All for a Looking Glass Cake!

Just because I said that I wouldn't make anymore "Alice" dolls, didn't mean I would make anymore "Alice" needle felts!  And of course, Alice Illustrated might just need a new "illustrated outfit" someday.  I surely hope you aren't tiring of Alice.  Nothing seems to inspire me more.


Every end of August is the beginning of a string of birthdays.  And, so I begin wondering what to buy, what to make, what that special someone might be delighted with.  And, then there's Christmas.  Its a busy time indeed.  Not all of my friends do gift exchanges, but Jean and I have been doing this for quite some time.  And, she's my Alice Soul Mate. 


One year I dressed a small porcelain doll for her as Alice, and the gift theme took off.  Last year she sent me the most amazing papered trunk with paper toys in it, all in Tenniel's Alice.  I flipped.  Turns out mine was a twin to one she kept for herself.  And since then, I've been helping her fill hers with "felties", as she calls them.

I wanted to do something birthday themed, and the only cake in the story (Through the Looking Glass), was a plum pudding called a Looking Glass cake.  Making the cake alone simply wouldn't do, so I set out to make at least the Unicorn, from which the cake came from in the chapter, The Lion and the Unicorn.  But, then he really needed the Lion or the story couldn't be told properly, so this birthday gift ran away with me a bit.  You think?

So let's recap.  I'm sure my "Cliff's Notes" here will sound about as strange as the story, but here goes.  So the King is on one of his normal rampages.  Alice is there of course, and the king is waiting for his messengers Haigha and Hatta.  For those of you familiar with the book, Haigha is the one that hands the king a "ham sandwich" from his messenger bag.  The king hears a noise and Alice asks, "Who are at it again?"  "The Lion and the Unicorn, of course."  "Fighting for the crown!"  Which happens to be the king's crown.  Then Alice remembers an old song.  

"The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown: The Lion beat the Unicorn all around town.  some gave them white bread, some gave them brown: Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town."

So the two messengers, Alice and the king, go forth to watch the fight.  The king calls for a ten minute refreshment break seeing that the Lion and the Unicorn are fairly spent.  Silly conversation commences, of course, with Alice being singled out and identified as a monster.  Yet Alice sees the unicorn as a fabulous monster, and now they can both agree that something unique has happened.  They've both seen monsters.  This means a refreshment better than brown bread must be had, so the unicorn exclaims "Come fetch out the plum-cake...".  The lion shows up and asks Alice to hand round the plum-cake.  (I'm really editing here!)

But, of course its a magical plum-cake and no matter how Alice saws away at the thing, the pieces keep joining together again.  So the lion says, "You don't know how to to manage Looking-glass cakes...Hand it round first, and cut it afterwards."  Naturally the unicorn is miffed thinking the lion got a larger slice (the lion's share??).  And, the gist of all this is, the plum-cake is a stand in for Jean's birthday cake, and I had to make everything.

The chapter ends with Alice hearing another noise.  This one is of drums.  The drums that "drum them out of town".  I've got to tell you that if you're ever in need of a little clarity in your life, read Alice.  Your head will be filled with such nonsense after a page or two that your conundrum will make perfect sense.

I think one of the reasons I love doing these needle felts, is that I want to see what the characters look like from all sides.  I naturally have to make this up, following along with what I believe the illustration would look like should it step off the page.  I also get a brief education in animal anatomy - sort of.  After beginning to create one of the anthropomorphic critters, I find myself doing research on the real animal.  When I have a bit of understanding on the animal, I go back to the illustration and work between the two.  Its one thing to say you know what a lion or horse (with a horn) looks like, but quite another to sculpt it, dress it, give it a court costume or put glasses on its nose!

Both the Lion and the Unicorn as roughly 6" tall.  The cake plate is 2" in diameter.  I'd intended them to be around 4 1/2" to 5" tall, but there you go.  I had to begin with wire armature and just making that wasn't easy.  I did figure something out though.  If you want to make good wire armature, find images of the skeleton of the thing.  Then simplify with wire.  Why don't Youtube instructors tell you this?  I guess that would be too easy.  Giving away the secret!

The Unicorn gave me a chance to explore folds in clothing.  Also, it gave me an opportunity to work with "sticking hands in one's pockets".  Neither of these things is a no-brainer.  I really have to teach myself how to do things as I go along.  Yes, I make mistakes.  I love mistakes...no I don't, not really...but, they do teach you how to look at it again and do it correctly. 

The Lion was tougher than the Unicorn, even though I had to dress the Unicorn and detail his clothing.  I love his shoes.  The Lion looked like the Pink Panther up until the very last day when I added his ruff.  This was very troubling for me since he really needed to look serious.  I also learned to mix my own felt for a correct color.  No one sold "Tenniel lion gold" wool.  Both the Unicorn and the Lion were completely sculpted with sand colored core wool, then layered with their colors.  The Lion's glasses are two punched out circles from a plastic box and wired together in the middle.  I drilled needle holes into the plastic discs to insert the wire.  

Finally we came to the birthday, or plum-cake.  I purchased a set of yellow Barbie plates to get the platter, and a miniature kitchen knife to resemble the carving knife Alice sawed away with.  Tenniel's must have been a bone-handled knife, so I painted the wood handle ivory.  You really have to study the illustration, but the cake has little "red dots" on top, so I assumed these would be currants or similar, and dotted my cake accordingly. 

This was fun.  It was a learning experience and kept the gray matter well exercised.  It took me a little over a couple of weeks to do this set, and I worked, seriously, all day-every day on it.  When I got stuck, I slept on the solution, then literally "went for it" the next day.  Sometimes you have to just trust your instincts.  Yes, go ahead and say it.  The lion looks a bit like Dorothy's Cowardly Lion.  With glasses.  Like any project, especially one you have to really work hard on, there comes a time when you need to say "done".  Today was it.  I'm actually writing this on the 9th, but won't post it until Jean opens her present, or on the 24th.  And, until I mail them, I get to enjoy them for a little while! 

Next?  The Alsace doll.  I think.  Christmas is coming...

Love,

Melissa