The Mouse Nativity (11/12 November 2010)

The Mouse Nativity

18 November 2010
First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to Ruth, a lovely lady I recently met on Flickr after being introduced by another lovely lady, Janet, who I met at the Saltaire Makers' Fair in September (don't you just love the internet?!) It turns out that Ruth is a great fan of my wee mice, and after some creative exchanges, I went off and came up with The Mouse Nativity!



I started with Mary Mouse - I knew she had to be white, with that lovely blue cloak which gives a lovely contrast. The tricky part was cutting the right size of blue shape for her cloak. I rolled back the top to create a shawl effect.

Mary, Joseph and the Baby Chees-us

Joseph Mouse was a little bigger and I created his stripey cloak by layering several thin sheets of different shades of brown and tan clay together, and then cutting thin slices from the resultant cane to create the 'cloth'. I then cut an oval shape by hand (again, this was quite tricky), and rolled out a thin log of black clay for the headband.

Baby Jesus Mouse is very small - all the characters are about 3cm tall, so they're not exactly huge, but to create the right shape for his head was quite challenging! I rolled out a thin sheet of white clay for the swaddling clothes, and his manger was made from a shaped piece of scrap clay coloured with thin slices of a straw-like millefiori cane.

Sheepishly tending their flock

Next up were the three Shepherds. I wanted to make sure that they were all different but still clearly part of a set of three. I did this by having a blue-theme for their head scarves, although each was with a different 'fabric'. I made their crooks up cutting a length of cocktail stick, and then adding a crook shape in tan clay to the top, blending it carefully so that it looked like one piece of wood. The wee sheep is just over 1cm tall and 1.5cm long - he's more reminiscent of the kind of sheep I first made many years ago :)

Pass the parcel

For the Three Kings, again I wanted to make them all different, but still be seen as a threesome. Because of their royal lineage, I used slices from several millefiori canes to create their rich cloaks, and each one has a different crown. I made up the cask carried by the right hand Mouse King by covering a tiny cube of clay with a wood-effect cane, did the same with the lid, and used a 3mm gold plated bead for the clasp. The gold offering carried by the middle Mouse King is a larger gold coloured bead.

Awww!!

Last but not least is Wee Angel Mouse. She is one of my favourite creations so far, and is made up in several stages. First of all, after making the basic mouse shape, I added her halo, which is an 8mm gold plated jump ring, held firmly in place by liquid polymer clay. The halo is perfect for attaching a thread to for a tree decoration.

For her wings, I shaped thin gauge wire into two wing shapes, using my index finger as a guide to get the same diameter for each side. I have found this wonderful material called Fantasy Film, which is a thick resin you can dip wire into which then hardens to create a thin film - I used a crystal clear resin for the angel wings, and then left it to dry for 24 hours before I attaching the wings to the body. A small cream bow finishes them off.

I made the harp by cutting thin strips of gold clay, tapering each end and then curling it into a harp shape. On the reverse side, I attached three short strands of thin gauge wire for the harp strings. Then I tuned each harp to make sure that they were all in the key of D. (Just kidding. Or am I?) The harps are 1.5cm by 1cm.

I'm planning to offer The Mouse Nativity on a part-work basis, where you can buy one piece a month so that you have the full collection for next Christmas. More on that story later.

If you would like to buy Wee Angel Mice, please contact me - I am making them up to order. Last order date for posting in time for Christmas is 15 December 2010.

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