Loyal Dog & Loyal King

Created our materials for this story recently and thought it would be beneficial to post for some of you working on this story. Here's the final version:

The mountains are gray denim-printed flannel (but you could use any gray material - it's just what I had in my supplies bin). To create the texture of mountains, I used tape to mark off some uneven edges and then used a light "dusting" of spray paint at an angle. It created the shadow appearance.

The figures are all made of tongue depressors. Yes. Tongue depressors dressed in fine silks can be pretty fancy. Here's close ups of the family. I used a glue gun and various leftover fabrics I had laying around (actually, boxed up -- my office is not that messy)! The hair and beard is this wonderful black yarn that has a little curl to it.

One of my favorite figures for this story is the dog piece. Synthetic suede is so great to work with, and he's covered in it. Cut to shape and glued on top of a tongue depressor. Look at that cute little tail!

 

For Indra and Dharma/Yama, I went a little crazy with some beads and cut up tongue depressors. You can cut depressors with scissors so that makes them versatile. I painted Yama with a dilute navy to create that bluish color his skin is often portrayed with. The fabric draping his body is felt.

The kids LOVED these two. The golden paint. The jewels. It was very popular come work time.

I used my glue gun to sandwich the bent wire (paperclips) between to cones of cut depressors. Then I used the tip of the gun to make little dot patterns on the wood to suggest decoration. I also glued on some plastic crafting beads. Then I use some acrylic paints (gold, turquoise, brick) to add details bring everything together. Note: glue guns are very... webby. Get those cobwebs off before painting or you'll be picking off those little webs with wet paint.

Happy story telling!