Velma

Afternoon!  Meet Velma (right), pictured here with Pepe.  She is my original prototype, redone and smartened up considerably.  It seemed a shame to abandon her, when she looked so perfectly penguin-like.  The thread she's sewn in is the wrong colour, but for the most part its covered over with black paint, so it can't be seen.

They seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time, these penguins!  It's partly the whole paper mache thing with the feet, and the fact that its a new design, so I haven't been sure exactly what to do with it.  Partly also though, I have been focusing on other things - a bit more of the washing job, lots more baking, a bit of research into different courses I could do.  I am waiting to find out now whether I've got into one - although they haven't exactly been quick getting back to me, so I'm probably not going to be lucky this time.

Anyway, I'm going to make a few more penguins - perhaps another one so I can have a display of three at the Art & Craft Centre, and then another three to put aside for Hugglets at the end of the year.  I will try and time the process, so i know how much to charge for them.  I will put one in my Etsy shop too - do give me a shout if you're interested in having one.  :-)

Pepe the penguin

Hello!  I was wondering whether to post or not - having posted these pictures on social media elsewhere - and then I noticed that once again, it's been almost a month since my last post!  Where has the time gone!

Anyway, I bet this is a surprise, after my previously posting about a bearded dragon!  I was getting very frustrated with my dragon design, and decided to take a step back, just briefly, and concentrate on something else for a while.  I've wanted to make a penguin for a while, and someone actually asked me recently if I might make one, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Getting the design together has been relatively easily - he's a heavily modified mash-up of my puffin and crow designs - and I was really happy with the cotton prototype I came up with.  He is a Humboldt penguin.  However, when I tried making him in a proper fur fabric - a lovely soft, Schulte viscose - it all went terribly wrong, and the result looked really clownish.  I ended up painting the prototype, and it looked good, so Pepe here is made in interfaced cotton, and painted in acrylics.  It's not ideal.  The paint is a bit visually flat, and obviously not as tactile as a fur fabric, but it is so versatile and gives a much, much better effect!  I have a precedent for using cotton in my barn owl, and I figure I can swap to a different fabric later if I change my mind.  I suppose I'm just worried that I'm taking the easy way out of a fabric dilemma.

Anyway, Pepe just needs his feet covering in paper mache, and he'll be good to go.  What do you think?  Does he pass muster?  :-)