Wedded Bliss Part 1

Michelle and Paul's wedding mice

10th August 2012
I consider it a great honour when I'm asked to make wee creatures to perch on the top of a wedding cake. To be a part of someone's special day is a big thing, even if it's only a small part, and I love working with people to come up with just the perfect design.  I've clocked up quite a few now, so I'm going to take a look at some of the ones I've made over a couple of posts.

Halloween Special 2011

19th October 2011
I have to say that it doesn't feel like a year since I did my last Halloween Special post. (Well, technically speaking, it's not quite a year, but let's not quibble about it.)

And so the Quernus menagerie has evolved over the past year, and they have taken playing with accessories to new extremes. So I'm delighted to introduce this year's Halloween creatures!

Happy New Year!

4 January 2011
For the first post of 2011, I thought it would be nice to look at all things New, and what better new things are there than babies? Not just any babies, of course, but baby mice in particular :) For those of you who visit my Facebook page, you may have seen some of these before, but this is the first time they've been gathered altogether in one cute bundle of fun.

Police Mole (b.14 April 2010)

'ello, 'ello 'ello, what's all this then? This is Police Mole, that's what! Police Mole came about as a commission request through the website from Laura, a friend of Eloise, who had seen Dr Mole.

I spent quite a bit of time researching the shape of the helmet, and making sure it was as accurate as possible. Ditto the shield on the front, which I made up with metallic silver clay. For the truncheon, I used brown clay with a wire armature inside to keep it strong, and of course it had to have a wrist strap :)

Evenin' all!

Wee Moles and Tiny Moles (b.1 April 2010)

I normally write about my creations in date order (and I have about 25 to catch up on for March!), but I am just so excited about my new moles that I had to share them with you!

After the fun of making up the Mole Family and Dr Mole, I went a bit mad and made up lots more moles! Not only did I make up another Mole Family (this time with props - love that little Baby Mole!), but six Wee Moles and seven Tiny Moles are now proud to join the Wee Beasties range!

I have pretty much perfected the millefiori cane fur technique. In the food processor, I chopped up a selection of grey and black clay, and once this was finely chopped and mixed, I rolled it out and cut it in half, stacking the halves on top of each other. After repeating this process three times, I then formed a square cane and reduced it down so it was about 20cm long. I cut this cane into four equal lengths, and then stacked the four pieces into another square cane.

The difference this time was that I made sure the strands of clay were all facing in the same direction (previously I have set the strands at right angles to each other). I flipped the four lengths over a couple of times so that the strands weren't uniform, and then I reduced that square cane down again.

Once I had the cane made up (and that took just over an hour), I made up small balls of clay of differing dimensions and set about covering them with very thin slices from the cane. Once the slices covered the ball of clay, I rolled it carefully in my hands to blend the slices without distoring the pattern too much. Then I shaped the clay into that gorgeous mole shape!

The feet and paws (and noses) were shaped from beige Super Sculpey, which gives a great translucent quality. Wee Moles are 3cm tall and Tiny Moles are about 2.5cm (although I did make a few that were 2cm tall - just too cute!)

You can buy Wee Moles and Tiny Moles in my Folksy shop, and they will also be making their debut at the Easter Crafts Festival at Duncombe Park in Helmsley on 4 and 5 April 2010! (I'll be there too, of course...)

Mole Family (b.28 February 2010)

I have a confession to make. I have fallen in love with Dr Mole. I love everything about him - the rotund shape, his moley paws, his furriness, his wee pink nose - basically, I am just a big fan of moles!

After making Dr Mole, I had quite a lot of the fur effect cane left over, and so I went a bit mole-mad and made up a whole family of them. And of course, being me, I wanted to see how small I could make them!

The largest mole stands 4cm tall, whereas the wee baby one (who is clearly very fidgety and just wants to go out and play) is just under 1.5cm tall. Making the paws for the smaller moles got quite fiddly, the beige Super Sculpey is just perfect for mole paws.

I took the Mole Family to the Ilkley Arts Market on 13 March, and sold them that day. I'm looking forward to making up the next batch of moles - they are just too cute not to be making a regular appearance!

Dr Mole (b.14 February 2010)

Dr Mole came into being as a result of an email through Folksy from Eloise, a lovely girl who had previously bought a Wee Sheep and a Cozy Reindeer Cat to cheer up her friend.

Eloise's dad has just heroically completed 30 years as a GP, and she wanted to mark the occasion. He does a skin cancer clinic, and Eloise wondered if it would be possible to do a mole (and just to be clear, we're talking about the cute, furry kind that digs up your garden). I hadn't made moles before, but straight away I could visualise how this wee character would look.

To get the right fur effect, I played around with the Starry Night cane technique and took it several steps further than I had before. I roughly chopped up black and grey clay and then whizzed it up in the blender (one of my best purchases!) Once it was finely chopped, I pressed the clay pieces back together and rolled them through the pasta machine. I kept cutting the sheet in half, stacking the halves on top of each other, and rolling it through again. I did this more often than I have done before, and the resulting cane was full of very small, thin, fine strands of the different clay colours.

And I didn't stop there! Once I had stacked the cut slabs into a cane, I then reduced the cane, cut it into four equal lengths and stacked them back together again. I then reduced this cane down again by stretching and pressing the square cane, and cut that cane into four equal lengths, repeating the process. This gave a even finer cane of small fine strands of clay, and gave a much more realistic fur effect than I've achieved before.

Once I had made by the fur cane, I covered a ball of clay with thin slices taken from the cane, and then rolled the ball gently in my hands to blend the slices together. I was careful not to blend the clay too much, or the fine fur effect would have been lost. (As it is, it's quite difficult to see on these photos, but take it from me - it definitely looks like fur close up!)

The mole shape itself came very naturally - it's such a lovely shape to make! - and I cut the hands and feet from Super Sculpey beige clay, which has a wonderful flesh tone to it. (I use it for cat noses too.) 'Dressing' Dr Mole was fun too - the stethoscope was made out of silver and black clay, and the doctor's bag out of brown clay. And I made the glasses by wrapping some thinnish wire on round plyers (that was a little trickier). And overall, I love the effect - he's one of my favourite characters, and Wee Moles will definitely join the Quernus ranks!