Ben mentioned that it would be more interesting and give the project more depth if I provided a background story for the characters.  How did they die?

• Little Boy – tried to self-prescribe medicine for his cold, and overdosed on the wrong thing, so now he has a permanent runny nose in death.
• Dog – was newly adopted by an old lady, but she did not know anything about dogs and fed him a piece of chocolate in celebration of his adoption day, so he was poisoned.
• Mom – died in childbirth, has always wanted to be a mother, but was robbed of her chance in life.
• Dad – overworked himself in life and died of a heart attack.  His job kept him away from the family he was supporting, so he didn’t get to spend as much time with them as he wanted.
• Grandpa – died of a broken heart shortly after his wife died, leaving him lonely.

All of these characters died separately in life and came to the underworld on their own.  They each want to be part of a family for slightly different reasons, so as they wander around they come to find each other and create a make-shift family.  They end up getting in death what they had wanted in life.

I tested out two different materials: paper clay and Sculpy.  The paper clay is lighter than the Sculpy, but it is a little more difficult to shape since it doesn’t stick to itself as well as the Sculpy does.  When I do get it to a shape I like it is hard to retain that shape since it is a rather soft material before it dries.  It air dries, which is nice, but it takes a few days to fully dry, so it would make it a slow process if I decided to use it as my material.  The only drawback I can see with the Sculpy is that it is a little heavy, but it is easier to work with than the paper clay, so I am going to try to use this as my material.  I will experiment with it some more this week.  I want the head and body to be separate so they can move, so I’ll probably try sticking wire into the Sculpy before baking it to see how well that works as a connection.  I’m going to buy some wooden dowels to use for the limbs.  Hopefully I’ll have some test figures done by next week.

Work in progress shots: