Custom Sculpey: Fantasy Lizard Home

Maybe five to six years ago, I got one of my very infrequent flashes of inspiration, and I quickly created a small blue lizard-like Sculpey character.  Looking over this little creature, I immediately felt that it needed a place to call home.  Drawing up a few designs, I finally settled on one idea and got to work.  This project called for an awful lot of patience, and it was a lucky time for me in that my kids were small enough that they could not actually disturb my workspace in the living room.  I could still be nearby while I did my work.

Unfortunately, I have no "in process" photos of the project, but here is the final result.  From side to side, this measures around ten inches, maybe five inches tall, and about six inches from front to back.  That's including the green space around the house itself.

Oh!  Looks like my little lizard guy came outside to say hi!

Basically, this is just the front half of the house.  I suppose one could imagine it being built onto the side of a cliff, or perhaps the other half is identical and the house would then be free-standing.

You can see that not every stone in the walls is of the same color.  I was imagining that these had been pulled out of a stream bed or something similar, thus the tumbled look.

I must admit I'm absolutely terrible at naming my creations.  Thus this character just winds up being a "lizard."  Maybe someone can give me a better name some time.  His cloak is actually a thin sheet of Sculpey wrapped around the head and body.  He's got a crest at the back of his head, but it's not visible under the cloak.  He's got a green gem in a pendant around his neck as well.

In my mind's eye, this creature is some form of magic user, so the pendant may itself be magical.  Of course, no tiny magical creature could possibly exist without some suitably large mushrooms around.  The gods of whimsy demand it.  And, no, I have never heard of these Smurfs you are thinking of.

Here's a bit of detail of the stones in the walls.  Each stone is actually a separately sculpted piece, then stacked into the shape of walls.  It did indeed take quite some time to make.  This was quite possibly unnecessary and maybe even obsessive.

Speaking of obsessive, the grass was created by picking at the Sculpey with a hobby knife over and over.  And over, and over, and over, and over, and over.  Now repeat a number of times.  Remember I mentioned patience earlier?  The patience was getting on my nerves.

I really like how this chimney turned out.

The thatch was created in a fashion very similar to the grass.  Luckily there was less of it and so less of that annoying patience was required.

The doors and shutters got a nice coat of red paint, while I attempted to replicate the look of whitewash on the door and window frames.

Moving to the inside of the house, you can see that there are some rafters involved for roof support.  Unfortunately, the little lizard guy has to deal with a drafty house.  There are quite a few gaps in the walls that a more experienced builder would probably have filled.

Lo and behold!  Our lizard has a pet lizard!

He's also got a nice bed over near the window.

The bed can be removed, as can many of the other items inside the house.

A simple wooden table (though made of Sculpey) supports a book and some dishes.

The roof can be removed to let in more light.

A fireplace might help with all those drafts.  A symbol over the mantel matches that on the cover of the book.  Various pots and jars adorn the place.

Vampire lizards may sometimes come around, as there's some garlic-like dried vegetable hanging there.

A candle near the bed allows for some late-night reading.

He seems like a happy fellow.

His pet seems rather contented to sleep the day away.  Usually this is done in front of the fire.

The little pet can be taken off his perch to be moved somewhere else in the house.  It is only around 3/4 inch long.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this place came together.  I was happy enough to have then gone on to create other environments and a few other lizard people as well.  I'll be doing write-ups on those projects as well in the future.  Thanks for taking a peek in on my little foray into domestic creativity.