Gotland Sheep... In the beginning...

One day driving down the Northfield road I saw a small flock of sheep and thought, how pretty, and noticed that sheep have slender legs, not like the plump cartoonish sheep that I had made last year. 

 I'd really like to have some sheep out here!! But that will take time as we need fencing.  Meanwhile I decided it'd be fun to make sheep that would be life-sized, more realistic, and could stay out on the lawn of Swoon all the time.   We'd been putting my animals from last year on the lawn, but they weren't designed to stay out in the elements, nor are they life-sized.  After some thought, I got an idea on how to make 3 life sized sheep using minimal time and money.

The first thing I went and did was buy supplies.  These sheep will have bamboo armatures, papier mache heads and legs, and bodies made of fabric covered chickenwire.  

The project depended on my finding just the right fabric, for cheap.  So I went to Fabricville on Bayers Road and spotted some rolls of a mixed colour grey fabric for only 50 cents/yard!!  How lucky! It was so marked down because of some yellow water stains, but seemed excellent to me for making sheep.  I bought 12 yards which will hopefully be enough for 3 sheep.  

 

  

I want to tear the fabric into strips to attach to the chickenwire, hopefully this will make it look woolly.  I did a google search for grey sheep with black heads and legs,  and decided that Gotland sheep are what I'm trying to make: 
 

Next I bought chickenwire and bamboo poles.  For each sheep I used 2 x 6' bamboo poles, and 2 x 5' bamboo poles.  The legs are 5' poles cut in half, and the bodies each have 3 x 3' sections and 2 x 1.5' sections.  Here's a shot of my messy workspace, I like to watch documentaries while I work, on things like our Fiat Currency system and GMO foods.  I am going to try to work tidier though!! At least this shows the beginning of the 3 frames.

I cut up the bamboo with a small hacksaw and attached the bamboo using strips of discarded bike tire inner tubes.  This is a method I learned from some awesome puppet builders in Washington State. 

To stabilize the joins I also used some small bamboo pieces, and then wrapped up everything with newspaper and masking tape.  I find the Halifax Chronicle Herald is the best paper to work with, it's nice and 'papery' unlike the Globe and Mail.  Once my skeletons were made I started fleshing out the legs.  I made the heads separate.  To make the frames for the heads I crumple newspaper and cover it with masking tape. 

Two of the sheep leg frames

Frames for the legs and heads finished, I made my first pot of paste in my new home.  I use a cornstarch paste that I cook on the stove, also taught to me by awesome Washington State puppet makers.  I think I'll give instructions for that in a future blog post.  Last night I started papier macheing, my next task being to coat the head and leg armatures with enough layers of papier mache that they are solid when dry.

Sheep heads and legs, with bowl of cornstarch paste.  These legs and the head on the left have had their first coats of papier mache.

As well as working tidier, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf of starting one sculpture project and seeing it through, rather than living in a jungle of half-finished projects.  So I'm pretty focused on these sheep but have frames for a couple of other creatures who might get papered while I'm at it... once the sheep are done I want to make more dogs, cats and crows!

Frame for Pug and Crow