Pluto has no trouble at all traversing the slopes even with his celebratory choice of wine close to his heart!
"The Downhill Winer" was a fun piece to carve. The recipient (thanks to the information from a friend of his) loves wine, travel and skiing. He is also especially close to Pluto thanks to working directly with the colorful pooch early in his Disney career.
We have Pluto schussing wildly down the slope over a mogul eagerly waiting to par-take of some of his favorite wine in front of the fireplace.
Here you have the imagery and pieces ready to begin. To the right is the clamped pieces for the "mogul."
The wine bottle with attachments to be hung around Pluto's neck.
The skis were simple but like some of Pluto's features I had to think about just how thin I could make them so they'd be strong enough to take some handling.
The "roughing" begins.
The side view sketch is removed and used to help as a template.
The "mogul" could be aggressively roughed out due to it's simple shape.
Pluto is beginning to take shape.
At this point I begin to concern myself with just how thin I can reduce his ears, neck and scarf.
I left "bridges" between his ears and lower jaw to his neck to prevent breakage as I handled Pluto.
Pluto has an extremely thin neck for the size of his head and scarf so I decided to leave the scarf thinly attached for extra strength at the middle of his upper back.
The "bridges' to his ears were the very last supports to be removed just before the final finish sanding with burrs.
The three main pieces needed to be worked up together to fit Pluto and the skis into the ski cuts in the "mogul."
Fitting the pieces together had to be completed before I can really begin to
detail Pluto.
1/8" dowels will be used to fasten Pluto to the skis and to the "mogul."
At first, I used temporary short dowels to hold Pluto in alignment until the ski cuts were cut into the "mogul." Then, once all holes for all three pieces were in alignment longer dowels are needed.
Finally, all the pieces are ready for sealing and color application. The pieces were each painted individually before gluing them together.
Pluto's tail is a thin crafts rod, glued and pushed into Pluto's rear then painted.
I printed a photo of the wine label that the recipient enjoys, shrunk it and glued it to the bottle.
