It’s no secret how much I love Alice in Wonderland Themes. So, I was very excited to receive this month’s Rabbit Design Kit so I could build upon by Wonderland Artwork Collection. (see blog ‘We are All Mad Here – The Red Queen & Alice Art Dolls). Therefore, I wanted to find some design elements that would work in with this collection. Secondly, I wanted to tie in the idea of falling down the rabbit hole (something I symbolically do daily). This led to rearranging the MDF pieces to simulate the White Rabbit falling.
However, I couldn’t think of what to do with all the extra pieces – especially the scroll. Finally, I hit upon the idea that when I am organized and ticking off errands, I am less likely to procrastinate. I make lists and scroll through them all the time and still end up doing tasks in a furious hurry, much like when we first meet Lewis Carrol’s White Rabbit I realized. That led to the idea of attaching and decorating an old pinboard to my artwork to pin up my to do lists or bills in a vain attempt to not always be late. Alas, due to time constraints I did not include the pinboard in these instructions but intend to do so at a later date (I have another rabbit hole to visit first).
Materials:
- Rabbit MDF Cut Outs, Designer Chipboard Mats,
- Designer Stencil (I kept the stencils for another project)
- Powertex Universal Medium. Colours of your choice. I used black
- Stone Art
- Easycoat Varnish – Glossy
- Powercolours of your choice: I used titanium white, red, orange, and yellow
- Colourtrix colours of your choice: I used white silver, pearl red, bronze gold and clear gold
- Sand and Balls
- Natural Mesh (from Bag End Studio) or material of your choice.
- Powercotton (alternative crochet cotton or string)
- Doll Eyes
- Triangle Hooks for hanging.
From your useful box:
- Ribbing – like an old polo shirt collar
- A small piece of Styrofoam
- Masking Tape & waste photocopy paper.
- Chain, Wire & Skewers
- Plastic covered workspace
- Mixing Bowls
- Paint brushes (one for Powertex and one or two for pigment colours)
- Lids for Palette (or alfoil).
- Palette Knife, skewers, flat spatula,
- Clay modelling tool
- Washing up Container for cleaning
- Gloves, Chux Cloth, Paper towel
- Gladwrap (to wrap Stone Art clay and to cover opened Powertex bottles)
- Air-tight container to store clay.
- Search Pinterest for inspiration.
- Push or knife out your pieces and play with positioning them.
- Cut out your material to fashion clothes. I used natural mesh to simulate a tweed coat.
- Play with bits from your useful box – I used ribbing for the collar (later I also added more ribbing under the natural mesh coat). I also found some chain for the fob watch.
- Roll up some wastepaper into a ball shape and cover with masking tape to make a bunny tail.
- Collect the necessary Powertex products and equipment and set up your plastic covered workspace.
Step 2: Make Stone Art
- In a bowl with a medium amount of Black Powertex Universal Medium (approx. 1/2 cup), add Stone Art (approx. 1/2 cup) and mix with a flat spatula.
- Keep adding small handfuls of Stone Art until it forms a kneadable dough like mixture that no longer sticks to the bowl or your gloves. Remove the sticky ball and add a little more Stone Art to the bowl to ‘flour’ the ball. Knead well until the clay can be pushed into a textured surface and be removed again without sticking. (Apologies, I used most of my stone art clay before the photograph).
- Keep the clay ball wrapped in glad wrap and in a sealed airtight container to prevent hardening until use.
Step 3: Seal Rabbit MDF Boards
- Using a paint brush, seal both the back and fronts of all the MDF Boards and the bunny tail.
- Also seal the chipboard pieces and whilst they are damp you can manipulate them carefully to create movement.
- Add a small piece of stone art under the clock face to lift it off its base.
Step 4. Join MDF Pieces together
- Paint the fronts and backs of attachment points with Powertex.
- Using some pre-made stone art clay cover attachment points on the back leave to dry (or hair dry to speed up process)
- Repeat on the front.
- It is possible to sprinkle stone art powder and create clay on the spot and then using a modelling tool push the clay along the edges of the pieces to attach them.
Step 5. Make the Bunny Tail
- Paint half of the masking taped paper ball with Powertex
- Dip into a bowl of Medium Balls, let dry a little.
- Repaint with Powertex
- Repeat to build up texture with the balls.
- When dry paint the other half.
Step 6. Attach Jacket and Bunny Tail.
- Using a paint brush, cover the natural mesh completely
- Using gloved hands fashion the mesh around your rabbit MDF.
- Secure it by wrapping the mesh underneath or use stone art clay to assist attachment if necessary.
- Place glad wrap under the natural mesh to keep it lifted.
- Use the stone art to attach the Bunny Tail.
- Once dry remove glad wrap.
Step 7. Sculpt Rabbit Face
- Use a ball of stone art and create a mound over the surface of your MDF Rabbit Head.
- Using modelling tools sculpt a rabbit face. I used photos from the internet and Pinterest as a guide.
- Push doll’s eyes into the eye sockets and carefully push the clay around them to hold into place.
- Create long sausages of clay to outline the Rabbit ears and attach using your modelling tools.
- Cut 6 small pieces of wire to create whiskers.
Step 8. Attach Collar and Rabbit Face
- Half dip the ribbing material into your bowl of Powertex, massage thoroughly, and hand paint it until it is completely covered. It should look matt not shiny and wet.
- To save clay I used a little piece of Powertex painted Styrofoam and fashioned the collar around it
- Position the collar and Styrofoam into place with the clay.
- Add a lump of the clay as a neck for your rabbit’s head.
- Push head into place and using a tool carefully spread out clay underneath attachment points to secure.
- Leave to dry.
- I also used a second piece of ribbing to tidy up the look of the MDF under the jacket – like the back of a waist coat.
Step 9. Cover the Umbrella
- Paint to skewers and position on top of the umbrella as shown.
- Cover with scrap material to make your umbrella more 3D.
Step 10. Make the Rabbit Furry
- Paint sections of Powercotton into a gloved hand (to avoid bunching and knotting)
- Paint the MDF with Powertex and lay the painted polycotton on top to cover the base of the rabbit.
- Using two skewers tease the polycotton apart starting with where you began as it will have dried a little and become tacky and easier to work with.
- Repeat on the arms at the front.
Step 11. Embellish with Powercolour & Colourtrix
- Pour a small amount of Easy Coat Glossy Varnish into a lid or alfoil palette.
- Palette out the matt Powercolours & metallic Colourtrix pigments of your choice.
- With a very dry brush take up a small amount of the Glossy Easy Coat Varnish onto the brush tips and criss-cross your brush onto the palette to load the varnish into your brush.
- Pick up a small amount of the pigment and criss-cross your brush with it into the palette to create a paint. Repeat process using colours as desired.
- I used White Titanium on the rabbit face, tail and fur and highlighted with White Silver.
- Red and orange blended on the tweed jacket.
- Yellow on the waistcoat under the jacket, highlighted in Rich Gold.
- I used Rich Gold on the collar, with a touch of red.
- A mixture of rich and bronze gold and white on the watch.
- A mixture of rich and bronze gold and red on the bow tie.
- Dark Silver on the umbrella.
Step 12. Attach Chain, Fob Watch and Umbrella and hanging hooks.
- Using stone art clay attach the chain, Fob Watch and Umbrella into place.
- Attach your D-ring hook on the back of your artwork as per picture
Congratulations You Have Finished!
I hope you had fun falling down this Rabbit Hole with me
I look forward to lighting the way in May
(a little hint there…)
Natalie
Bag End Studio
