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Rich1988 May 21, 2010

Hi Everyone

So, I've had a long long long long day playing about with footpads as I want something special for the polar bear I'm working on.
In fairness its been a lot of fun to experiment and I can't believe it's 9 O'clock

So I've finally got the footpad I'm looking for. It's made from black and white wool felt. With the black felt creating a trapunto pad, which has been stuffed and then the toe section stitched over with three claws.

This looked great but I really wanted to see if I could then get these hardened off and shiney, so as to resemble a real bears paw.

PVA and water tried and failed, nail varnish simply soaked in and finally I waxed. Very messy but it works! Applied, scraped, coloured, buffed with newspaper. The only problem is after all that colour and buffing the white in the back is no longer white!!

Can anyone help here? Does anyone have any good way I can avoid getting the white dirty or even better a way I can now turn the white back white?
Or, if anyone is willing to share (I don't want to steal trade secrets), does anyone have a more hassle free or cleaner way of getting the pads hard and shiny?
To be honest, any help or criticism is welcome.

Thanks.

Richard
x

P.S. I've attached a photo of the pad so you can see what I mean, its a bit too shiny in the photo because I've just applied clear varnish over the wax to see what happens and how this will turn out, obviously this is still wet at the minute.

Fallenrose May 21, 2010

I have no experience at all with hardening paw pads, but if you don't find another way, you could simply paint the with paw areas with white acrylics (or maybe Copics? don't know if they work on felt)

Hope I could help a bit.

Hugs, Ariane

desertmountainbear May 22, 2010

To make anything on a bear hard I use Delta Ceramcoat All Purpose Sealer.  It is used to prepare porous surfaces for painting.  I use it on felted noses, eyelids, etc.  It will soak in but it will dry hard.  I purchase it at Walmart. It does not dry clear it dries kind of cloudy, you will need to paint it after.    You could also use a clear gesso.

Sorry I can't help you with getting the color out.

Joanne

amber May 22, 2010

Hi Richard

try using a small amount of baking soda and warm water. Make sure you brush off the area later.

For future try using masking tape on the areas you don't want stained but don't leave it there for too long (weeks) it tends to dry out and may pull at the fabric and turn it fluffy if you do make sure you brush what ever you are using away from the tape as pushing into it may go under the edges. Kind of like taping off things in a house for painting.

Hope this helps.

Amber