I’m trying to post more about things I make, and do. Here’s one from last year’s batch. For a production of Alice in Wonderland, last year, I needed a quick Cheshire Cat smile.

Initial sketch. A failed attempt at trying to avoid having the build the nose to put the whiskers on.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt this year making things, it’s to almost always throw out your first draft. Here’s the second design.

Freehanding a template for cutting.

Shoe boxes are a good source of high-quality, often paper covered card. This one was black on the inside, which gave me the two colours I needed. Template traced onto the card for cutting.

Using the cut card as a template for freehanding the next section. The white section will actually become the teeth, so I’m tracing out the shape of the outer mouth.

Making sure the sizing will work, and doing a more detailed plan for the nose.

Cutting the template into negative space to give me a mockup of the shapes.

These are the 3 layers which will make up the finished product.

Cutting out the teeth. These were actually measured, but the sizing was arbitrary, I just made each tooth outwards, slightly narrower and then mirrored that to the other side.

Shaping the teeth.

Teeth ready for gluing.

You can often use black felt marker to tidy up edges like this.

I used Tarzan’s Grip here because I wanted a small amount of play in the positioning after I’d placed it down. If you’re feeling confident, superglue (CA) would work too.

Gluing the whiskers together.

And the completed product.

Not pictured is that I used a short section of 5mm dowel as a handle.