To start of making i went with the white rabbit as that was the piece that i knew what shape i was going to be using. I looked up pictures of rabbits and concentrated on what their heads looked like so i could get a rough idea of what i needed to make using newspaper and mod roc.
First off i made very basic shapes out of newspaper for the head and the ears. using thin strips of mod roc i applied at least two layers of mod roc too the newspaper until it felt hard enough everywhere leaving no weak spots. I then moulded the shape of the head a bit better as it is easily mouldable while it is still wet. once i was happy with the shape I left the pieces to dry fully over night.
Once the pieces were fully dried i lined up where the ears would be and cut into the head piece so that the ear could be slotted into place. I then attached them using more thin strips of mod roc. Building up the layers until the ears felt fully in place and wouldn’t fall out. Again i left this to fully dry and this was the base of the rabbits head complete.
Originally i wanted to use real rabbit fur left over from my ‘Unorthodox” project however i didn’t have any light coloured fur left and if i ordered more i ran the risk of it not arriving in time for the end of the project. While in a shop buying the eyes i found some white fake fur and decided this would be perfect for the piece. I lined the whole of the rabbit head with the fake fur, then attached the eyes, i bought red teddy eyes as in the book the white rabbit is described as having pink eyes, and red was the closest i could get.
“..when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.”
For the inner ears i used the backside of some sheep skin that i had so it still had that element of real fur to the piece. Again using the backside of more fur i had i created a nose for the rabbit too.
I am happy with the outcome of the White Rabbit head however i would have been even happier if the piece had been made using real fur as it would have made it look more realistic and had an overall more uncomfortable feeling. but due to timing i couldn’t risk waiting for the real fur to arrive in time.
Maeve Dawson Art 