My sister called me last night, and asked if I had the time and inclination to make her three Christmas gifts for her co-workers (and she'd pay me for the supplies and work).
They've been teasing her about being creeped out by squirrels, clowns, and flying things, and have been teasing her about having to watch out for "flying clown squirrels." So she wanted to know if I could crochet, sew, or otherwise craft three clown squirrels with wings to give as Christmas gifts.
Usually I make Christmas gifts for everyone in the family, and am busy right up to the last minute, but this year the budget is super tight and with our move in October and health problems this year, we just didn't have the time, money, or drive to get individual gifts made, So this year, we're making family gift baskets of homemade jerky and local cheese. I have about a week or two before I start making the jerky, so I accepted the challenge.
I decided on polymer clay, because I had all the supplies on hand (we originally talked about crochet or sewn stuffed animals, so I called her back to make sure clay sculptures were ok). I asked her if she'd like one too (as my gift to her) and she did. Of course, once I started making them, I wanted one too.
So most of today I spent sculpting small squirrels (each about 2.5 inches tall), out of brown Fimo.
I baked them tonight, and tomorrow I'll paint on the little clown faces, glue or paint on eyes, glue on red bead noses, and make hats, collars, and attach little wings (haven't decided whether I'm going to make those or go to Michael's and try to find tiny little wire or feather wings.
My hands are killing me from all the kneading, and my lower back from sitting too long...
but, they're so darned CUTE! I made them assembly line fashion, but gave each a unique expression.posture by placing or posing the heads, tails, paws, and ears differently.
Now I'm wanting to make Christmas ornaments for everybody in the family. That's 16 Christmas ornaments though, unless I make only for my family this year (9) and hubby's family next year (7).
Maybe I'll do all squirrels, but more Christmassy squirrels - maybe even Christmassy squirrel clowns, but without the wings I think - those itty bitty wings are going to be an (insert expletive of your choice).
i agree- i would love to see the pictures! and i also want to say i love how creative you are - you totally inspire me!! now i think that it'd be cool to make ornaments for everyone.
I do ornaments for my family and DH's family. One year I painted santa faces on glass balls- 20 of them. I started to lose my mind... all of those santa faces, propped up on the table drying. I felt like they were mocking me!
Now, going on 12 years, I'm having some artists block! It's getting harder and harder to decide what to do. I usually paint something or do polymer clay. You are right about your hands killing you from the kneading!
that's really funny. great idea, creative. I'm not super crafty, and my knitting isn't fast enough to make a lot of gifts (plus, most my family lives in warm 365days a year California). I'd love to see a pic too.
I'm a little "too" crafty. I get so many great ideas, but sometimes the execution is the problem. I've had some interesting craft disasters, like the time I left the bathroom looking like a crime-scene, because I decided to dye some fashion dolls (One of the Josie and the kittycats dolls, I believe) a nice dark, caramel-colored skin tone to make her look more African American. The dolls were like barbies, but with a softer vinyl body, and because of the inner armateur (which I wasn't aware of) and inconsistent vinyl thickness, some parts of the doll ended up absorbing more dye than others.
The dolls ended up looking like domestic-violence barbie (she looked great in clothing, but had deep "bruises" on her thighs).
When I poured out the dye in the tub (even rinsing immediately), it soaked into the old tub's porcelain, in rust-colored spatters. And, of course we had no bleach. It was late, hubby was out with his friends for "boy's night," so clean-up was going to have to wait until I could get to the store for some bleach - but I didn't want hubby finding the "crime-scene" and thinking I'd been hurt (or had committed a grisley murder), so I called him and told him what happens.
He still teases me about it, especially since apparently my first words were "Don't get mad, but..." (which is funny, because hubby tends to be a bit on the passive-aggressive side and if we do argue, it's usually me turning a discussion into an argument that he's trying desperately to avoid).
You'd think I'd learned my lesson, but I decided to "get creative" with my own hair and dye it red (in that same bathroom). This time the tub was spared, but I got red hair dye on the cream-colored bathroom carpeting (why do apartments always carpet in shades of white?)
Needless to say, we did not get our security deposit back in that apartment though we didn't feel to badly when we saw how the neighbors across the hall had left their apartment. FIVE poodles, and a ferret - and apparently none of the poodles weren't potty (or even paper) trained. I don't know about the ferret. Every month or so, usually after we'd been gone longer than usual, our cat would leave "presents" at the door (we thought because she was mad we had left her so long), but in hindsight, we think she was trying to respond to the poodle stench by marking her territory.
I noticed in my post, that "Josie and the ____ cats" was misrepresented as Josie and the Kittycats.
I thought I must have made a typo, so I went in to edit, and found it correct in my post.
It took me a moment to realize it was the censor program at work. It's funny because whenever that happens, it makes an innocent word seem dirty to me. Like when I once saw fruit cocktail switched to fruit roostertail (I believe on another site, not this one).
Now I can't see fruit cocktail on a buffet without thinking "roostertail."
I'll try to take pics tomorrow, and try to figure out how to hook the digital camera to the computer.
These little buggers were more of a challenge than I expected. Luckily I made five, because one had a fatal accident, and one had a close call (I had to paint a clown suit and shoes on his body to cover a gluing accident).
So I've got one dressed clown and three naked ones (except for the ruff around each's neck). So my sister gets a dressed squirrel clown and her coworkers will get the nekkid ones.
I like the dressed clown best - but I am definitely NOT painting clothes on the remaining three.
I also made a turtle charm as a birthday present for my other sister (she collects turtles).
Yeah I can't wait for pics! You know creative people always (well mostly) create messes...cuz that is the creative part. We are like chemists with experiments. Oh what fun!
Five flying clown squirrels for Christmas
