Alonso the Armadillo (b.5 August 2010)

16 December 2010
Meet Alonso, the Christmas Armadillo! Well, OK, p'raps not, but I promise there will be a Christmas Armadillo next year :)


You may find Alonso's shell a tad familiar...

Yep, it's the same cane I used for Alonso the Snail, who was adopted quite a while ago from The Snail Emporium. And in fact, this pattern has also made an appearance on a cat...

But back to the Armadillo! Alonso the Armadillo was a commission from Laura, who wanted to give him as a present to her mum. I hadn't made an Armadillo before, but as you know by now, that's never stopped me before :) So I decided that he had to be standing upright, and I attached his arms, legs, ears, head and tail to the body using wire armature for strength.

For the shell, I cut thin, even slices from the cane and laid them out on to a thick sheet of scrap clay, and then cut a large oval shape by hand to curve around his back.

I then cut a smaller piece for his head.

I had a bit of a dilemma about whether to put his eyes at the side of his head armour, or on top. And he had to have little claws too, which aren't at all scary. I finished his shell off with a couple of coats of gloss varnish.

Alonso the Armadillo is one of my favourite commissions, and his photo even ended up in a German blog dedicated to Armadillos! So I'm looking forward to the Christmas Armadillo next year, and in the meantime, I think I'll have to have a go at an Aardvark. Or indeed any other animal starting with 'A'. Anteater, anyone?!

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