u/tramplamps

Those eyes are opalescent cabochons, and the eyelashes were made from cutting up and dividing the small black plastic pieces of the decorative stamen that is inside of a silk flower (probably a poppy or a very small peony). I made the eyeglasses, which were a request of the recipient, out of very heavy gauge gold wire, vintage gold plastic drapery accessories, and the lens were made from cutting out circles from a plastic jug of Simply Orange juice. I cut long curly sections out of an empty spray bottle of Pravana leave-in treatment, which is slightly more opaque, and was great for the whiskers.

This is my 3rd venture into paper mache, and even though I am fairly seasoned around all different types of 3-D arts and crafts, I am still learning how to do all this kind of stuff.

Everything gets hot glued onto The main body, and then reinforced with masking tape before it‘s sealed with paper mache/ those blue shop-grade paper towels and let to dry over night. I used glue sticks in lieu of wooden dowel rods, to make the arms & legs, wrapping semi heavy gage floral wire all the way around them, especially at the joints. And with this guy, I made all 20 toes out of the same wire, which was very intense. (I am building a skunk this week, and have built his cute little toes out of aluminum foil instead, and they are just as cute - and the time it took was a fraction of what they opossum toes took, so I have been foiled…)

I made the nose and mouth out of air-dry clay and primed everything with gesso, painted the toes tail, and nose and mouth. Then covered the body with felt & faux fur that I had in my supplies.

I wish my eyes and fingers were still in my late 20s, as this is when I wish I could still see without a lot magnifying glass, and regret that I hadn’t spent the time with my mother learning how to sew all the puppet and homemade stuffed animal patterns she wanted to teach me to make in the mid-80s, because I’m sure the face would’ve been super cute, had it been stitched on instead of hot-glued, but that’s what my heat gun is for.

That thing is addictive.

I hope y’all like this little baby.

When I was probably 9 years old in 1983, I was casually walking home one summer night from my next door neighbor’s house in my very quiet suburban Nashville neighborhood. And as I approached my sliding glass front door, that was unseen, but glowing brightly between the two huge hedges that were in each side of the sidewalk leading up to it, I screamed in what could only be described as absolute horror at the sight of the creatire that stood in my way of entering my home, as I had never seen anything like it my entire life before, and judging by the way this huge maternal pure white haired enormous wide-mouthed utterly pink-eyed wailing escaped-SCP was hissing back at me, they had obv never seen a human child before either.

Yes, this was the first time I had ever encountered an Opossum. And it was not my finest moment. When my mother heard someone screaming at the front door, she found me in complete terror, and she saw the animal running away and even though she tried to explain to me that it was more afraid of me than I was of it, I was on the couch, crying, and get this: running in place like Homer Simpson.

Again, not my finest moment.

it was the first and last time I ever behaved like this in front of these precious creatures, and from then on, I learned some dignity in their presence.

I started this right after I finished my big free standing Goose in early June. This is 33“tall x 44wide”, as I was trying to keep it the same size as those vintage or modern reproductions made out of ceramic that I’ve seen in various home design photos. They are also modeled after tigers, panthers, cheetahs and snow leopards, in all all sizes. Many are actual antiques, or modern reproductions, but either way, they sell for hundreds of dollars.

So, I figured I would save a little money and make my own. And as a 1st attempt, it’s ok. I like how it turned out, but I did have to open the face, after I primed it & cut down the height of the snout, which helped, but the face still looks a bit “goofy“, especially when in a side by side comparison to the original reference image. but I had fun making it, especially the mouth, which I made with air dry foam clay. and wouldn’t mind trying again. And my homeboy definitely has a one of a kind- goofy grin.