Trash Cat

I start out with discarded plastic ornaments, my attic just so happened to be littered with them when squirrels managed to get in there but I digress. I usually brush on a water and school glue solution and apply small squares of tissue paper, once dry it gives the clay something to hold onto but I chose to skip it for the purposes of the tutorial.
I decided early on that I wanted to make a cat so I drilled two small holes and pushed a pair of Cat style doll eyes, but I have in the past used buttons, marbles, eyes cast in resin. A slightly pricier option would be to buy glass eyes from taxidermy sites but pay close attention to the size often listed in millimeters so its probably a good idea to chose eyes from small species animals since the eyes are the approximate size of the animal in question.
Next is a small amount of air drying clay, I don't generally map out an idea for my projects. I do a quick image search on a search engine and base my ideas loosely on what I see. Here I used terracotta colored clay, no reason but I will say I prefer the white clay because its easier to paint. My local craft store just ran out of the white.
Here is a profile picture. Notice that I do not cover any more than half of the ball, it cracks way too much when the clay shrinks.
Working with small amounts of clay at a time, I detail the face.
You'll notice it cracks around the eyes. I usually take liquid super glue and put a few drops into the cracks and fill them in with clay later.
Here comes the tissue paper and school glue solution. You can cover up cracks this way too but the face won't be as smooth. I cover any exposed plastic with paper to achieve a relatively smooth and paintable surface.
Here he is painted
I glued his head to a body made of a small bottle, covered it in the same way I did his head. I glued that into a can and added hands made of old glove fingers, I also added pieces of foil, plastic, foam and other assorted items that would look like trash but not smell. Now he's ready to sit on your shelf.