It’s been such a long time since I did any polymer clay work that all my talent seemed to have deserted me when I sat down to make a start on this little chap. In fact it took nearly a week and endless prototypes before I started to feel like I was finding my fingers with it again. In the end though, I’m rather pleased with this little chap. He’s a great Halloween Cat and easy to make with some patience too.

I started with the orange one (who I think I probably like the character of the best really) and made the brown one to photograph a tutorial. We had a lot of fun together and hopefully these fairly brief photo instructions will help you too.

As usual, all my Fimo came from our shop CraftMerrily. We are always very pleased to welcome new customers and grateful for their purchases!

1. First, whizz up your chosen colours into a blend that feel furry to you and divide into balls for head, body, neck, legs and tail. I made my leg balls roughly twice the size I needed them here, so scale back a bit there!

2. Make the body a bit egg shaped and then put a flattened neck ball on top. I added a flat disk of cream to his tummy for a splash of colour.

3. Mould the ear points out a bit (and they need to go through a hat so make them slightly too large. I use a pointy tool to make ear dimples; if you fancy it you can fill them with a small pear drop shape of a different colour. Push your thumbs into the sides to make eye sockets and then press a round tool in to those sockets to make the eye ball hole.

(Note: at this point the head can get a bit flat; you get a better cat face if you pause to round it up again a little, especially under the nose. My tutorial attempt went a bit flat and teddy like.)

4. Two flat pancakes of colour go into the eye sockets. I like translucent Fimo for this. I use a knitting need to make hole in that and then push two beads in for pupils.

5. Create the small pieces shown in the middle right picture and attach them to the face. How these are placed gives character and expression, so experiment.

6. I use a knitting needle to give furry blending detail now. Blend the eye lids, soften the ears, add fur to his face and blend the triple nose piece to the face. Add whisker dots to the cream and nostrils to the black nose.

7. Attach him to his neck and blend those 3 pieces together. I know cats don’t have very obvious necks but it just lengthens his figure a bit. Add furry detail across the body front, especially blending the tummy patch if you’ve made one.

8. Getting the arms and legs right is tricky. Remember to give elbows (no one has joint free limbs, it just looks wrong) and experiment with paws. Chunky is good, delicate gives a different look (more female). Add three dents to the paws for claws/footpads.

9. With the back legs, a change in angle helps the feet look real. Model the shape in the bottom right picture and add a detail by scoring a line around the ‘ankle’ and then pressing the leg and foot together again. It makes it look more defined. Add creases at the next joint. Make the side attaching to the body flat and the outer side more rounded. You can see this better in the top picture below.

10. Attach the limbs and position to give the attitude you like. Once the look and feel right, blend the hips and shoulders on to the main body so the join isn’t obvious. Don’t blend too far down or he will look as if his legs are stuck to his body in a weird body lock spell. Add furry detail to his limbs and his back.

11. Mould a tail in a shape that suits him. Make one end thick and flat and then sit him on it and blend as before. Looks better than being stuck to the back and is stronger too.

12. His wizard hat is just moulded from a ball of black Fimo. It needs two holes in the brim for his ears but otherwise can be a floppy or perky as you like. This one has a beaten up hat but I think he’s a fairly old wizard cat 🙂

As usual, I created a Pinterest board to inspire me. You might like some of these Cat Crafts too.