My Totoro Project

    I have been wanting to make a Totoro every since I first saw My Neighbor Totoro, the animated movie made by Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli in Japan, many years ago. I will admit that I am a serious fan of all things Totoro, and yet all these years later, I had still never attempted to make one, until now. 

    What made me finally give it a try, is simply that I stumbled across several people's youtube channels, where they were making chickens and mice and other little critters, using a method both simple and non-toxic. This had been my major stumbling block because I simply couldn't make one out of polymer clay,  the baking process and smell from that process was toxic to me.

    Here is my first attempt at using the cotton and watered down glue method to make a figure. I am very pleased with it. It takes a bit of patience, but is very easy, and just needs good drying times between applying layers. There are so many better youtube videos out there showing this method, that I will leave it to you to go there and look, rather than go through the making process here. (That and I forgot to take pictures as I was making him.) I can recommend a channel called Rosanna Makes as one of the best. Her mice one is really fun, and she creates some other very sweet little critters too. 

These are the basic supplies I used, and a small container of water to make my glue mixture. I used cotton balls that I had on hand, some cloth covered florists wire from my stash of wire, a small paintbrush, and a small styrofoam egg.

I cut small bits of the wire for his arms legs and tail, inserted them into the egg, and then began applying the cotton, using the watered down glue. Basically you are painting on layers of cotton a little bit at a time. I am delighted with how he turned out. Painting him was a bit of a challenge because he is so small, under three inches tall. I found the smaller a thing is the harder to get the details right, but hey if it was all easy, what would be the point of trying it, right?!

When he was all done drying, and for me this process took the longest, because I could only air dry him. I didn't want to spend the electricity it would have taken to dry him in the stove or by use of a fan method, so it took a few days to get him dry. (Also I was using a foam egg as his base, not something I saw done in the youtube video's, and not something  I wanted to put in my oven.) After he was good and dry, I painted him over first with white gesso. I had some acrylic paints that I used to over paint him with. I didn't paint him wet, as some folks do, as I wanted him to look like the animation. It just so happened that there was a color blue in the small set that I had, that was just the color I wanted, so I didn't have to mix any paint. I chose to use gesso and acrylic because I wanted him to harden up, but the other folks making these have used water colors, ink tints, and also watered down acrylic paint, so the figure remains soft.

The thing is, I have been trying to figure out for the longest time, what to do with this funky mushroom thingy I had made using a large wool felted ball that I had cut in half and covered with stretch velvet to make this sculpture last winter. I have a few of these wood chunks which I found while Andrew and I were walking in the orchard. The farm guys had been out pruning back the pear tree's, rather severely, and had cut off big chunks of limbs, leaving these gnarled hunks on the ground. I couldn't resist them as I thought surely I could make them into something woodsy?! I'm so happy I did!

Here I thought I would try putting a painting behind as a backdrop. It looked okay, but things just weren't quite the way I wanted yet. It seemed like a good start tho.

Andrew and I have been going on hikes lately, and I always like to pick up a few bits and pieces as we walk along. Things like various cones and bits of twig and bark. In this case it was tiny little hazelnuts that bugs had got to, so the squirrels had left them under the bushes. I would have preferred tiny acorns, as that is the food that Totoro's like best, but I think the wild hazelnuts worked pretty good. I don't think a Totoro would turn them down if they once tasted them, they are far more tasty than acorns.

The other things I managed to glean were from our own front yard. We had to cut down a nasty staghorn sumac, that had overgrown and was too close to the house foundation, some time ago. We managed to kill it by natural means instead of poison, and its stump was still in the ground left to rot. It grew these really cool tiny fungi. They were all dried out. Also the bark on the stump peeled off in really cool little chunks. I hot glued them randomly onto the pear hunk, to add detail, and cover some of the pruned twig ends. Finally, things were really starting to come together.

         After I got the nuts and fungus all in place, I still wasn't completely happy with it. I decided that the fabric hanging down on the mushroom was just not right, so I basted around its edge and pulled it up and tucked it under and glued it down. I also added bits of bark to the trunk of the mushroom stalk, that had come off the old dead staghorn sumac stump. It was just the right color and texture that I wanted.

I decided that I would take Totoro out into the yard for a bit of a natural photo shoot, and see how it looked. I am happy to say I think it looks great.

The bit of blue crochet lace you see on the mushroom stem, was a lucky find. It was just exactly the right length for what I needed. It is a small length of hand crocheted lace that had been made by Grandma May Zimmerman-Roberts. Mom had given it to me years ago, and told me that her grandma had made it. It came from Grandma Mays sewing basket stash, and Mom had inherited it when she passed away. I had kept it in one of my own little stash baskets, since she gave it to me, but had never found a use for it, until now. Yippy!!! It was just the right shade of blue that I wanted. Now I happily put it to good use.

Here at last is my Totoro sitting on his own little island of loveliness. The pictures just don't do him justice. I wish you could see all of the little details. The added bonus here is that the mushroom can be used as a pin cushion. The wool felted ball I used, makes it the loveliest pin cushion you ever saw.

I hope you all have enjoyed this, and I also hope it inspires you to try this cotton/glue technique. It is something that would be great to do with your kids. I found it delightful. Totoro was the very first thing I tried to make, using this method, and it turned out very well. Just the way I hoped it would. Now this just gives me all kinds of idea's of what I can make in the future. Happy crafting everyone!

I hope this finds all of you healthy and happy, may you have a God blessed day!