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Ellen,
I use Roma Plastalina, medium to hard, depending on the piece. It's really just an ugly dark green or grey version of kid's non-hardening clay. Although it's non-hardening it's tough enough for your sculpture to last just about forever as long as it's not banged around. It costs about $10.00 for 2 lbs. and you can find it online in any site selling sculpture supplies. In a pinch you can use children's clay but it's a little too soft for a sturdy model. The sculpture in the photo is a fired clay. I just happened to be taking a sculpture class and used it to create a model (Notice the hollow eyes, kind of spooky!) Plastalina is better suited to modeling for soft sculpture.
Side note* Do you remember the Breyer realistic plastic horses and animals? Those and many other realistic toys are designed by artists using Plastalina (the hard version so they can carve the musculature).
Karen
Back Road BearsI've used silly putty...... don't laugh. It was all I had on hand and I was desparate. It did the trick in a pinch!
:crackup: :crackup: I don't really recommend it though because it's very soft and won't hold it's shape if you are going to do what Jennifer did with pins, etc. (What a visual that description created, Jennifer! Too funny!)
Hearts Ease Bearsthat part about draping the live cat cracked me up..is that where the 'flying fur" comes from? 
great discussion..is there such a thing yet as a cad program or other 3d type software that will let us do the same thing? deb
BEAR ME SHOOTKAKaren, thank you for sharing your way 
My daughter beggs for a cat and now I can say I'm half ready to make one
Thank you, you are a great teacher!
Julia :hug:
Heather,
I didn't drape a live cat but I did measure every inch of my cat's face with a ruler when I was creating the sculpture; eyeballs, nose, between the eyes.....To this day if I even look in the direction of one of my cats with a ruler they RUN!
Karen
P.S. It's amazing how different each cat is when you do all the measurement. This might help you create a portrait of your cat if you don't mind being snubbed for quite a while 
Fascinating stuff Karen. I really enjoyed reading about your process ... thanks for sharing it!
