Mixed Media Goblin Wizard

To make this little four-inch goblin wizard, I used a variety of different materials to make him look convincing. With Yoda and Dobby floating around in my mind, I worked on this guy over several days, adding to him each time.

I haven’t experimented too much with wire frames yet, but this attempt went well. I shaped a rough outline to support his limbs. Obviously, I spent the most time on creating the wizened head, then the hands and feet. I attached those body parts to the frame, using white clay to roughly cover the rest of the skeleton and connect it all together. I baked it with foil guards all around it to keep it stable as it hardened.

Then came the fun of adding various details to him:

• a green fabric robe (sewn around his body), which I clumsily embroidered with some golden thread
• a braided yarn belt
• a brown fabric satchel (which actually has a few gold clay coins inside)
• an amulet made of clay and thread
• a walking stick with a few notches hacked into it for decoration
• and lastly, white yarn untwisted and soaked in grayish water to make it less pristinely white, then rebraided and superglued to his head

Now he just needs a name!

Hobgoblins and a Waterhorse

Folkloric hobgoblins have been described in many ways. The term hobgoblin could refer to mischievous little Dobby-like creatures who perform helpful tasks in the home  – or make shoes out of scraps of leather. Quite to the contrary, a hobgoblin could be understood as a large and aggressive beast in D&D, with the smarts to add to the threat. Then again, some say that the classic hobgoblin is actually Shakespeare’s clever Puck, the playful but wise jester in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I find myself drawn toward the first description. As ‘hob’ means ‘hearth’ in Welsch, it’s plausible that hobgoblins were associated with keeping homes neat and tidy. I created a few of my own little hobgoblins – with funny noses, big ears and tails with a puff of fur at the end.

On a different note of lore, I created a mythical water serpent of some kind, rather like a  Waterhorse or Loch Ness monster (though certainly not a fearsome one). The three-piece body makes it fun to play around with.