Foam rubber Saavedro

My entry for 's Make One, Share One contest. Which is a great contest idea, very Myst-fandom-like from what I've lurked seen in the past years. I want to hug these initiatives, they're precious. Aaand the creativity displayed so far is amazing!

So. A Saavedro plushie. I wanted to do a three-dimensional rendition of a Myst character and I have some experience with modelling clay, but that thing can't be trusted to survive mail, defeating the possible "-share one" aspect of the contest (unless the recipient likes a good puzzle. A good jigsaw puzzle). My sewing machine hates me and the feeling is mutual.
So I thought, foam rubber? Why not? It's a material I love to use for cosplay, long after all the srsbsns people have moved onto forex and stuff, and I wanted to try my hand at something smaller. Foam rubber is squishy! It's huggable! It's reliable! It's posable, relatively speaking!
Saavedro's design seemed the best fit for the technique, with his wavy hair and, long robe covering the rough skeleton and enough trinkets to avoid a feeling of "why aren't you just sewing this again?" (hello Catherine I'm looking at you with a sad, sad face). Besides, I love Saavedro, everyone loves Saavedro - and I owed him one for wriggling out of writing him for two years. He's definitely not my favourite, but I like him a lot. I'd have loved to do a Yeesha, but the lady has neither the right hair nor clothes for this. At least for a first attempt at this.

The body and the curtain are all 100% foam rubber & glue gun, smoothed by three layers of waterproof rubbery coating for floors (cheap&effective! ) and coloured with flexible acrylic paints. Accessories were added using whatever material seemed fit: the squee is fake fur & glue gun, plastic screws were bought at the local DIY store...

I based the doll's dress on the official artwork for Saavedro and the face on actual in-game Brad Dourif. I didn't trust the low-res screenshots at my disposal to patch together a good map of the curtain's decorations, besides I like the artwork's concept better, so I went with that.
In the artwork, the symbols are clearly distinguishable (weeeell, aaaalmost /threehoursspentonNarayaniglyphstryingtomakethemfit) despite the cut in the middle. It looks to me like he didn't use his fabric in the most practical way: instead, he did his best to wear his people's symbols leaving them straight and recognizable. This doesn't seem to be reflected in the final costume and I like it better this way.
Also, the rope holding up the sleeves was too silly cool not to reproduce

All in all, I'm really happy I tried and I can't wait to model someone else! Possibly Yeesha or Exile's Atrus - or FFX's Braska since his scales and headpiece would be sooo perfect. Or go back to modelling clay. Or something. *feels creative again*


(The fake fur comes from a leftover of my Yeesha costume. Did Yeesha hunt squees for her boots?)


More pics!
T3h Mighty WIP collage

I survive
Through the jungle
Sitting
Through the jungle 2
Twiddling thumbs
All grumpy face
Wrong Book
Wrong Book again
Idk, me & my bff Exile
In a strange Age
Boring front view
Yes I'm grumpy
Wires
Boring back view
The perfect place to plan revenge