Part 3 Day of the Dead Chihuahua

Ok so we left off with the head finished. Then I started on the front legs. I saved them for last because I knew they would have to be strong enough to hold the head up so the piece wouldn't tip forward. I designed the front legs several times, beefing them up and making them longer before I added the markings and the embroidery.

I also enlarged the front paws. My chi Olive is super petite with tiny paws but my client's dog has bigger paws. I also needed a very small gusset for the bottom of the paws to what would be a wrist on a human and the bendy part on a dog's leg. I also added the color markings on the legs. On the inner part of the legs there isn't much hair so there is a light skin color to represent that area which you can't see here.

 Checking the size and fit of the front legs. Also checking the coverage of the embroidery. Is there enough? Does it need more?

Sewing the bottom of the front paws on. The entire piece was hand sewn from the inside, like you would on a sewing machine, except the front legs which were sewn from the outside. Teeny tiny stitches are my favorite. The bottom of all the paws have a small piece of cardboard so the feet lay flat and to give them extra stability. Also I added little black paw pads to all the feet. You don't really see them when the piece is sitting but I feel like it finishes everything off.

 I pinned the tail on and felt like the butt was too bare. This is an instance when I embroider on an already stuffed piece. It takes longer and was more difficult but I felt like the piece wasn't complete without it.

 Then I felt like the back of the head was too blank and added to that too. I used this material to embroider over since it wasn't flat and I needed a guide to keep things neat. I usually free hand embroider but sometime do it this way. I carefully tear off the material when I'm done stitching.

 There is embroidery on the front chest that I forgot to take pics of. This view really shows off that under belly gusset with the color markings. I needle sculpted the stomach area to give it that chihuahua look of a large rib cage to a smaller belly. Then I made a collar with a name tag.

 The flower crown itself took about 4 days. It's all hand cut and hand sewn. I wanted to make it removable but needed more time to work out how to do it, so ended up just sewing it on. There are full roses and also rose buds with leaves.

The whole project was about 5 weeks from start to finish. Huge project and such a challenge but I'm so glad I did it. If I do something like this again I'll start with the head and work out from there to keep the size down.

My client was really pleased and posted this photo of the piece with it's namesake.

  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings of the process. If you missed PART 1 and PART 2 of this process, make sure you click those links to see whole whole project.

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Part 2 Day of the Dead Chihuahua

I left off at working on how to attach the back legs. Once I figured that out I embroidered the designs on the legs. You can see my pencil drawings of designs I thought I might use for this project.

 The pads on the back paws were way too small and I ended up changing those later.

The head took the longest to make out of the whole piece. It was 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, scrap everything and start again kind of process. Below is a not quite right head with a too short snout. 

 

I had to leave it alone for a few days and step away before I decided to start a brand new head. It's really hard to give up so much work and start again, but it had to be done. See how short the snout is? Ugh! Lots of swearing.

 Gussets on the body made them a necessity on the head too for the proper shape and size. I made about 4 heads before I got the proper size and snout length. ( my art tends to have over large heads, so I did that here too) Then I had to figure out how to add the color markings. I made a black head with a tan under the chin gusset and then drew out the markings, cut them from tan felt and wrapped them onto the face. I stuffed the head to get the proper shape and sewed the markings on.

All the markings positioned and held by pins to check for fit.

Most of the markings sewn onto the head. Just needs her nose and ears and some face sculpting.

I gave her a little pink splotch on her nose but later took it off cause I felt it looked too cartoony. The giant needle sticking out of her face is a sculpting needle. It's used for needle sculpting cloth doll faces. I used it to further shape the top of the snout. I also added spots for the whiskers at this time.

Stay tuned for PART 3 HERE. If you missed PART 1 you can find it HERE.

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Wip of the Day of the Dead Chihuahua Part 1

I promised to show my wips of the chihuahua soft sculpture, so here we go! This will be a couple part series. I hope you find it interesting.

Ok so I started this project with a basic size idea, budget and design idea. This client is actually my pup Olive's former mama. I'm so very grateful she was re-homed to me! I cannot imagine life without this little character. She fits right in and is boded to be like glue. Anyway my client has another chihuahua that she wanted a soft sculpture piece made to resemble.

I started but looking at my Olive. Both she and the subject Rio are deer headed chi's, but Rio is stockier and slightly larger than Olive. I always make my own patterns so I started this one at the head. The pink is a low grade felt I use for pattern making.

 Once I thought I had the head shape and size I wanted I started on the body shape and legs. My client and I agreed that the dog should be sitting, so I had to figure out how dog's back legs looked and functioned to support the body sitting. I didn't want the sculpture to fall over, it had to be stable.

 My Olive next to the prototype. I had to give her a treat to stand next to it. The prototype is smaller than Olive.

 Next I started researching day of the dead images and drew up this design for the back of the piece. I can embroider and applique pretty small but my eyes aren't what they used to be so I decided on a certain comfortable size. 

Rio has unique color makings and while I knew I couldn't make the piece look exactly like this dog I could add markings and unique features to resemble her.

 When I started to make the final I quickly realized I'd needed to add gussets to get the shape I wanted. See the rounded butt? So I made another 3 or 4 prototypes using different gussets. This made the body larger but a better size for the embroidered designs.

Then I worked my embroidery designs around the piece for maximum coverage. Trying to see how it would all work together.

 I decided at this point to add an additional gusset in the front of the body. Rio has a barrel type chest so I added that width. Everything is fluid and things always change in the design, prototype, and construction stages. Sometimes the prototype looks nothing like the final.

 I started embroidering on the back with the main design. I like to embroider when my pieces are flat I feel like the design comes out better when the designs are intricate, but I do embroider on already stuffed pieces too.

 You can see here how the design goes across the back gusset and down each side piece.

The piece was then pinned together and fitted with the back leg designs. at one point the body was sewn together and stuffed so I could get a better idea how the legs should attach. Then I removed the stuffing and took out the stitches.
  If you like seeing my creative process on this project and want to see more and the final finished piece, check out PART 2 and PART 3.

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The Reveal!

Ok my client has now seen the piece she commissioned me to make and it will arrive at her house tomorrow so I can finally show finished pics.

First let me say that there is a huge difference between a commission piece and a custom piece. 

A commission is a piece of art that has not been created before, completely one of a kind, requiring hours of research and multiple prototypes to get the design right. This took me almost 5 weeks from start to finish.

Now a custom is a change to an already designed piece. Say you wanted a pink deer ornament instead of the dark brown I'm currently making, easy to do and that piece is now a special custom to that client.

I've only made 2 commissioned pieces this year and here's one of them. My client requested a soft sculpture of her chihuahua with Day of the Dead designs and flower motif. This piece is 11.5 inched high and 12 inches long. 

Links to the work in progress posts are at the bottom of this post.

My muse, Rio.

 Side view.

 

Flower crown. 

 3/4 view.

Back design.

Full back.

My littlest chihuahua for size.

My bigger chihuahua for size.

I'll do another post soon showing the wips for this project. Thanks for looking!

UPDATE: I'm linking this post to the making of this piece. PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3 

I'm Still Here Just Super Busy!

For the last few weeks I've been working on my commissioned piece. It's taking longer than I thought which with me is par for the course. I always forget how much time is required to create something brand new that I've never done before, especially a soft sculpture piece.

The body is done and is stuffed and the back legs are complete and sewn on. The front legs are done but I need to figure out how to sew them on without messing up my embroidery. So while that issue is slowly churning away in the back of my brain I'm working on the head. I had to redo the pattern for the head and make it slightly larger and add an additional gusset to get the shape right.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should do plastic animal eyes or my own sassy packrat eyes style. It's always a work in progress even when I "think" I've got everything figured out.

Here's 2 wips that don't give away too much, hopefully.
 

 I blurred the last pic a little so you can't see the details too clearly. I promise you'll see the finished piece as soon as the client does.

Highs and Lows of This Week.

This was a crazy week! I spent several days watching live webnar classes about different business things. I learned so much and was happy I spent the time even though I was taking notes so couldn't really sew.

I've been working hard to get my facebook business page engagement up. I got about 20 new followers and have a posting schedule set up so I actually post things there instead of ignoring that page.

I have a rouge box of supplies that is in the wrong state but should have been delivered to me today.

Not much is happening on my website. I continue to get views but no sales. Not too surprising, I still need to do more work on things there, but at least the site is up.

I made my first Periscope video but it was a disaster! Mostly because Periscope and Androids don't work together. Wish I knew that ahead of time! My video turned out mostly upside down and mirrored and my internet connection went bad so part of the video was pixilated. Sigh! So for now I'm just making short videos and putting them on my Facebook Fan page.

The most amazing news is I got a commission for an awesome piece! My client doesn't follow my blog so I'm going to post wips here for you guys to see. She wanted just a few sneak peeks on social media and to be surprised by the final piece. I'll keep the final secret until she sees it.

She wants a soft sculpture of her chihuahua with Day of the Dead designs on it! And she gave me free reign over the whole thing! That's my kind of client.

Here's about the 3rd prototype. This one's a keeper. It's made it pink felt cause it's a lower grade felt I use for pattern making. 

Now if only my supply box shows up so I can start the final!

Worktable Thursday

I've got a lot going on and it's making tired and I feel overwhelmed. So of course I take on ANOTHER project! LOL! I joined another art swap group a while back cause some artist friends belong and it gives me more chances to interact with them. I just sort of followed along, too tired to actually do anything but did join a supply swap and on impulse joined a fantasy swap. Not sure why I do these things to myself but I do. Anyway my partner doesn't read my blog so I'll show more wips here than to the group. I want some elements to be a surprise to my partner until it's done.

Although it looks like a doll it's actually going to be a soft sculpture piece. She'll have large wings too, which I haven't figured the logistics to yet. She'll be sitting on some forest type thing and holding something. The swap ends May 15th, thank goodness cause I'll need every minute to get this done plus everything else I'm supposed to be doing.

Do any of you take on more than you know you should?

Do you want to know how she came out? Here is the post for the finished piece.