Foam Addict

Younger Days

I have always been addicted to foam and sponge and I have the proof.

This little guy was made by me when I was 10 or 12 years old. None of my mother’s colorful kitchen sponges were safe from me and my trusty little glue gun and googly eyes.

I have such fond memories of these little critters, they were the best bath toys ever. Floating along with just their little eyes above the water like real crocs.

I also had a flock of parrots and a herd of dinosaurs and dragons most of which were lost to time but at least a few survived to reach a ripe old age 

If you have kids who enjoy crafts I implore you to share the joy of sponge with them. I would love nothing more then to see someone make such silly little foam toys with their children like I used to do.

All Finished

I unfortunately did not have a good camera during the creation of Theo so there are very few pictures until he was fully done. I bought a camera after he was done so hopefully I won’t be so negligent again.

Theo WIPs

Now that I have the whole tutorial out of the way I can post some of my older stuff for your viewing pleasure. This is Theo my last trade and a big challenge that I was happy to take on.

Those wings were so fun and difficult to design and implement but so insanely satisfying when they all worked out and looked awesome. You can thank Vertaki for designing such a great character and even more for letting me try to bring him to life!

Finishing Touches

The rest of the work was all minor and tedious finishing, nothing overly difficult. If you have gotten this far I am sure these small touches will offer little problem.

The claws which are each on their own wires were carefully pushed up through the foam and into the tubing of the skeleton at the wrist. I cast the claws themselves but as I had no idea what I was doing I did not document it. You can just as easily sculpt each one out of clay and achieve the same result. Giving each finger it’s own wire allows all the fingers and toes to be posed and lets the doll grip things to hold itself up or hold items for fun photo shoots. (As you can see with the pine cone gathering) 

The mane of spikes is just a bunch of little shapped foam peices all carefully glued on.

The eyes are clear red glass tear drop beads stuck into a hole and glued in place.

The necklace is made of volcanic rock and wooden beads along with an Iceland charm. A while after I dyed him blue I realized I should so give him a necklace to show proudly where he was born. The Icelandic flag colors go so well together and give him a little bit of pop :D

I hope this tutorial has been helpful and I look forward to posting more projects and dolls in the future!

Ready For Takeoff

Wings on and everything glued up and ready for finishing touches. Time for the eyes, claws, and spikes.

Wings: ‘Sewing’

To attach the wings I ‘sew’ them on weaving the thread through the holes in the plastic and in through the twists in the wire. I do this a few times back and forth along the edge with strong thread to ensure it won’t come off or break easily.

You can see that the metal rusted a bit when I dyed it, this was the first time that happened to me. I think it was just a matter of not leaving it in a warm enough place to dry quick enough. No harm done the rust will be easily covered by the little foam covers for the wings.

Wings: Drilling

Now that the dragon is dyed I can finally attach the wings. To do this I start by drilling small holes through the plastic along the edge measuring how far up they should go by how long the wires and the little covers for the wings are.

Dying: Finished

All Dry and ready for some glue to properly attach everything. Nothing fancy about that, just need to glue the legs to the body and close the seam in the chest.

Dying: The Vat! Dun Dun Dun!

Time to give the dragon a little color, in this case blue. I use Rit dye as it is awesome and does not care what you do with it. You can dump it in cold water, hot water, warm water, it hardly matters it will dye your foam all the same. I tried using Dylon once and it was a horrible disaster. I can only assume that was because it HAS to be boiled which is something I’m just not willing to do. I also have no idea how the foam would react to boiling water, not well I might imagine.

So Rit dye it is. I always do a small test bit of foam to check the color, smart practice before you go dumping your whole creation in there. When the water is ready it’s time to dunk the whole thing in there. You want to make sure all the joints are extended fully because if you leave them bent you are likely to get white spots in those areas. When ducking the foam you will need to get your hands in there to squeeze out ALL the air from the foam and ensure the whole thing has been saturated with water and dye. Any air left in the foam will cause the dye to not take evenly so squeeze the sucker while holding it under until you are sure it’s all out.

Once the foam is saturated the next issue is trying to keep it from floating at the top. If you let it float it might not dye properly on the parts breaking the surface. I use random sticks and things to hold mine under. You will just have to find some creative way to do this, or manually hold it under til it’s ready (which is not a short amount of time). 

Usually I leave my dragons to soak for a good many hours checking on it now and again to see how the color is doing. Once its the color you want it’s time to carefully take it out (it will be very heavy so be sure to support it so as not to tear or brake anything) and rinse it thoroughly. Then of course set it to dry.

Group Photo!

Just cause I can. A picture of my first dragon Quess and his new and improved brother in the making.