This one is a bit larger (7 inches square):
They are all painted on solid board.
I am going to try to take part in an art doll challenge from the Art Dolls Only group. It may be difficult, because I have a lot of other committments during the same time period, so I will see how far I get, but I am excited about taking part. I started sculpting the hands out of polymer clay last night, and then went a completely different direction today and drew out a pattern for a cloth doll. I'm not sure which way I will go, but it isn't wasted effort which ever path I choose.
I put my name in a draw for Amber Dawn's International Charm Day and won a beautiful little shell charm. Amber does a wonderful job of presentation packaging as well, and included a little charm with her card. I was too late to get in on the give away this year, but I am looking forward to participating next year.
I was in Quebec city for a conference last week, and got an opportunity to slip into the museum there for a quick visit before closing one evening. I wanted to see the Egyptian mummy display they advertised, and was hoping to see one of Sekhmet's statues. Much to my amazement, one of the displays held a relatively crude terracotta goddess figure. Given the technical and artistic skill typical of the grave goods placed with mummies, this goddess figure was very rough and naive. It reminded me of the headstones I have seen on occasion in local graveyards, handcrafted by the grieving spouse from cement and steel plate.
The goddess image was about 4 inches long, with no breasts (unlike most 'Venus' figures), but she was very clearly given long curly hair and ears or earrings. The fingers were slashes cut into the end of the arm, as were the marks that form the pubic triangle. The slashes looked like they were made with a long bladed knife. The pubic area was filled with rows of dots and she had a squarish mound on the tummy area that she was kind of holding, although her fingers didn't reach that far. Archeological theory says that these were intended to represent rebirth in the afterlife, but it seems to me more like a form of sympatheic magic intended to ensure the deceased is reincarnated/reborn to a wealthy mother (hence the very wide hips and the earrings). The grave was estimated to be around 2040 to 1640 BC.
I was quite excited to finally see one of these 'goddess' images in person, although she was very different from anything I had seen before or expected to see associated with mummies. Although she was made from terracotta, I think I will have to try making one of my own.
A few months ago I had an idea for an art piece very clearly visualized in my mind and I made these two stamps of crows that would be required. Then I put them away until I could get the black permanent ink required to make it work properly. I finally remembered they were there, and picked up the permanent ink to test them to see if they worked OK. These are only test stamps, so the color isn't really even, but i think the carving went well.
Objects and Elements offers recycled sari silks. I use the spun sari silks to make pouches or medicine bag necklaces. It is difficult to crochet because of all the hanging strings, but the outcome is definitely worth it - the variegated colors are stunning!.jpg)
Can you believe it - we have had snow for the last couple of days. The long weekend traditionally marks the time when the danger of frost is past, and most people spend the weekend planting their gardens. Well, this year we spend the holiday huddled inside against the cold and blowing snow. The dogs were all sick too, so everyone just moped around the whole weekend.
It's hard to compalin too much, though, because snow means moisture, which we are sorely lacking. All the ponds are dry, and we have been quite worried that the drought this year is going to be the worst yet. In fact, it is so dry that the trees are still refusing to leaf, but this snow should give them that boost of moisture that will encourage them to leaf out, and we can finally see some signs of spring. Yay!
