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Description

Here's something I've been working on for a while! My favourite kind of flightless 5-eyed dream bird!

(I suppose this is kind of an art doll... maybe? I'm just going to stick with the familiar plushies category for now...)

This plush contained a few different challenges.

One, that fabric was a proper pain in the butt to sew, and to trim! But it works very well for the scruffy feathers of a yamagain. Worth it.

Two, it actually has a solid 'skull', made of light air-dry clay. Originally this was sculpted around tin foil, but that made it just a bit too heavy, so I had to crack open the skull, remove all the foil, then stick it back together. Brain surgery! But it worked, and the hollow clay is actually stronger than I expected.

Three, the two eyes at the side of its head can actually turn right around, as you can see in the top right pic! They are attached with joints I made with two bottlecaps, foam circles and some wire. They worked really well!

(And four, it is still a little top heavy. I'm going to add more beans to its body when they come in the post.)

The (middle 3) eyes and beak are part of the clay 'skull', the rest of which was covered with fur. I had a lot of fun painting and varnishing all the eyes, though it was pretty hard to glue the fur neatly around them. It also has some claws made from Sculpey then painted and varnished.

It is about 20cm tall when sat up straight, about life size if yamagains were real. The photos aren't that great, but the bottom right one most accurately shows the colours of its feathers and eyes.

Compared to the simple felt yamagain I made nearly 4 years ago, this is like... Super Deluxe Yamagain.

Information on yamagains for those not in the know:

The yamagain is a type of weird bird that appeared in a dream I had years back, and has since become one of my favourite made-up creatures. They are flightless, but somehow are able to jump extremely far, like a flea, despite having stubby little legs. They have a very big mouth and a strong bite and mostly eat bark, small bugs, and yams. Their feathers are normally scruffy-looking. Also, as you can see, they have 5 eyes, which always follow the same colour pattern. The 2 eyes on stalks are able to turn around backwards, so you can't sneak up on one.

Description

Here's something I've been working on for a while! My favourite kind of flightless 5-eyed dream bird!

(I suppose this is kind of an art doll... maybe? I'm just going to stick with the familiar plushies category for now...)

This plush contained a few different challenges.

One, that fabric was a proper pain in the butt to sew, and to trim! But it works very well for the scruffy feathers of a yamagain. Worth it.

Two, it actually has a solid 'skull', made of light air-dry clay. Originally this was sculpted around tin foil, but that made it just a bit too heavy, so I had to crack open the skull, remove all the foil, then stick it back together. Brain surgery! But it worked, and the hollow clay is actually stronger than I expected.

Three, the two eyes at the side of its head can actually turn right around, as you can see in the top right pic! They are attached with joints I made with two bottlecaps, foam circles and some wire. They worked really well!

(And four, it is still a little top heavy. I'm going to add more beans to its body when they come in the post.)

The (middle 3) eyes and beak are part of the clay 'skull', the rest of which was covered with fur. I had a lot of fun painting and varnishing all the eyes, though it was pretty hard to glue the fur neatly around them. It also has some claws made from Sculpey then painted and varnished.

It is about 20cm tall when sat up straight, about life size if yamagains were real. The photos aren't that great, but the bottom right one most accurately shows the colours of its feathers and eyes.

Compared to the simple felt yamagain I made nearly 4 years ago, this is like... Super Deluxe Yamagain.

Information on yamagains for those not in the know:

The yamagain is a type of weird bird that appeared in a dream I had years back, and has since become one of my favourite made-up creatures. They are flightless, but somehow are able to jump extremely far, like a flea, despite having stubby little legs. They have a very big mouth and a strong bite and mostly eat bark, small bugs, and yams. Their feathers are normally scruffy-looking. Also, as you can see, they have 5 eyes, which always follow the same colour pattern. The 2 eyes on stalks are able to turn around backwards, so you can't sneak up on one.