Spent an amusing hour or so last night trying to sketch up a pattern for Wilbur the Intrepid Tardigrade. (Now that I've named him, I have to make him.) I'm going to get felt and chenille stems (for his little claws; he NEEDS to have articulated claws so he can do things like hold a dollhouse teacup). I've decided that because tardigrades have "ornamentation" on their bodies, I'm going to do french knots on his "hairline" (such as it is) and down his back. (That will take longer but the idea of it in the finished product pleases me).

I have kind of a pattern drawn up. I tend to modify patterns on-the-fly, when I find that things don't work, or when I think of how they could work better.

Wilbur is going to be green. Supposedly tardigrades can be a variety of colors but the only "live" one I ever saw was sort of moss green (years and years ago, when I was a TA - I was teaching the segment on moss and one of the students, while looking at moss leaves under the microscope, exclaimed, "There's some kind of little animal on my moss! It looks like a tiny little dog!" Of course I had to call over the rest of the class to show them it. [I'm probably the only one who was in the classroom that day who remembers it, but whatever, I'm a biology geek.]).

I drew up a bunch of potential faces for Wilbur but decided to stick with simplicity - small oval black eyes (really, tardigrades have compound eyes if they have eyes at all, but compound eyes sort of creep me out), a small smiling mouth, and probably eyebrows, which are sort of a "trademark" for me on the critters I make.

The amusement part was when I sketched Wilbur in a variety of situations - rocketing through space, parachuting through the jetstream, and then back at home safely, sitting by his fireside, drinking a cup of tea. (I know, I know...but indulge me.)

The drawings aren't very good (or at least don't capture how I see it inside my mind) but that's okay because I don't own a scanner and couldn't scan them in any way.

If I had more time at my disposal to just goof around, I'd make a little house-diorama for Wilbur - I had one sketched up, sort of a living room/dining room with a fireplace with a clock and a teaset and souvenirs of his 'travels' on the mantel, and a little bookcase, and a wing chair by the fireplace, and a dining table and chairs, and a little shelf to serve as his pantry. And a window to look out of. And I envisioned making it and hanging it on the wall so I could smile at it every time I walked by, but I just don't think I'll have the time to do it all. (I suppose I could buy dollhouse-stuff for the furniture - if my pattern works out Wilbur will be small enough. But I'm not sure how to make the diorama part of it, I'd want it to be something more permanent than cardboard).