Glass Wall Critter

Project : Glass Wall Critter
Date : Summer/Fall? 2009
Materials : bottle-cap, wire, suction cups, a bell, fabric (2 types), embroidery floss
Tools : pliers, scissors, needle, hand powered drill
Finished Product:

Process:
Bottle cap monsters are pretty easy. You take a bottle cap, you put fabric around it. Done. Thine one has only one real modification--
Before you start any fabric stuff, get a drill (or nail and hammer might work?) and poke 2 holds in the bottle cap edge. These are the leg holes so they should be sorta' on the same side, close but not too close. Hip-width. Then, string wire through the wholes. It helps if you have twisted double wire, maybe run a wire up one leg, across the outside of the bottle edge, and down the other. Things like this will help prevent the legs from swinging too much. You want the legs to project out from the edge, not to lay flat against the edge. Laying tape down or hot-gluing the wire that runs between the leg holes might help (I can't remember if I did or not).

Make sure the leg wire has an extra length at the end. Suction cups usually come with hooks- wiggle those off and then wrap the wire around the nub. This should be a secure anchor.

Now cut the fabric. There are few pieces and they're easy to measure by placing a (fresh, different) bottle cap on paper and tracing it.
Fabric 1 :
A circle for the rump. The circumference of the edge split into 2 pieces of "inside" the legs and "outside the legs". Remember that the edges need extra fabric to fold over. Cut strips of fabric long enough to cover the wire legs. Be sure to flare at the end to cover the suction cup nub on top.

Fabric 2 :
Cut a triangle whole's base is the length of the "outside the legs" circumference. Then cut a tiny wedge whose length is the "inside". Those two are the top & bottom of the head.

Sew the leg fabric over the suction cups and up the leg. Sew the "outside the legs" fabric to the rump and then to the legs themselves. Then do the "inside the legs" strip. Now hopefully you have somewhere inside you can anchor an extra length of wire to (the wire between the leg holes?). Cut a single wire line that will exceed the length of the head. This is the antenna. Sew the head fabric on but leave the "nose" open a bit, where the antenna wire pokes out from. We're going to wrap the antenna wire with embroidery floss (keep it at 6 strands for thickness). The way to do this is....

I probably need a picture for this. I'm sure there's a name for it. Make a series of loops/twists. As you go, you'll realize that each loop/twist leaves a "bump" This is fine. The loop/twist... it's... you twist the loop, put the antenna wire in the middle, and then pull the tail of the thread up through the middle of the loop. Enough of these, made close enough together, is how you cover the wire. Remember to put a bell at the end of the antenna (before you cover it). Now close the nose. Done!

Thoughts : Very cute, very easy monster. This has to be one of the worst written Process sections on my blog so far though.... Sturdy wire legs and the suction cups make it easy to place and post. The bell is cute and the little ring of the bell makes it playful. A fun toy to have on the desk. Can stand easily on the ground due to the cups as it can on windows. The nose could sometimes hold a pencil/pen, but not very sturdy like. At Christmas I had it hold a candy cane so I guess it's not that weak.

Despite such a crummy Process section, this is one of the projects I actually recommend someone tries. Not that anyone reading this is very interested in making the projects I detail (who the hell is reading this anyway?) but if one were to attempt a project this has a good rewarding to easy-to-make ratio.

All the office peons were trapped behind glass. What was it there for, no one knew. It was large enough to act like a wall but served none- and we do mean none of a wall's purposes. We weren't to lean on it. We weren't to hang stuff from it. We weren't to write on it. It didn't block sight or sound. It was simply this.... obstruction. A symbol of the cages we were trapped in.

Which is why I made a creature to perch so clearly upon the wall. A little bell to ring to make sure you saw it there. A single antenna to extend, like a slender middle finger, and say "Fuck You" with.