Happy Feet!!!

Poor Tessie! I made her wait until this morning for the operation. I did give her a bottle of Zar's magic elixir to keep her soothed. Let's just say that she was feeling NO pain...

I thought you might be interested in how her foot replacement surgery is done.

I am a very gentle doctor when it comes to transplants. She gets to keep the old one until the new one is finished and it is just a matter of a couple of seconds that she is without a foot.

I took a hunk of flesh(translate that to Super Sculpey) about the size of her existing foot and start by shaping it around a bone(chenille stem, wrapped with floral tape). Then, after I get about the right size, I start smoothing the ankles and shape of the foot. I use a toothpick as a tool for most of it and my fingers for smoothing....

I put a lot of dots at the end of the last sentence to let you catch your breath before I tell you how to get a perfectly smooth surface on your clay. Some people are going to say UGH, but it is a foolproof method. Lick your finger, and use it to smooth. For some reason just wetting your finger doesn't work as well. If you are worried about poly poisoning, simply use a wet wipe in between licks. Someone taught me this about 30 years ago and I am not dead yet. I also have very smooth poly skin by doing this. I know....Icky!!!

The only tools that I use for this, other than fingers, are toothpicks, exacto(to separate toes) and a tapestry needle to make the toe nails.

In this photo, I still need to do some smoothing on the toes. You can see just a bit of the chenille stem sticking out of the top. That will be bent to make a stand for the foot to rest on in the oven.

I put the foot in the oven. Set the oven temp to 275 degrees. Then I turn on the timer for 15 minutes. I turn it off after that and let the foot cool in the oven.

As of now, Tessie has a new foot, is dancing on the balcony, on a chair. She has the bottle of elixir, which is now about 1/4 full and she is feeling no pain. In fact, she is doing a happy dance with Spike.

No more sore toes!

See you tomorrow.