My Fifi

Grayscale profile of poodle

legs held on with wooden skewers and masking tape

Cardboard cutout padded with masking tape, newspaper and foil

First coating using paper towels

Second coating using newspaper strips

Drying

Third coat of newspaper

base paint coat

base paint coat of gray

Face marked for later painting; fur cut and glued or sewn on

Fifi after fur sculping and casters applied

Fifi side shot

Imbuing personality

imbueing personality

Fifi Final close-up

Sometimes, I need to make my whims come into being through my art.  The result this time is Fifi.  She is my creation from masking tape, cardboard, newspaper, paper towels, wooden skewers, foil, glue, synthetic fur, paint, pearls and ribbon, and casters.  Fifi became the mascot for an event I was working on with a Parisian theme.  I decided we needed poodles. Originally, I imagined numerous pink balloon poodles, but eventually decided on Fifi.  Her coming into being was a result of a phone call with a friend, who happened to be in the middle of a paper maché project.  That phone call planted the seed to create her.  I mulled it over for a few weeks, before taking the plunge.  The last time I worked with paper maché I was in grade school, and the project consisted of covering a balloon.  This would be different.  I’m not sure what I enjoy more – the process or the result. Both were extremely satisfying.

My Fifi is no longer with me; she was auctioned off at the event.

Au revoir, mon Fifi~