This week I had a little parcel of pet animals made by Julip, these are all individually hand made with latex and each is a one-off model, sold on a first-come-first-served basis, so you have to be quick and lucky to add them to your collection!
I've been wanting one of these loudly spotted speckled hens ever since they first showed up in the spares, and finally managed to be first to ask about one!
I googled chicken breeds to find out what she was - the preview text below a matching photo was cut off saying 'Speckled Sus...' and my mind randomly filled in 'Susan' before I clicked and it turned out to say 'Speckled Sussex', but of course her name just has to be Susan now!
I also caught two ducks!
It amuses me that after years of wanting a normal mallard pair, and never managing to get them yet cos they sell out in instant and I'm never quick enough, I ended up getting both these extra-fancy rare breed ducks, when I'd have thought these would've gone in a flash for being so different!
Along with the new poultry, came this ginger cat, who just needed a little white patch adding on his chest to become a perfect lookalike model of my real one.
Proving that the colour match is very close, the mini version almost blends in with that dusty-shade-of-ginger fur!
Someone arrived on the board I use for my outdoor pictures, so I got a photo of him looking at his mini self - and then almost eating it! No model animals were harmed - he got a bit soggy but no toothmarks!
You may've spotted some of my model-making in the photos at the beginning of this post - I decided the arrival of yet another chicken meant my original henhouse was getting to be far too full, and it was time to build some new homes for my chickens and ducks.
The first henhouse, on the left, was made when I had about five or six chickens, I'm now at a total of 11 so they can be split into two groups, with the newer arrivals moving in to the new henhouse, in the middle. And on the right, a duck house for my first pair of ducks, and any future friends they might gain.
Henhouse 2 - I thought I'd got for a totally different shape and colour to the first one, so they look nice and varied in pictures, and so it wasn't too repetitive to make.
Like the first, it's made from a sheet of cardboard (a cereal box), painted with streaky acrylic paint, sliced into strips to make planks, then glued onto a smaller cardboard box trimmed to shape. The roof is just painted card, too, so it's all just recycling tea and food boxes - environmentally friendly and zero cost for building materials!
And here's the duck house - I had to google what the difference should be, and most of the duck ones had this steep angled roof - unlike chickens they sleep on the ground, not perches, so they don't need the upright space.
The ducks seem to like it! I'm hoping to get more at some point - I'd still like a mallard pair, and at work we have white and beige tame ducks, so perhaps one of each of those, too.
Here's the giveaway shot which proves they really are just cardboard boxes!
While they were outside in the garden, I set up some scenes with all the chooks'n'ducks looking happily settled into their houses
And one final shot cos it amuses me - over the last few years I'd found the chickens had a habit of falling over when bumped or nudged, and being made of rubber, if they roll off the edge of the shelf they bounce away and it becomes quite the hen-hunt to get them back again, so I found something to keep them safe...
I've already commented on this on J-club but gah, I just love the wood texture so much!
ReplyDeleteI am going to have SO much fun going through this commentbomb through my entire archive :D
DeleteIt really is just 'paint it really badly' streaking with the white cardboard showing through, no efforts to paint in actual woodgrain were made whatsoever, til the few knots and stained bits trailed in with a licked brush dipped in black, once the whole thing was assembled and dried.