Sugru Bunny Flower/paintbrush Holder

This is a Sugru project.  The Sugru holds the bunny together.

A cute little bunny to hold little flowers, pens, paintbrushes, a fork, and anything else you want!  It also functions well as just a cute little bunny.

Making this, I had no experience with clay, Styrofoam, wires, or Sugru.  Like none at all.  So if you do have experience, you can probably make it look prettier.  And if you don't, don't worry, this is a pretty good starter project (it's very lenient and flexible).

-Sugru:  For sticking stuff together

-Oven bake clay:  For the bunny limbs, ears, and tail

-Styrofoam:  Egg shaped pieces for the head, cone shaped pieces for the body.

-Wire:  Not too thin or thick.  I used jewelry wire.  You might want really thin flower decorating wire for support.

-Wire cutters:  To cut your wire.

-Scissors:  To open your Sugru packets.

-Box cutter, razor cutter, or knife:  To shape your Styrofoam and help cut your clay.

-Modeling tools and craft roller:  The craft roller is to roll out your clay really flat and thin.  Modeling tools are optional if you want the bunny to have cool designs.

-Paint + Brushes:  To paint the bunny.

-Ribbon:  To decorate the bunny.  Can also use glitter, buttons, more paint, etc.

Let's start with the head, since it's easiest.  Take your little egg shaped Styrofoam and model it for size.  Then cut off a decent length of wire (depending on how long you want the ears).  Fold the wire into an ear shape, and shove it in the Styrofoam.

I made one ear floppy, and the other all straight.

Then, take the styrofoam cylinder and carve a little indent in the top so the egg shaped head sits in it better. Then round out the edges of the neck for a smooth transition. To do this, use a razor or knife to shave off bit by bit.

Set it aside.

The arms are the trickiest wiring part.

Make the arms out of wire so that they curve to the middle, like the bunny is hugging something.  One end of the wire sticks into the Styrofoam, and the outer end wraps around the bunny once for stability.

You may want to use multiple pieces of wire to reinforce everything, but I was running out, so I went with the single wiring.

Do that with both arms.

It'll be kinda wobbly, so take little pieces of wire, bend them so they're like little staples, and secure the wire in place.  You might just want to take them off now and staple them in after the clay is on, or leave the arms in so you can compare the legs to them.

You can make your bunny sit flat or off the edge of a table or windowsill.  Mine is sitting off my desk.  So i modeled up some legs out of wire, making the feet a little fatter and making bends so that the legs sit off the table (without being to short or heavy so that the bunny falls off).

You might want to wrap the leg wire around the bottom of the bunny, like you did for the arms, to make it more sturdy.  My legs were kinda weak, but I ran out of wire.  It holds together fine without it though.

Just stick the legs into the cylinder near the bottom.

To make a more dimensional tail, double up the wire a couple times.  Make sure it looks good size wise compared to the rest of the body.  And if your bunny keeps falling off the table, make the tail bigger to weigh it down and keep it sturdy.

Also, use two small wire pieces for a neck to keep the head on.

Now is the annoying clay part.  Take off all the limbs, ears and tail included.

Take out your clay, roll it flat with your craft roller/rolling pin so that its really thin.  Take a limb and wrap the clay around it, with the smooth part in the front where you see it, and the edges squished in the back.  Try to make it as smooth as possible without bending the wire/breaking the clay.

Do that for all the limbs.

This is time consuming. . .

For the tail, wrap the wire that's there in clay.  There should be some space in back now.  Keep filling that up with globs of clay.  Then smooth out a nice piece to cover your globs and make your tail look nice.

Make sure the clay limbs still fit in well to your styrofoam.

Then take all the limbs and bake them as instructed.

Don't bake stryofoam, it shrinks.

Once your clay is cooked, stick as many limbs as will stick comfortably back into the body.

Then break out the Sugru.  I used a lot for this project, but I wasn't very conservative, either.

Secure each limb (from top, to bottom, to sides) onto the styrofoam using the Sugru.  Kinda like how you use gum to stick stuff together.

I did the arms and legs and tail first, then moved onto the ears (with the head detached still).

Once the ears dried up a little, I stuck the head on and Sugru'd the neck really well.

My bunny was little so I just Sugru'd all the open styrofoam pieces, so it'd all be the same.

Except I left the face uncovered, because the green Sugru looked like a little hairdo, and it looked really cute.

And let it dry!

Now that the Sugru is dry, take your pretty paint and color your bunny.  Use white paint as a base on the Sugru, because the colors are pretty dark.

Take little pieces of clay or left over Sugru to make a little face for the bunny.

Use a ribbon to pretty up your bunny.

Stick a flower or something in his arms, stick him on the windowsill, and enjoy!