First challenge starting a commission is... Fiber! What fiber will make this particular dog look like him, feel like him and hopefully be as similar as possible. Beginning as I always do searching through bins of fiber. Everything from baby camel to buffalo. I wait for color to catch my eye... then feel. Cairns can be a huge challenge in this area because anyone that knows them knows not only can their fur change from puppy to adult but often from adult to some other coloring completely. It amazes me how the Cairn breeders know what that little puppy will turn into.. I like to have that same ability when making mine...Should be easy to make another Cairn. After all I have made more of them then any other dog I own two now and have studied them endlessly. Looking into my bin I see a color that would be perfect! I see that it is actually a bit of Old Ted's fur.. can I work with this? Do I want to? Is remembering him in such a tactile way what I want right now. Had to.. it was the color I needed. Touching his fir seeing the guard hair again brings back all that love I had for him over whelming emotion for this past little darling that I miss daily in spite of the immense amount of love I get from the darlings still with me. I went for it I started working on the dog... there is a point in the creation when I see a spark of reality in the eye the face comes to life for me in a emotional way. The Magic if you will is there.. this magic was my Old Ted! Where did he come from? I could not turn this little dog into anyone but Old Ted. The hips were his skinny little hips the way he sat the long often messy beard, the expression! Tail with only wisps of fur on it. Deep inside it struck me these mini dogs in some inexplicable way seem to almost use me to come back in a three dimensional way. One of the pictures is the dog sitting on a package under the tree. Representing to me one of the greatest gifts he was in my life... he also had the habit of sitting on ANYTHING, if it was a piece of cardboard or a paper bag or plastic or poster board you name it if I put it on the floor Ted sat on it! Just one more tiny thing I loved and miss about him.. Now to make another Cairn!
