Wee Jet and Wee Tater (b.20 March 2010)

Back in March (it is now the end of May - I am so behind in posting about my creations!), I received an order through my Etsy shop for two custom wee horses. When I received the photographs of Jess and Tater from Carianne, I nearly jumped up and down with delight! I had another chance to make a Wee Appaloosa horse, and a leopard appaloosa to boot!

Because of his white coat, Tater's spots (particularly on his body) had a dark brown centre, which faded to paler brown. This gave me a chance to try a new technique (I like it when that happens!) I made up a bull's eye cane using brown at the centre, and then wrapping this in a thin sheet of translucent clay which I'd coloured with a pinch of the same dark brown.

Overall, the effect worked pretty well, and for the other spots, I just used tiny dots of colour, which I could spread out into random shapes using a clay shaper.

But what to do with the leftover canes?! Because I used spots of varying sizes, the canes that were left had varying diameters. This is because it's often best to keep a cane intact and just reduce down a portion of cane to the desired size. So I was left with a number of lop-sided canes without any real prospect of making a wee leopard appaloosa in the near future. I decided to have a bit of fun, and made up this random sculpture using the leftover canes and the extruded clay from the mane and tail (Tater had unusual colourings for both). I'm not quite sure just what it is, and (in the words of Tom Paxton's The Marvelous Toy), I guess I never will!

Wee Lily (b.18 March 2010)

On 10 March, I got a message through Folksy from Lucy Westwood of The Sleep Valley Co, where she sells her own handmade gorgeous soaps and bath bombs. The message title was most intriguing - "Can you quernus my beagle??" I'd never seen Quernus used as a verb before, and I loved it!

And when Lucy sent through pictures of her gorgeous beagle, Lily, I loved her too - she's the gorgeously doe-eyed pup ever, and I'm sure she knows it!

I made up a special fur cane for the patches on Lily's back mixed up with nearly black and a darkish brown, and also blended a lighter tan colour for the markings on her face and her ears. I drew sketches of where the markings should go, and for the darker patches, I cut thin slices from the cane, laid them out into a sheet, and then cut the markings in one go, to help keep the fur looking smooth. As usual, I made the tail with a short wire armature for extra strength.

For the head, I repeated the process with the tan clay, and then added those wonderful long floppy ears. However, there is a sad tale to tell about these ears. As explained in her blog post, Lucy tells how when she was

photographing Wee Lily beside Big Lily (and the photos are just gorgeous), Wee Lily became quite attached to Lucy's elbow and sadly ended up on the floor. As a result, Wee Lily's left ear became less attached to her head. However, an express trip back to Leeds resulted in some remedial surgery, and Wee Lily's temporary deafness was swiftly reversed.

It's well worth checking out Lucy's wonderful Folksy shop - she very kindly sent me some lavender soap as a thank you for fixing Wee Lily's ear, and it's just lovely stuff! And all entirely handmade with only natural ingredients. Mmmmmm!

Duma (b.16 March 2010)

Quernus seems to have a bit of a fan base on the side of the Pond! I have some amazing friends over and they have been very kind about spreading word about my wee creatures. And as a result of that word-spreading, Wee Duma came into existence!

Michelle from Boston contacted me through the website saying that she'd just spent the last 30 minutes on my site, and could I please make her up some cats if she sent through pictures? So she sent through some pictures of her gorgeous cat, Duma.

Because of Duma's wonderful stripes, I tried out a new technique using a fur cane and pastels. I covered the clay core with thin slices taken from a fur cane I made up based on Duma's colouring, blended the slices, and then I made up the cat as usual. I baked the cat, and once cool, I brushed on stripes using powdered black pastels. I then varnished the pastels to seal them, and the end result turned out quite well.

However, I am still on the quest to perfect the fur technique for stripey cats - I am still very fond of making up the stripes by mixing up the appropriate colours, resulting in a swirly impression of stripes, rather than a realistic representation. Somehow, the cats seem to have a bit more charm with the swirls, but that could just be me :)

Scientist Cat (b.16 March 2010)

Scientist Cat was a special commission for Alison, who's daughter is graduating this summer with a science degree. Alison contacted me through the website, and when she outlined what she was looking for, my mind when into overdrive!

Jess and Cinnamon (b.14 March 2010)

Meet Wee Jess and Wee Cinnamon! Commissioned by Andy as a gift for his parents, Andy got in touch with me through the website, emailed me some pictures, and I got started!

Wee Jess is a gorgeous black and white cat, with a white bib and partially white nose. It was just a case of getting the markings in the right place. For the bib, I applied a thin sheet of white clay cut to shape, and then blended the edges out to create a fur effect.

Wee Cinnamon was a little more challenging as she has the most incredible markings on her back.

I had to imagine what Cinnamon's markings would look like from above so I could translate that into clay form. I sketched out the markings based on all the photos that Andy sent me (thanks Andy!), and then plotted those on an overhead view. It was like piecing together a jigsaw!