Cute Critter

[DawninCal]

Some of you will remember the first critter I made with soldering techniques - a dragonfly. Since then, I have a list of critters that I'd like to try and yesterday I made a first attempt at a lizard. There are areas for improvement, but here is the result. I've included angles from all four sides so you can really "see" him. He measures just under two inches in length and just over .75 inches at his widest part which is his back feet. At it's highest point, it is .25 inches.

In this first pic, if you look at his feet, you'll see that I started out with just two toes. The end result looked like a lobster claw and I did not like it at all so I tried three toes and I was happy with that.









And, this one is a close-up of his cute little face.



His head is too small for his body, so when I make the next one, I will make the head larger and the nose longer. All four lets will have three toes. I like the ridge on his back, but I don't think most lizards have that in real life so I will have to decide whether or not to keep it. I'm leaning towards keeping it because I like the texture and visual interest. Other than that, I will try to make the body with a little more finesse and add a loop for a chain. If I could make these smaller, they'd also make cute earrings.



Dawn

[caeterle]

Look up "brown anole", Dawn. They have a ridge.

What a sweet idea, he really is so cute!

I have been wanting to ask before, how firm is the solder? I'm asking because of the legs. How thick does solder have to be to be sturdy enough? I'm completely clueless as I only ever used a soldering iron once in my life, in art class at school, and all I remember of that is that my teacher wasn't happy because I tried to do it with as little effort as possible

[DawninCal]

Thank you, Cat! At the moment, I'm in love with him and he goes with me pretty much wherever I go (at home), but that is true for many of my creations. Whatever is the latest thing I like to have it where I can see it.

I did look up the brown anole and felt a bit validated about the ridge. The lizards over in old town are mostly alligator lizards and they don't have a ridge, but I thought I'd seen other species that did.

The solder is amazingly solid. I've been surprised at how strong it is. The lizard's legs are made of 20g copper wire that has been covered in solder. Because I'm experimenting, no two are the same. One is covered with one layer of solder, and while firm, I can bend it without a lot of effort, but it is not flimsy either. Another has two layers and can be manipulated, but it takes effort and it's definitely solid unless someone was really rough with it. The other two legs have three layers and they are really hard to bend; solid for sure.

If I had used 18g wire, one layer of solder would have resulted in a sturdy leg that was tough to bend.

I'm guessing that way back when you took that art class, you weren't very interested in learning to solder and could see no reason why you'd ever need to have that skill in the future. Funny, how things change, isn't it?



Dawn

[caeterle]

Believe it or not, we were supposed to make a piece of jewelry
I made a pendant out of a circle, a triangle, and a square if I remember right, but I didn't like the soldering, so I didn't want to do each corner of the triangle and square and bent the wire into shape instead and just soldered the one joint. I knew it was lazy, but to be honest, I never quite got along with that teacher and there was always a bit of (dumb) rebelling against him included.

[DawninCal]

You're a rebel who was destined to make jewelry, Cat...



Dawn

[michelle]

He is adorable, Dawn! I love his three toed feet (agree about the 2 toes). And while Cat gave you a real life example, he does not have to be real. I love made up creatures. 😄 Nice that you can make him so sturdy.

[DawninCal]

Thank you, Michelle!

Since posting this, I have thought of some improvements I'm going to try in the overall design process of making these little critters.

And, I wholeheartedly agree with you about made up creatures. After all, letting the imagination soar is what art and creativity are all about, right?



Dawn