Faux Tesla Project-Part 13-Folk Art Cat-Tip of the Day

What a coincidence!  I am blogging about Part 13 of this project, and the project is about my folk art black cat.  I did not plan it this way, it just happened.  My last blog post was showing how to create the armature for the folk art cat.  This post is about the experiment of using dryer lint clay to make the final covering for the cat.

I found the recipe for dryer lint clay in a book of craft materials recipes.  The recipe was basically dryer lint mixed with flour paste with one addition.  The author recommended using a preservative to help prevent mold.  In her recipe, she recommended oil of cloves.  In another section of her book she listed other preservatives and said that they could be used interchangeably.  One of the preservatives she listed was Bactine.  I had some of that, so that is what I used.  I also made a couple of other changes to the recipe because I can never just follow a recipe.  I'll tell you what I did as I get further into this post.

First off, my experiment with the basic dryer lint clay recipe.  I mixed the flour paste and added the preservative.  I think that a preservative was a good idea in this case, especially if you were planning to make a solid object from the clay.  It would take a long time to dry.  I used three screen loads of dryer lint.  The lint I used were from mostly cotton clothing: towels, denim, and sheets.  For as flimsy as dryer lint appears to be, it took a lot of flour paste to mix in thoroughly with the lint.  The fibers absorbed a lot of moisture.  It took a lot more kneading than I was expecting to saturate the lint.  I would compare it to felting wool.  A lot of clumps formed in the lint which had to be worked out.  The knots would be wet on the outside, but the inside would be completely dry.  I kept working the material until I had a smooth, wet, sticky mass that was completely free of lumps. 

Then I started thinking. (This is the part where I usually start to make things complicated.)  "What if I added black paint to the clay.  Maybe I would not have to paint the cat after I put the clay on it."  So I added black paint to the clay and started to knead it in.  (Of course, I am wearing gloves.) The black paint turned my multi-colored clay gray streaked through with white threads, which I am guessing were poly-cotton because they were not absorbing the color.  I could actually have gone with this mixture if I were making just any cat.  It could have been a tabby.  However, this is a Halloween cat, so it needs to be black.  I realized that it had taken a large amount of paint to get it to even this gray color.  It really was not cost effective to add enough paint to make the clay a true black.  So I gave up on that idea.

Having never worked with this material before, I was concerned how well the mixture might hold up over time.  I was also concerned as to how well this mixture might adhere to the paper mache' that was already on the cat armature.  To alleviate those concerns, I kneaded some multipurpose white glue into the clay mixture. I also rubbed some white glue over the cat before I covered it with the clay.  Then I pinched off little pieces of the clay and pressed them onto the cat armature, smoothing each piece over the previous one.  It stayed on quite well. 

After I had the cat covered in the dryer lint clay, I used some tweezers and pulled up little clumps of it all over the cat.  In my diorama, the cat is supposed to be hissing and all puffed up.  I wanted my cat to appear as if it was ready for fight or flight.  Pulling up little tufts of the clay gave the cat a very rough appearance.  After I had finished working on the cat, I set it in front of a fan to speed up the drying time.  It took about three days to dry even with the fan blowing on it all day.  With the paint added to the lint clay, it looked and felt like lava rock.  It was rough and very light weight for its size.  (I read that it you use this clay in a press mold it will dry smooth and shiny.  I was going for the opposite look when I pulled up bits of the clay.)  

Once the folk art cat was dry, I painted it with gesso mixed with some black paint to obtain a dark gray color.  I wanted the gesso layer because I was not sure how well paint would stick to the clay if it did not have a primer coat.  Once the folk art cat was covered in gray, I dry brushed black paint over it.  The dry brush technique allowed some of the gray to show through.  This added a bit of depth to the surface and draws attention to the ruffled up areas of the fur.

I used some gray paint to sketch the outline of the cat's face.  Then I painted the features with acrylic paints.  It was a bit difficult to paint the face as the cat is very small.  The face of the cat is only 7/8 of an inch across.  The cat is three and a half inches high at the tail, and four inches long.  When you are painting on something that small,it is really difficult to add a lot of detail.  I decided to paint the cat in Halloween art style using a red mouth and teeth without showing the detail of the tongue. (I still need to add some whiskers.  I am thinking a bristle brush might lose a bristle or two.) It was a lot easier that way.  While I was working on painting in the teeth I figured out a technique that I want to share.  It is in the Tip of the Day in the paragraph below.

Tip of the Day:  Painting Small Detail

I was painting detail so small that my smallest brush was to large to use for the project.  When I was learning to make dolls, some writers suggested that people use the tip of a toothpick to paint in small detail.  I have tried that, and it works well if you are making dots or lines.  But, if you are actually trying to paint details, a toothpick is rather small and hard to hold onto.  I have also used a wooden skewer in this application.  It works better with a longer shaft area to hold onto, but it tends to roll in your hand, which can lead to a painting error.  I found something that works better.

I used a mechanical pencil.  I clicked out the lead a little longer than I would normally use when writing.  I dipped the lead into my paint and gently applied the paint to my project.  I would wipe the lead with a piece of paper towel before the next dip into the paint to remove any paint that had build up on the sides of the lead.  The wider shaft of the mechanical pencil gave me much more control over the paint application.  I feel that I was able to paint better detail than I would have if I had used a toothpick or skewer.