Two More Animals

In my continuing effort to make the animals for the library, I made a second goat about the size of my first completed goat.  (The very first one I made is on the left, below; the new one I made is in the middle.)  Unfortunately, it goes over the door, and I forgot that I have less space there.  The middle goat head was too big by about 1/8 of an inch. *sigh*  So I made yet another one (the one on the right).   It is only about the size of a dime, and I shaped its base around a piece of the picture rail that runs around the room, so that it can fit over the rail when hung.

Next I moved on to what I initially thought was some species of antelope.  Based on its coloring and lack of markings, however, I've decided it's actually some kind of sheep.  In any event, I only had a picture to work from this time, but I am very pleased with how he turned out.  (OK.  I had one first try that never made it to the baking stage, because I fiddled around with his head for so long that the clay got a little too warm, and his neck basically turned into a ribbon.)  But this guy I like.  😊  I initially had his eyes in the wrong place (more on the top of his head), so I filled them in and did a second short bake, then I used my pin vise to drill holes in the correct place (on the sides of his head).  I actually like the way the drilled holes worked for housing the microbeads.  Here he is painted and ready for flocking.

He was much quicker to flock, because I only needed the powder flock.  There were no "long" fur pieces that I needed to attach.  However, I couldn't find a color of floss I liked, so I used two colors—one a bit darker and one a bit lighter than I wanted.  I pulled each color's six strands of DMC floss apart, then alternated the two colors in the bunch of strands I used for snipping my flock (see steps 12 and 13 in this link).  Together, they made the color I wanted.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the mounting plaque—it's three layers of thin chipboard and one of mahogany scrapbooking paper.  

After I glued him to the plaque with JB Weld, I filled in around the edges with more flock.

My second goat is on the right, above.  He looks a bit fluffier than the first one.  With him, I put a layer of the powder flock all over him before laying down the longer pieces of "fur."  Mountain goats have quite heavy coats, for obvious reasons.  I think I'm going to add a little more powder flock to the face of my first goat.  My brother thinks my goats look a lot like dogs (except for the heavy brows), and there is definitely more of a "cute" factor to all my animals than their real-life counterparts.

From this angle, my sheep/ram looks kind of like a teddy bear.  I guess that's fitting.

I am going to take a break before making the boar's head, for which I want to try the air-dry clay that Brae recommended.  There is at least one more chair to make, probably two.  I received an engraving tool from my mother for Christmas, and there is a carved chair in the library that is calling my name. . . .  😊