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I make aluminum foil animals.

Doesn’t everyone ?

I have made foil creatures since I was in kindergarten. My mom started me on this hobby by teaching me how to make ducks. Ducks are made by rolling a piece of foil around your finger with the open seam up. You pinch the end into a duck head, remove the foil from your finger, pinch the open end into an upturned duck tail, gently flatten the bottom a bit and then they can float in water!

I loved them. I made a floating dragon. I made a duck with feet. Then I made one with four feet. Soon I had zoos of animals, farms, bison herds, Indian villages, and herds of horses all made out of aluminum foil. They were my favorite toys. They didn’t last too long outside in the puddles and dirt, but when they got flattened or water logged, I just made more. My mom bought me rolls of aluminum foil for Christmas. Our back yard was dotted with mashed foil animals. Now that I am all grown up and mature, I mostly play with them inside.

When I needed a 3d models to work out sculpture for Windstone, they came in handy. I often use them to figure out parting lines, balance, and tail and paw positions before I start on a clay version of something complicated.

And almost EVERYTHING is complicated. Always remember this.

I didn’t use an aluminum foil model of the Secret Keeper dragon ( https://www.windstoneeditions.com/shop/secret-keeper-peacock.html ) when I designed her, because I thought it would be a no-brainer to just make a dragon sitting there. Had I made a model first, I would of known that I would need more room for both of her big front feet to be next to each on her tail! I had to change the sculpture and raise up one front paw. It worked out well, because that’s where she holds your secrets. But still… oy, big mistake!

I’ll stick pics of other other foil animals in my gallery on the Windstone forum, if you’d like to see them:
http://www.windstoneeditions.com/galleries/thumbnails.php?album=16

8 thoughts on “I make aluminum foil animals.”

  1. Wow… *impressed* I have a hard time getting foil to do what I want it to. I’m convinced that you could sculpt something fantastic in mashed potatoes if you wanted to!

  2. Have you tried sand? Don’t they mix glue in with sand to make those amazing sand creations? Although I don’t know how much sand there is in Oregon – NJ actually has really nice beaches. You can borrow some of our sand.

  3. I haven’t sculpted beach sand into things, though that is exactly what Gary Kinsella ( the artist that did the Windstone castles) did professionally, for awhile!
    I’ve done “sand paintings” though.

  4. He did? What a cool job! And unusual – I wonder how many professional sand artists there are. Although, for me, the coolest job ever would be one of the Budweiser Clydesdales grooms. Actually I did just see some professional sand artists recently – I was at Disney’s Epcot and they were doing this amazing sand sculture of whales for the release of Disney’s Earth. Really, really awesome.

  5. When in town, the Clydes stay at a stable where my friend used to board her horse and we got to watch the whole procedure they go through getting them ready for parade, shampooing their feet and blowing them dry, braiding their manes and putting in those little attachments, etc. I had some great pictures, but unfortunately they were on the computer that was zapped by lightning. The grooms work very hard, but they seem to enjoy it. You should go for it!

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