(Muppet) Christmas (Carol) in June: Emma's Gift

  First, before  I forget, I know a  lot of us have found some great dolls at Tuesday Morning. Well Tuesday Morning is closing a load of locations all across the country. Some items are already discounted up to 30% off, and there are extra discounts on already clearanced items. The full list of locations that are closing across the country can be found HERE.
  This is sad. They carried a lot of nice things, interesting items that weren't available anywhere else around here, and hugely discounted, formerly expensive dolls. We're losing one in Columbus, where I go to Tuesday Morning, but not one of the locations I ever go to.
  Now, on to today's subject, which is, the gift I made for Emma for her birthday. I have to explain first that I had had this thing designed in my mind for about 2 and a half  years! I think I developed the idea when Hallmark came out with their Muppet Christmas Carol ornament in 2017.

The Hallmark ornament. Kermit's head is too big.

 At the time I said, they should have made him over a rolling cylinder, with floppy legs, so he could walk like he does in the movie. In the movie, "The Muppet Christmas Carol", Kermit, as Bob Cratchit,(with Robin as Tiny Tim on his shoulder), walks down the street singing. The street is obviously round, or drum shaped, and turned beneath his feet, with a green screen background behind him, to give the illusion that he's moving down the street. You can watch that clip from the movie HERE. I had the idea that I could make an ornament like that, using a thread spool for the street,(covered with fake snowy cobblestones.),and a polymer clay Kermit and Robin. If I made his legs joined and put staggered bumps on the spool that would hit his feet alternatingly, making it look like he was walking. I kept meaning to make the ornament. But then I wouldn't start in time  to get it made for Christmas, then not in time to get it made for her birthday. Because of not being able to go out shopping at all these last few months I didn't have much for Emma's birthday, so this was the perfect time to make a gift. Her birthday was a good time to do it too, so she'd have the ornament in time to use it at Christmas. So I started, probably much later than I should have. I had some problems, including not being able to find my clay! I ended up being able to use a set of Sculpey I gave Fuzz, since Fuzz gave it to me because he wasn't going to use it,(In spite of being a very talented artist and sculptor.),but there was no white clay! I remembered I had a whole box of clays my sister gave me,(Another talented artist, who says she can't sculpt.),but there was no white in there either! I finally remembered there was a zip lock bag of extra clay Fuzz also gave me, and luckily there was some white in it. Then, of course, I couldn't find my blade to cut the clay either, or my clear plexiglass bar to roll the clay out with. I'm sure both of those are in the box with my clay! So I resorted to other tools and a porcelain rolling pin we never use any more because one of the handle ends got lost and now the wooden pin won't stay in the middle, so there are NO handles. So here are the tools I ended up using. Keep in mind that these are the sorts of things I use anyway most of the time, because I stink as a artist.

Paint, glitter, paint brushes, wire cutters and wire bending thingies, needles for poking clay with, and a big headed pin for smoothing certain parts, two types of wire, plus a recycled wire from a Chinese take out container. I'll show you where that was used in a minute.

Tweezers, and I actually cut the clay with those little scissors. By the way,that's my mom's pin cushion. It was always in her sewing box and I use it all the time.

One of the tools I used the most, I forgot to put in the picture!

Yes, that is what you think it is: one of those plastic hanger things from a package of some sort. I used it to cut the clay because I couldn't find my blade, which I had even pulled out to use the day before I started on the ornament.
  I was able to get a lot of different colours by mixing some of my sister's more unusual clay colours with Fuzz's more basic colours set. Here are all the colours I used, except the dark red I used straight from the pack for the inside of the mouths.
 

Various shades of brown and green.

And then there was this:
 

The egg carton was to make the fake cobblestones on the spool. I've been wanting to try making stone with egg carton for ages, but this was my first try.  I used the Fabric-Tac to glue the pieces of egg carton to the spool. Afterward I painted it with a mix of green and black acrylic paint to get and old, dirty, mossy stone look, but then I covered it with white glitter anyway. I couldn't find my other white glitter either! So this glitter has too much of a green shine to it, so the snow looks too green. I told Emma I would touch the spool up with some better, whiter snow looking glitter before Christmas.

  I used a box that something from Bath and Body Works came in to put the ornament in.

It ties shut with a ribbon.

  So how did the ornament turn out? For reference, before I show you the ornament I made, here's a still from the movie:
 

 And here's what the ornament looks like.

I took out the flocked plastic inside the box, and lined it with polyfil, which I covered with vintage satin.

And there's where the wire from the take out box came in!

  It turned out pretty good. Kermit ended up being about 4 or 5 inches tall. 

Little Robin is slightly over an inch, and with about a half an inch of leg length, I think.

At least Kermit's face turned out fairly good.

It's harder than you think to make a Muppet and have it actually look like the Muppet it's supposed to. They aren't as detailed as people, but they still have a particular look. I had to do adjustments as I worked, making Kermit's mouth slant downward enough and getting his eyes forward enough on his head. And those eyeballs had to be tilted just right.

Those checked pants are terrible!

Robin could have been better though.
 

Kermit's hat turned while baking, from the weight of it, and it tore Kermit's thumb off! The thumb was still attached to the hat, so I had to paint it black to disguise it!

I goofed on Robin's butt. It ended up being too big, so I cut a hunk off, thinking I would be able to cover the chop because his bottom would be sitting on Kermit's shoulder. Of course, then he didn't fit on Kermit's shoulder properly, so his bottom shows!

I also didn't think about the fact that I'd have to make checked pants!

That wasn't so easy. I got all over confident after making Kermit's checked vest, which peeks out between his coat and the top of his his pants.

The pants were a lot harder! I see I also should really have used that Sculpey stuff that smooths the surface and gets rid of the fingerprints, etc. It sort of melt s the surface of the clay though, and I was afraid it would take over and I'd lose detail. All I needed was to get all finished, and then make the whole thing so slimy it couldn't even be held on to.
  Kermit's coat changes lengths in the movie! In the scene where he's walking down the street, that this ornament represents, his coat is short, and nowhere behind his legs. I think that was so you could see his leg movements better. In the other scenes, and in the publicity still I showed you, above, his coat is long. I compromised by making his coat long, but flying up behind him

Oops. Looks like Robin has a hole in the seat of his pants!

 

  As you can see, there are still fibers stuck to them from the polyfil I laid them on to bake. I also had to stuff it between his legs and under the tails of his coat, so they didn't bake to each other.

His coat tails actually stick out farther than I intended.
 

Sorry about these blurry pictures. My auto focus is still not working and I had to hold it and focus, while also holding the camera. I don't have three hands, but that's what it requires. For some of these I got Ivy to hold it. or it was laid down.

And did the walking action work? Well...no. It did not.

I think I should have jointed Kermit's legs only at the knees...or maybe only at the hips. In any case, I even tried the alternating bumps in the sidewalk, and it still didn't make him 'walk'.

 

  And I got so excited when I finally finished the ornament, very late on the night before Emma's birthday, that I forgot to put on a loop or hook to hang it by! I ended up having to hang everything from Robin's arm!
 

I hope it doesn't break off! I also forgot to put tails on Robin's coat! Oh well. Little boys did wear those short coats back then.

   

  So that's it. It didn't work, after having it all planned out in my head for nearly three years.

 

Doesn't look too bad though.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #278: What I DId on My Vacation Part 4 & Belle

  Before I forget, if anybody lives within driving distance of Wilmington Ohio, the BIG doll show is back, and will be held there, at Roberts Center, tomorrow from 10 to 4. The show seems like it will be back to it's old glory, with loads of sellers. I'm going, but all by myself. I wish I had someone to go with, but Ken has to work,Emma has a radio job in the morning, and Ivy is at college. I don't know any doll people in my vicinity. I could use a co-pilot too. I hope I don't get lost! If I do make it,I'll take pictures for you.
  The doll of the day is at the bottom of the post if you want to skip ahead, but if you do, shame on you, because this post was a lot of work. 
  Today we're back to my vacation, with part 2 of my trip to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. I have always been interested in puppets. One of the jobs I considered as a kid was puppeteer. I'm not sure I ever had the arm strength for it!
  After the Jim Henson exhibit the museum flowed into a general puppet exhibit. Here's the first thing I saw when I walked in.

Remember Wayland Flowers and Madam? They, (They?) were popular in the 70's and 80's, and Madam,(without Wayland,at least, on screen.), even had her own syndicated situation comedy called "Madam's Place".
  Actually, the first thing I saw when I walked in was a screen that was showing Topo Gigio. I have always loved Topo. (You can see my post about Topo Gigio HERE.) I was hoping they would have a Topo puppet, but they didn't.  They did have some beautiful and fascinating puppets though,from all over the world.

These bigger than life size ladies are meant to be actresses Mae West and Carol Channing.

  There was someone else I recognized right away. Gumby!

He's Gumby dammit.

Gumby was the creation of Art Clokey. I knew Gumby from my childhood, and have several Gumby dolls from then. (They kept wearing out, so I got new ones. I just never threw out the old ones. I even have one with no legs. They got floppy and my sister cut them off.) Then when Emma was little Gumby began showing on Nickelodeon. We watched it every day. Emma had her own collection of Gumby figures. You can see my post on Tammy World's tiny Gumby and Pokey dolls HERE. I don't remember this guy though:

Santa Claus was there.

These two figures from "The Corpse Bride" were over a foot tall,probably closer to 20 inches.
 

The bride's dress looked rubbery up close, kind of like one of those plastic or rubber doily type place mats. It had beautiful detailing in the texture. Look very closely at her bodice here.

Her train looked very rubbery.

I sent my friend Lisa, (You may know her from my visit to Texas post HERE.) pictures of these guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000, because she loves it. Joel Hodgson, the creator, is on tour with a farewell show. Lisa is getting her tickets soon.

 

 Punch and Judy are some of the oldest puppets that Western people still recognize and know the names of today.

These puppets weren't familiar, but were interesting to look at.

For some reason I really liked this lady.

I think this is who she was.

 

This guy was with her. They're described as hand and rod puppets. I don't see the rods though.

They were quite big.

I mentioned rods yesterday. If you don't remember what they are or how they're used, you can go to yesterday's post, or my post on puppets HERE.
   This guy was beautiful.

And this guy was a work of art.

This whole display was beautiful. The puppets were amazing. I would love to see them performed. They're from the play, "Mignon".

 She looks like some actress, but I can't think of who it is.

 

This guy is pretty old.

This mean looking guy was very primitive.

These huge masks from the stage production of The Lion King actually have moving parts. Imagine how heavy these things would be to wear and perform in.
 

This wooden horse looks like he's having leg problems.

Chinese marionettes.

What a lot of work must have gone into all this. Not just the puppets, but the stage too.

These were all very old. The clothes were worn and faded on the ones above.

 

These are what's known as Bunraku puppets. Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppetry.

This is an Indian puppet from The Story of Rama and Sita.

These are traditional rod puppets from Indonesia.
 

Another oldie.

I think I have these cards with the right puppets.

Those eye lids are weird.

I'm fairly sure the card is right for this one. I really like her.

This card is definitely right.

This Mad Hatter was so great!

I want him!

The little guy reminds me of the figures in Disney's It's a Small World.

This old lady has an amazing face.

This is an interesting thing.

I think the mask is worn by someone. It opens up and there is that creepy little guy inside. It's huge though,almost the size of the Lion King masks.

We came out of the exhibit and back to the Henson exhibit.

 There was a whole "Dark Crystal" exhibit independent from the Henson one. That's where we went next.

There was an Augra there, but she was way smaller than the one at the Henson exhibit we went to in Columbus.

I had a terrible time getting a decent photo of the other Augra, and this one was no better. The good one above is Ken's photo.

I really don't know what I'm going to do about my auto focus having gone out. It's hard to focus manually in low light, because I can't see that well in low light.

 

This picture is Ken's.

The Henson exhibit next door had an empty Kira costume. This exhibit actually had Jen's costume and he was in it.

This puppet of the mystic was performed with a person inside, hunched down. So it was person sized.

The style of illustrator Brian Froud is really obvious in this guy's face.

Another of Ken's pictures.

Bowl o' body parts.

Nice picture Ken.

 Ken took a better picture of this guy than I did too.

How cute is this guy?

He's a pod person.

These were from gross to pretty.

Gross...

Kind of cute and kind of gross...

This spider was actually kind of pretty in a way. It's made of glass.

 

The Skeksis

 

Darn it Ken!

 There was a maquette of the guy we saw the finished version of above.

There as also a maquette of a skeksis. Remember, I told you what a maquette is yesterday.

And there were some heads.

These guys are missing their 'skin' so you can see how they're made.

There were hands too.

This one is the prototype of the Chamberlain's hand.

Pod people costumes.

And it was back out towards the lobby.

We made a stop at the gift shop, which I had checked out while I waited for Ken to go to the car for my camera,which I had forgotten. What did we buy? Show them Tammy...

This was part of the gifts we brought back for Emma's friend Erin, who was helping look after our cats while we were gone. Erin has somehow started a collection of 'tiny hands. Just so you know, we brought her other things too!
  Outside the building there was this tiny door...even a tinier scale than the hand!

  On the way back to Lori's we stopped to eat, because we hadn't eaten anything all day.

It wasn't the best.

   Maybe we should have just gone on, because after we left the restaurant and had been driving for a while I started seeing lightening in the clouds. It kept going on, but there was no rain. It got dark and the lightening was still happening without rain. Then it hit. And I do mean hit. It rained so hard it was raining sideways. It rained so hard I couldn't see. There was nowhere to pull off the road, so all I could do was keep driving, albeit very slowly. I drove for half and hour at about 40 miles an hour, or just under or over. 30 MILES. Finally the rained ended. Not stopped. Ended. It carried on without us as we drove out of it. I should have expected it,because  rain follows me everywhere I go. The first time I went to England they had 'the rainiest Spring in recent memory', and the rainiest April in I forget how many years. The first time I went to Texas to see Lisa they were having a drought. The dry weather held out as long as it could, but as I was leaving for the airport it started to rain and there were flash floods. It rains everywhere I go. It rained on the days of both my parents funerals. I think it even rained on my wedding day. My theme song should be "Weather With You".
  Now today's doll. While we were at Lori's she took us to an antique store, where I found this girl.
 

She's Belle.

She's obviously not an antique.

From what I can tell she's from 2013.

I think she's the Belle from the second series of the Disney Animator's Collection dolls.

Her hair was a wreck when I got her, and she's still only about halfway though her rehabilitation.
 

As you can see, the right side is farther along than the left.

I was working on her today, but my light was going, and I had no other doll for today because I am trying to keep the dolls relevant to the vacation posts. I'm also trying to keep them in chronological order according to when I got them. This doll was the second one I got on vacation, after the Queen of Hearts.

 

The hair seems to be a problem on some of these Animator's dolls. Belle has hair like the Merida I found at Goodwill. Dry and matted and crispy.
 

About halfway through her photo shoot her forehead curl started turning the other way and wouldn't lay properly. I gave up and wiped it aside altogether.

Her eyes almost look like inset eyes, but they are only painted.

These dolls are about 16 inches tall.

The first version of Belle came in the blue and white dress. This one has her toddler version of the Belle ball gown.

 She has a smaller head than Sleeping Beauty. That girl has a big noggin!
 

Click 'Disney Animator's...' in the side bar to see more of my Disney Animator's Collection dolls.

 

Here are more pictures of Belle because she's so cute.

  That's it. I'm off to bed so I can get up early for the doll show tomorrow. I will see you after the show!