Mortimer

Ethel's Komondor pup, temporarily named "Mortimer", is nearly finished. He just needs a tail...

Dog Gone It

Because Ethel's dog ultimately gets struck by lightning, I did not want to make him out of clay. I bought faux fur, "craft fur" thinking I could get a Fantastic Mr. Fox effect for the dog character, but no... the scale of the craft fur was too large. That said, I decided to stylize the dog. Why not have him be a mop top mutt (a Hungarian Komondor)?! Taking inspiration from the photo to the left, I began crafting Ethel's canine companion - whom we'll tentatively refer to as "Noodle". I built an armature (skeleton) out of wire, floral tape and foam (the usual line-up) and then covered the body with thin strands of yarn. Noodle's head isn't on yet - I need to form one out of clay. Don't be scared.

Arf-Arf...

"Do the doggy bounce... Arf! Arf! You know you wanna do it..."

Built the doggy skeleton and am now covering it with Sculpey III. I'd originally wanted to have the dog be black (like Beans!), however, I ended up settling for a shade of cocoa (#1657) out of fear that black would be difficult to photograph. As you can see, I've still got loads of work remaining (the dog's coat needs to be smoothed out, its collar still needs to be made, eyesballs would be lovely, and then ooh, a nose would be nice)... Aaaaaargh. What I would give to go to bed NOW!