The 3D paper model I used came from the Canon website and was designed by Ayumu Saito. This was my third attempt to make the guinea pig from the same model, and in previous years I'd failed. I'm including a picture of the evolution of my attempts as it shows how I improved as time went on. The first attempt was using just medium interfacing, and it couldn't keep its shape so that ended badly pretty quickly. By the time I started a second version, I'd worked out that the surface needed to be stiffer, so this time I'd backed the interfacing with a layer of felt. This was still insufficient. Determined not to let the model defeat me, I began yet again, this time with thick interfacing and it worked! It's still not exactly the same shape as the original under the "neck" (not sure exactly how to describe that part of a guinea pig, as they can be a bit potato-shaped) but at least I managed to finish it. I was also pleased with how inserting the bead eyes went. The ears are brown felt, and I was using a variegated crocheting cotton for the golden-brown parts of the face. I felt crochet cotton would give an appropriately rough look to the fur compared to the cotton in embroidery skeins.
