Sugru Mouldable Glue "CuTea" Tea Infusers

This instructable is on how to make a cute little critter to hold your tea infuser into your mug when making loose leaf tea! I call them "CuTeas", because I feel something this cute deserves a cute name!

I made two of these - one for my Fiancee and one for my Mum - for Christmas 2020, and now I can show you how to make them!

First things first: Sugru mouldabe glue is non-toxic, but it is not officially food safe. As such, you need to make sure that the Sugru section of the infuser does not extend into your tea!

Second, Sugru starts curing as soon as it is exposed to air. As such, I recommend having 2-3 infusers, with mugs, ready to be sculpted over. This will reduce the waste!

You'll need Sugru in various colours. I found black, white & red to be a good, cheap pack to start with - the black & white makes eyes, the red makes cheeky little tongues. I will be using one of these packs to make a flamingo (mixing white & red to make pink) and a black & white panda, to make full use of the amount of sugru I will have!

Sugru can leave a bit of residue on your hands, so it's a good idea to use blue gloves and to change them between the colours of sugru - this avoids putting coloured marks on the white parts of the critters! Alternatively, wash your hands between each colour.

Sugru - one pack of red, black & white costs about £5.50 from amazon and will make 2-3 infusers.

2-3 Tea Infusers with hooks & chains - 2 for £3.40 on amazon, what's not to love!

2-3 mugs (the same amount as you have infusers)

Cling wrap

your preferred sculpting tools - silicone tools work well, but so do tweezers, scalpels, pointy sticks etc.

Blue Gloves (optional, you can also just wash your hands between each colour)

Take your mugs and your clingfilm, and cover the edge of the mug with the clingfilm. This will ensure that the Sugru doesn't stick to the mug, or leave a mark when it comes off!

The next step is to plan out your sculpts. Drawing them is a good idea, and labelling the colours you want to work with. This way, you can plan the steps you will take for making them so that you can work with each colour for as long as possible without needing to change - saving you time!

Sugru takes 30 minutes to cure, and when I first made these I was scrambling around, thinking I was running out of time - and it took about 15 minutes to make both. So relax, you've probably got longer than you think to make these!

This time, I was working for over an hour and the Sugru stayed sculpt-able - so perhaps it only dries that quickly when it's in a thin application - it's probably in the fine print somewhere!

I'll show instructions of making the Panda and the Flamingo separately - Panda first, so I know how much white I have left for making the flamingo!

I am starting with the panda as it will tell me how much white Sugru I have left for the Flamingo. The plan for the Panda is below; it'll be a lot easier to follow in the pictures! Whenever you're not using the Sugru, put it in its packet so that it lasts as long as possible (I don't know if this actually helps, but it seems logical).

1: Make a sausage of black sugru and turn it into the paws, sculpting it around the hook of a tea infuser. I made this too small to start with, so bulked it up later.

2: Make a ball of black sugru, to fill the head up, leaving some black sugru for details on both CuTeas (eyes & beak). Add two smaller black balls for the cheeks!

3: Make the 4 small balls of black for the pandas eye spots & pupils

4: Wash hands / change gloves

5: Make a sheet of white and cover the panda's head with it.

6: Make 2 white balls for the pandas eyes. Use your sculpting tools to put the pupils on top of them.

7: Wash hands / change gloves

8: Put the Panda's black eye spots in place and press down

9: Change gloves / wash hands

10: Put the panda's eyes on the eye spots and push down

11: Make the Ears and nose and attach them

12: Change gloves / wash hands

13: Make the tongue from red & attach it!

Now all the Sugru is open you need to get cracking on the second CuTea - in this case, a flamingo!

This is why it's important to have 2 mugs ready - by the time you can remove the first CuTea, the sugru won't be usable.

The pictures explain it better than the steps below! Don't forget to hover over the boxes for instructions!

The method for this was:

1: Remove a piece of white for the beak (overestimate it) & set it aside. Mix the rest of the white with a larger piece of red to make a dark pink.

2: Make a ball of pink with the hook inside it, and press it over the edge of the mug.

3: Make a sausage with a ball at the end of it from the pink, for the neck & head.

4: Attach the head & neck, and smooth it onto the original ball.

5: Wash your hands / change your gloves!

6: Add the white ball for the beak

7: Wash your hands / change your gloves!

8: Shape a back ball into the hooked end of the beak, and stick it on, using it to support the head against the neck and hold the desired shape.

9: Smooth the beak together using your sculpting tools.

10: Shape 2 teardrops from pink and add them as wings

11: Shape another, longer teardrop from pink and make a tail on the outside of the mug.

12: Use your sculpting tool to smooth the wings & tail on, then add streaks to give the impression of feathers.

13: Wash your hands / change your gloves!

14: Make two tiny sausages of black Sugru and use them to make the eyes.

The CuTeas now need to be left alone for about 24 hours to be really confident in removing them! You can probably do it sooner, but after this much time and effort, waiting a day is the best way to ensure you don't go squashing them!

CuTeas can be made into near enough anything, depending on your skills at sculpting! I include a picture of the first one I made; an Octopus for my Fiancee!

If you enjoyed this Instructables as much as I enjoyed making it, please vote for me in the Sticky Stuff competition!

Thanks!