The Rat Factory

The last five days I've been fairly miserable with the most incredibly sore throat, fever and now a cough that won't stop, however I keep at it here in my studio. This week the mask orders have piled up like a second Halloween and I'm of course very busy making rat hats.

These rats are for a production of "Coraline" To be performed by a ballet company in London.

As you can see they have red crystal eyes. All the rats in this picture have already been shipped to London.

From my design you can see that they have a pocket on top of their heads for a soul (the ball) that the dancers present to Coraline at the end of the dance.

The lead dancer will be wearing this rat mask. The ears are detached because they will be fixed to a top hat for the performance.

I'm making 13 head dresses and each one fits a specific dancer.

This is one of the labels I use while it's in progress. While I make each rat I'll refer to them by name. Such as "Flora needs her eyes painted" or "Grace's ears are drying"...

...Or "Oh yes, Sonia over there is still in pieces".

Anyway I have shipped the mask and the first 3 head dresses 5 more are in various stages around my desk. That leaves 5 I haven't even started.... It's going to be a long month!

In other news- today marks 10 YEARS since my very first post on this blog. Everything was different then... Take a look!