I was a part of the finishing team for the project. I met up with my team during the weekend to discuss how we would be designing the add-ons for the scoops. 

  My team agreed we should use felting for the add-ons such as for the nose, ears, and muzzle, etc. We discussed over and over, but couldn’t think of any other material besides felt or fabric for the add-ons. I strongly advised to stray away from painting the features for the scoops because I knew it would be time-consuming, and kind of scary task to do.

  Below are the colors we decided upon for each animal. I relayed this information to Serena and the casting team, so they knew what colors to cast the scoops and waffle in.  

Waffle Cone

Vanilla & Cookies and Cream

Matcha Green Tea

Rocky Road

Strawberry 

Thai Tea 

 

Also while my team was discussing the features for the scoops, I was simultaneously contacting the casting team about our ideas and what the scoops should look like. Rachel was updating me on each animal they were sculpting. I would give feedback on the designs, and let them know what shouldn’t be sculpted, i.e. the ears for the bunny and bear. 

Also after my team figured out the colors for the scoops we then moved on to buying the felt. I bought about 6 different colors of batted felt from livingfelt.com and good thing I ordered them asap or else we wouldn’t be able to start working after the break. 

I met up with Serena once over Thanksgiving Break to see how the casting process was done. I helped sand down a bit of the scoops, and just assisted her with the process. 

The colors of the end result weren’t exactly the same as the swatches my team originally decided upon. The reason for that was the white pigment of the plastic lightened the colors Serena mixed so when added together the scoops came out more of a pastel version of the original swatches. I was okay with some of it, but the ones that bothered me were the coloring for Matcha Green Tea and Thai Tea. The color of the sample Thai Tea tiger was the desired color over the lighter version. 

 When all of the cones and scoops were brought into class we saw all the obstacles left before the finishing team could even start. The sanding and glazing were the biggest obstacles, because none of the felt could’ve been added on until the very last week of the project. Luckily, the whole class helped out with sanding the scoops and cones. 

Serena glazed one of the sample scoops and compared it with the unglazed version. As a class we decided to glaze all the scoops to give it a better finish. 

 

 I took home the two sample scoops to test out on. Unfortunately, the casting team didn’t make a sample of each animal for the finishing team to work on, so they made it harder to know whether certain add-ons would work on not. 

I had a cow and a tiger to work on. I started felting two circles based off of the shape of the tiger’s muzzle, and then felted two long strips that would go around the sides of the muzzle. Then, I had to felt the seams of the strip and the muzzle to make it join together. I used epoxy for glueing all the felt pieces. I also cut off the bristles of a paintbrush to use as whiskers for the tiger. 

I also made horns for the cow, and ears for the tiger. I painted the eye’s with black acrylic paint as a tester. 

Me and Serena were doing a quality check and continuing sanding the scoops. 

The finishing team took the scoops home and painted the eyes and features for Rocky Road, and Cookies and Cream scoops. 

I was testing out felting the alligator’s mouth, which by far was the biggest challenge for me. There were a lot of problems with this process because I didn’t have a sample to work off of, so I had to be super careful when I attached the felt. Once I attached the felt design I had to commit to it or else if I ripped it off it would’ve left ugly felt marks all over. 

I ended up doing three variations of the tigers mouth and teeth and the two photos above were the versions I brought to class to get feedback on. The class decided to go with the third version of the alligator. 

Me felting the alligator and the tiger add-ons. 

The final result at the flash sale. Overall, I was satisfied with how everything came out even though there were a lot of minor issues we had to overcome. I would definitely do more collaborative projects in the future, because it’s a very good learning experience. It taught me how to be an assertive person and to take charge of a situation at times. Thank you a lot Noel and Todd for a great semester, and a fun and challenging experience!