MAKING MOUSELAND

Characters

The mice are pieced together from gray wool felt. They have pipe cleaner skeletons, so they are posable, and their eyes are black glass beads.

Other creatures are made out of a variety of materials. These tadpoles are made of artificial grapes, covered with foam packaging wrap.

I prefer to use found and recycled materials when I can, and avoid craft stores. My studio is full of miscellaneous stuff and I tend to walk with my nose to the ground, hunting for interesting litter and natural objects. I am very fortunate that Portland has a SCRAP outlet, which sells all sorts of donated salvage.

Easter egg dyes on silk

I draft patterns for their clothing, which is stitched and glued.

Dr Slick's razor scissors,

made for fly tying.

Clothes

Rat dainties...I used a stiffening agent to give them weight and gravity

Props

Prop making is one of my favorite parts of creating Mouseland.

Sets

Sets are usually built on a foundation of rigid building insulation.

Old towels make good grass!

The plasterwork in this ballroom was created by making molds of thrift store decorations, and then casting multiples with low melt hot glue. This is supplemented with painted upholstery trim.

Buildings are made of cardboard or foamboard,

or discarded containers.

I like to include led lights in my sets. This lamp is made from a poppy pod and part of a jingle bell.

Ceramic insulator

Bottle stopper piece

Corrugated

cardboard

Foamboard

Plastic clamshell

Heinz tin

Wood trim

Egg carton strip

I use a lot of razor blades.

Behind the scenes wiring.

Capturing Mouseland

I shoot with either a Canon 7D with EF60mm &100mm lenses or I use the camera on my iPhone 16 Pro, depending on what effects I’m looking for. I have a collection of small spotlights that I adapt with filters and snoots (For more specifics on how I light and photograph my scenes, see this article from Adaptalux.) I prefer natural light and I have an adjustable table that I can position under a skylight or by a window. I spend a huge amount of time making micro-adjustments to the characters to refine their gestures and bring them alive to me.

The cast and props,

ready for their close-ups.

My niece, Sally Foster, wrangled the lights on two for my books.

Book dummy pages serve as a storyboard.

Finally, I edit the images in Photoshop, using my Wacom tablet. I adjust values and refine facial expressions, and clean up wayward whiskers.