I'm Late I'm Late -Down the Rabbit Hole

​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
• Easy Coat Varnish - Glossy
• Powercolours of your choice to embellish your work. I used titanium white, red, orange, and yellow
• Colourtrix colours of your choice to highlight powercolours. I used white silver, pearl red, bronze gold and clear gold
• Sand and Balls
• Natural Mesh (from Bag End Studio Store) or material of your choice.
• Powercotton (alternative crochet cotton, string or mop string). Sorry powercotton been discontinued.
• Doll Eyes - from Bag End Studio Store
• Triangle Hooks for hanging.

​From your useful box:

• Ribbing – like an old polo shirt collar
• A small piece of Styrofoam
• Masking Tape and waste photocopying paper.
• Chain
• Wire
• Skewers​

​​

Equipment:

• 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. ​

Step 1: Design Layout ​

• ​Surf the internet or 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 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.
• Cut 6 small pieces of wire to create whiskers.

​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.

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, Umbrella & 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 firing up a new idea and lighting the way in May (a little hint there).
Meanwhile follow the link below to get your White Rabbit Kit

SHOP NOW WHITE RABBIT KIT