The original design I saw was string or rope with a "shoe" at the bottom to dangle over an edge. I even bought cotton sash cord to try it out! Maybe dye it red? That was going to cost me more and what do I use for a shoe???
Then I thought I would make "stuffed" arms and legs, with a split pin holding it in place like a joint, and stitching it together. The knee would be a Y type joint with a gusset and stitched together... Over engineering at its finest!!
Eventually, I thought of those jointed paper dolls, made out of cardboard with the split ring. Voila! I could use heavy card, glue felt to both sides, split rings - done!!
I drafted up some arms out of paper, found the size and style I liked and off I went. Glueing up a storm, soon both legs and arms were finished. Any size tin would work for this project, all depends upon getting the right size of the head, but mine are 12cm tall and 25cm around, with a plastic sealing lid that held coffee.
So, without further ado, heeeeeere's Santa!!!
A couple of different angles....
As usual, a few things I would do differently. Firstly, his neck. I need a solid ring, rather than the clear, as you can see how I have pulled the fabric through a little hole and tied it. Not too nice...
Secondly, his arms and legs could probably use lighter card, which leads into point three, which is hands and feet. They need some kind of internal support, but the card I used was so thick I couldn't get any decent curves. Lighter card would allow stiffness in the hands while keeping the detail. I could then add laces to shoes, or rings to hands without them simply collapsing with the extra weight.
Apart from these points, all is good! I will write up a quick tutorial on how I made this Santa, and perlaps do a better one later on.... We'll see how motivated I get! It's summer here, and we just had our first heat wave - 5 days above 35*C - and it's not even Christmas yet! Thank goodness for air conditioning!!
