The Fat Chameleon

_{By aixklusiv on pixabay.com}

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Today, @reggaemuffin surprised me with a visit to a "clay workshop" place.

There, you're given some clay, tools to work with it, and if you need it help and instructions.

I hadn't worked with clay since I graduated from school, but I had always loved it. I still own my "Sleeping Dragon" that got me a perfect grade, and my mom has one of my more abstract creations standing on her piano even though I had intended to throw it away after it had been graded.

So you can imagine my excitement upon realizing what we were about to do!

The instructor gave us some examples of figurines and other things, and a fat, grumpy chameleon caught my eye. I loved him immediately, although I thought he could be a bit happier ...

So I started shaping my clay potato. At first, I forgot to take pictures, so there is already a spine, eyes and slight overbite added in the first picture I have:

The pupils are holes that go all the way through because the inside of my little darling is hollow.

You can also see he has a slight smile, which was integral to make him look not as pissed as my reference picture.

As a next step, I had to give him legs (and some spikes).

The problem here was, that the clay is pretty heavy but also very soft, so the legs had to be sturdy enough to carry the weight.

After a few adjustments (he kept falling over and planting his face on the table), my three-toed chameleon could stand upright.

Last thing to add was the tail.

Another fragile thing to attach to the spine of my creation, it took some attempts to twirl it without the clay breaking.

Attaching it securely was not as easy as first anticipated, but I finally succeeded.

The reference had his tail curled downward, but I thought that my happy dork needed it curled upward, to enhance his happiness.

Now, behold: My Baby!