, I wanted arms similar to Chime Cat.


I used one of those swimming pool floaty bopper things and cut it in half. I used two super long paint stirs for underneath to keep their straight shape. Three layers on top and bottom, then three layers of triangles to hold the plastic caps (thanks, Suzanne!) on and that was that.


I used vinyl exam gloves for this project to see how it would go with gloves on. I tried it once before with a different brand (size large) and the fingertips were too long. These are also a size large but are a little smaller. I still need a medium to fit better. But man -- what a joy! They even kept the plaster cloth wetter and slid the plaster around easier...I guess my hands absorb it. AND I don't have to soak and scrub the plaster residue off of my hands...yay!


I gave the arms rounded paws and cuffs for the sleeves. Even though they weigh a LOT, I think they will be fine. I like how they look.

I am going to have to do the smoothing and tweaking layers to the dog before I put on the arms and the collar and tie. But I am done for tonight!