Easy Pattern for a
Tiny Bunny Sculpture
Make It With Apoxie Sculpt or Air Dry Clay
$7
Make this little rabbit with Apoxie Sculpt or air dry clay. He’s only about 4 1/2 inches tall, but he has a lot of personality for his size.
My downloadable PDF Patterns come with full instructions.
There’s no waiting for your pattern to arrive, and no shipping costs, so you can start on your project right away.
Click here if you’d like to know more about how the patterns are delivered. (If you’ll be saving your pattern to and iPhone or iPad, they do tend to hide your files. You can scroll down this page to see how to find them.)
And remember – if you have any problems downloading your files or putting your pattern together, just let me know. I’m always happy to help. 😀
Finished size: Finished size: About 4.5” (11.5 cm) high. If you need a bigger bunny, just print the pattern in a larger size.
How to make your bunny:
- Print the pattern on copy paper or full-sheet labels.
- Attach the pattern pieces to cardboard.
- Put the pieces together to form the armature for your bunny.
- Add rounded shapes with crumpled foil and hot glue. The instructions show you how.
- Cover the armature with a very thin layer of Apoxie Sculpt, like I did, or use either traditional paper strips and paste or the air dry clay recipe that you can find in the Art Library on this site.
- Paint him with acrylic paint.
I painted my bunny with chalk paint to give him a nice soft coat, but any acrylic paint will work just fine.
I used one pound of Apoxie Sculpt to make the bunny sculpture, and there was enough left over to make the Baby Unicorn, too.
$7
Watch the video for an easy way to create the bunny’s big black eyes:
To make this little rabbit sculpture you will need:
- A small piece of corrugated cardboard, and some light card stock cut from a cereal box
- Glue stick
- A printer
- Scissors
- Bendable wire. 10 gauge armature wire or any wire that can be bent into the shapes on the pattern.
- Aluminum foil
- Glue gun
- Small piece of tape
- Latex or Nitrile gloves if you’re using Apoxie Sculpt.
- Sculpting tools (or find anything that works that you already have around the house.)
- Apoxie Sculpt or air dry clay. (You can find my air dry clay recipe in the Paper Mache Art Library).
- Acrylic Paint (I used chalk paint from Walmart, but you can use any acrylic paint.)
- Stencil brush (a cheap one is best)
- Sandpaper (optional)
- Matte acrylic varnish
$7
Do you have a question or need help with your pattern?
If you have a question about putting your pattern together or painting it, leave a comment below or on the Daily Sculptors page. I read all comments and answer them as soon as I can, usually within a few hours. Some of my readers might ideas for you, too — we have a very supportive community on this site.
Is this easy enough for benginners?
It should be – but you’ll need to take your time and have some patience. The only difficult part is the size – smaller items tend to be a bit more difficult, at least for me. That’s probably not true for everyone, though.
Hi
Can you use the apoxie sculpt on top of the paper mache (traditional or the paper mache clay) to make the details like eyes and ears and other shapes?
Thanks
Yes, you can do that. As long as the paper mache is dry, the Apoxie Sculpt will stick to it.
Hi Jonni. I know we are at the end of April, but sometimes, I like to plan ahead. By any chance, do you have patterns for a nativity scene? Maybe on a small scale? I would like to be able to fit it inside my house :). Well…actually. wouldn’t it be cool to have life size characters/animals and stable lit up on the lawn? Sometimes I scare myself with the ideas I have!
Thank you,
Lila
Hi Lila. Every year, I think I’ll do a few big sculptures for Christmas. Not the whole nativity scene – maybe work up to it one or two animals at a time. But it hasn’t happened yet. But it sounds like you’re doing it right, by giving yourself enough time to actually get it done. 🙂
That said, I don’t have patterns at the moment, but take a look at the video I made to show everyone how to make patterns from photos or drawings. It’s the same technique I use for all the projects in my book Make Animal Sculptures with Paper Mache Clay. You can find the video here.
I am a paper clay sculptor and have never used plaster cloth. Is this an item you make yourself or purchase? And I love the bunny. May I ask how talk it stands? Thanks for any info.
Hi Loretta. The bunny is about 4.5” (11.5 cm) high, but you can make it larger just by printing the page larger. You might have to take it to your local printer to do that, if you want him to be bigger.
The plaster cloth is the material that doctors once used to make casts for broken bones. Now it’s used for crafts. You can find it in craft stores, or online.
This looks so good but the epoxy sculpt is a bit pricey, I’d have to order it on amazon and at USD 2.60 per lb shipping weight plus various taxes it would cost way too much to order. It reminds me of br’er rabbit
This rabbit could be made with the air dry clay instead, although I haven’t tried that yet. I hope that if someone does make it with something other than the Apoxie Sculpt that they’ll let us see how it turns out.
Thank you for sharing your fabulous information. I imagine you working on these fabulous progects and being so content and happy. I am envious.
Martha coan
You’re welcome, Martha. And you’re right – when I’m working on a sculpture I’m too focused to be unhappy or anything but content. It’s good therapy that way. I hope you join us and make some sculptures of your own, if you haven’t already.
Jonni, this little rabbit is so adorable! You have really captured such personality! I find people really like sculptures that have more than one component to it. Of course, that means you must have a base though. I often spend as much time on the base as I do on the actual sculpting. Not my favorite part of the process I must say. I would like to try this bunny using your smooth air dry clay…maybe after the holidays! I look forward to seeing the bunny with the unicorn all painted and mounted.
Thanks, Eileen. I admit that I’m going to cheat on the base. It won’t be at all as nice as the ones you make. I bought an wooden oval online, and I’ll just sand it and paint it. I look forward to seeing how your bunny turns out with the air dry clay.
The only thing I find with buying a pre-made oval is that they are usually made with softer, more inferior wood with knots and imperfections on it. I get my wood from Lowes or Home Depot, usually a walnut or other hard wood, get my brother to cut it as he has the tools, then sand and stain. Really a laborious part but since I show these items, it is worth it. A necessary evil as it were! I will certainly post when I do your bunny.
I’ve been using apoxie sculpt for years, but never thought about transferring paper mache” techniques! My sculptures and puppets are so heavy, but durable. Do you find that using Apoxie Sculpt this way is still durable? How would it hold up to dropping? I’ve asked for 2 of your books for Christmas. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Hi Kathryn. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, too! 🙂
As for durability of Apoxie Sculpt over foil …. My lovely cat knocked my test unicorn off a high shelf, so I have experience with this issue. The sculpture cracked in several places along the neck, and lost one ear. It’s all repairable, of course, with more epoxy clay, but my cat was in the doghouse for a few hours. I used a layer of Apoxie Clay that was almost paper thin, to cut down the cost, and that might have made a difference, but I have also dropped some of my paper mache sculptures. The ears do suffer damage, which seems to be unavoidable, but the bodies have never cracked. Apoxie Sculpt doesn’t have the paper fibers that help hold the paper mache clay (and traditional paper strips and paste) together. I don’t want to discourage you from trying it, but you might want to do an experimental piece first, to see if it would hold up for your purposes. The foil armatures definitely cut down on the weight.
I think the strongest and lightest method I’ve come up with so far is to use a few layers of plaster cloth over a clay sculpt, remove the clay to leave a hollow core, and then use either the Apoxie Sculpt or the smooth air dry clay over the plaster cloth. My doll heads and my rhino were made this way (with the air dry clay) and they’re both strong and light. The fibers in the plaster cloth provide the reinforcement, and the outer layer provides the texture and details. I don’t really want to drop one of my doll heads on the floor to test it, but I’m convinced they would not crack – although they might lose an ear. Of course, I could be wrong, so you’d need to experiment.
By the way, I would love to see some of your Apoxie Sculpt pieces. Would you be willing to upload a photo or two?
Lovely! I truly enjoy working with Apoxie Sculpt and may have to give this little rabbit a try after the holidays. Still working on my raven and a life-size hen! Thank you for sharing your methods in such a kind way.
You’re welcome. Do we get to see your raven and hen when they’re finished?
I want to rabit sculture