My Neighbor Totoro
For this project, I wanted to reignite my passion for sculpture, specifically with polymer clay. As a child, I used to make tons of trinkets out of polymer clay, mostly fan art from my favorite T.V. shows, movies and books. It had been a long time since I'd last worked with the material and I wanted to brush up on my skills and make something from a movie that's been my favorite for years – My Neighbor Totoro. However since this was for my rapid prototyping class, I would only have four hours to make it.
To start, a lot of my time was spent doing the preliminary work of the pond for the diorama. I used an upside down wooden plate as a base for this, then rolled out pieces of clay and baked one large pizza-pie-esque circle.
Even more of my time was spent on the tree stump and branch, using aluminum foil to avoid using an excess amount of clay and and thus avoiding increasing the time the clay needed to bake in order to harden completely. I admit that I spent a little more time on the wood grain texture than I probably should have, but it's the little details that make the piece come to life!
The last part I sculpted was the man himself – Totoro. With cut pieces of wire for whiskers and a body full of tin foil, he was ready to be baked and painted. Since I spent so much time sculpting, the paint job was completely rushed, but I of course still had to get in as much detail as possible, as fast as possible. And as the time ran out, I had a completed diorama of my favorite feline friend.
