Music Box

For my brother's 30th birthday, I made him a music box. I made it much like the wedding cake topper, just added a couple improvements.

This time around, I experimented with different kinds of eyes, and spent more time doing the hair (although it drove me nuts after a while). I also ordered parts for a music box base, and a musical movement, which is the actual part that makes the music. If you watched An American Tail, you will understand why I chose the song I did. :) My brother can now think of me whenever he turns on the music and looks at the figurine. Yay!

This figurine was much more challenging, even though it was my second time around. I made them smaller, both proportionately and in size, so as to make them look more babyish. I'm actually pretty happy with the result now that I look back at the wedding topper. These look more like kids, and the other one, like adults. Being that they were smaller, everything was harder. At certain points, my eyes felt like they were bleeding because I was concentrating so hard on handling the tiny TINY parts.

These are the images I used for inspiration.


Here is the early process.
These heads were actually much more difficult than the wedding topper heads. Probably what made it the worst was that I started it late at night, when my eyes were already crossing.

Chris' head was difficult because of the dimple. The more I manipulated it, the more it looked like a hole in his face. I'm not happy with it. It still looks like a hole. Had the head been bigger, or had I had tools, I think I could've made it more lifelike.




My head drove me INSANE. Something was wrong with the clay consistency at that point (too soft) , and every time I worked on one side, the other side would mush in. For example, I'd work on making the skull rounder, and then all of a sudden, I had no chin anymore! I'm happy with the eyes and mouth though. Very lifelike. The eyes actually bulge the way my real eyes do.


On the left here, Chris' pants were my least favorite part. There was no way to hold him right while trying to get the creased look of the pants, and whenever I touched it, I spread blue coloring everywhere.





On the right, I had fun doing my stockings. Even the clay crumbles that were left behind helped add the effect of the cotton look.







Details were fun, but killed my eyes. The Nike-esque looking signs on our jackets are actually Lacoste logos. It was too tiny for me to actually make it look more like an alligator. I loved this cat, carried it around everywhere.

The very tiniest detail I dealt with were the tips of the drawstrings. You can see how small they are compared to my finger. If you click on this picture, you can see that I tried to make the drawstring tips just like real ones. This was one of those details that made my eyes bleed.











Bald Chris.










So, I was staring at Chris' pocket on his right thigh, and I swear it looks like a Transformers Autobot sign. Whether it really was or not, I still think it's a nice addition!










Back View.
Trying to decide how to place them. I was originally going to buy a turntable so I could have a rotating music box, but changed my mind. I think next time, I'd like to try the rotating kind though.








I ordered a turn key that was too long, so you have to hold the music box in the air in order to play the music. Otherwise, you wind it, take out the turn key, and then listen. :)