Hi Alan,
I can share how I make mine...
They are two beads...
The head, make a round bead and squash it flat into a tab shape. flame polish out the chill marks.
Add two large dots of White (in this case) to make cheeks to front. I flatten on my marver.. then I add two dots of white with stringer for eyes, then the black dots on top and a pink nose. (I make my own pink with dark red and white for this). I sometimes help the dots along by pushing them flat with a tool...
All the while spinning the bead to keep it warm or it will crack.
then I add two dots on either side of the mandrel for the ears, sometimes I need to add another dot on top of each...I heat each one and flatten with my tweezers, then pinch the points to make them into triangles.
sometimes I add a second color to the ear in front sometimes not, in the example above I did.
Lastly, i heat the cheeks again and use my pick to put little wisker dots...
pop that one away...
The body...
Make a larger tab shaped bead....get rid of chill marks...Heat front of bead use a tool (I use an old butter knife) to make a line from top to bottom. On either side of this, along bottom edge add dots to make toes...melt in..
then with full rod, ( or thick stringer) from bottom,middle, back make a tail and bring it up and around to front....Melt in enough so it sticks to bead....add a tip to the tail...
done....
Not so good directions, but it really is very easy...
I actually drew the picture out, and worked out what I needed to do in layer order. It really helped.
Excellent instructions and pics! Thanks Bazile!
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