self portrait

I apologise for being absent for such a long while, but it is mostly because I have been so very busy with my new job that I am exhausted at the end of the day, and can't summon the energy to do much. However, I was surfing on the weekend, and got inspired by an image on a website, which of course, I didn't record so I can't give credit where it is due.

This started with a plaster cast of my face. It was going to be mostly white, with some aging techniques to make it look like old marble. It was a bit boring, and I thought that a bit of color might make it look like an earth goddess image. It ended up looking more like a moldy cadaver (it isn't quite a pretty in real life). So I guess this is a self-portrait as a zombie. ;-))

Pod creatures

I took an online course from Pattee's (Odd-Dolls) Ning site. It was a lot of fun, and Pattee did a great job of demonstrating all her techniques. It was fascinating learning how other people put together a face - she used a really unique approach. I got carried away and made four, and haven't even used the eyes she sent with the kit. This was great fun!

I think this one is my favorite: and one peeking out of a shell:

head - work in progress

I made this head while I was waiting for a video to download the other night. I didn't have any eyes on hand, so I tried making some using black and gold glass paint on the back of some of the flat glass marbles that are used for displaying cut flowers. The glass paints are permanent once baked, and the gold turned out much better than the dark blue I had on hand. I was also hoping that the eyes might work like the portrait eyes that follow the viewer around the room. The trick Disney uses is to make the eyes concave instead of convex. It occurred to me that if they look like they are following the viewer, it wouldn't be so difficult to set eyes. I often get crossed eyes, because the position seems to change during baking and shrinking, and it ruins a lot of work.

Anyway, the eyes were much too big for the foil ball, which meant that he developed this rather mean expression on his face (of course, I helped along a wee bit!). He might have made a good Scrooge, but he said he was much more trollish.

tea cup fairy

I love making these little fairy babies. They are relatively quick and if they don't turn out the first time, it is easy to squish and remake. I made two of these as Christmas gifts for some friends. I sure hope they like them!

lack of posting

I have been somewhat negligent of late, so I just wanted to give you all an update and an excuse.

I started a new position and it is a bit overwhelming. It's not that I think I don't have the skills to do the job, but it is a huge job just to learn about the way people do things in a different organization, and to learn who all the people are that I should be working with. All that while trying to figure out what my job is, and actually produce something that I can be comfortable signing my name to.

I haven't been totally neglectful of my artworks either, although that has slowed down a bit. I made a number of things for Halloween, including a bunch of little glow-in-the-dark ghosts, a basilisk tooth in a box, and a few 'things in jars'. The things in jars are a lot of fun to make, because it doesn't take a lot to make them look quite real. In fact, when I showed one to my brother, He thought it was real and wanted to know what kind of animal embryo it was. They are quite difficult to photograph, so I haven't managed to get any good pictures, but I will try again when I have some sunlight.

Art Doll

I was inspired by many of the doll artists who participated in the Art Dolls Only Four Elements challenge, and decided to try some of the techniques they were using. I thought I would try the puppet body style on this doll, as well as trying a new medium (paper clay). The clay is very soft and creamy, but it is really difficult to make hands and feet that have any lyrical movement. I used straws to make sure that there was a nice smooth hole to string the limbs once it was completed, and used wooden beads for the ball joints. I was going for Tree Nymph, so the skin is painted with a kind of generic wood grain. Her dress has a ruffle on the front, and a long train at the back, and is made entirely by wrapping (no stitches). She is about 8 inches high.

Storm clean up

I haven't had a lot of time for art work this last week. A terrible windstorm blew through our area and broke twenty or so of our large trees (and many littler ones beside them were crushed under the weight when they came down). All the trees that fell into the yard have to be chopped up into logs and the branches and brush have to be raked up and burned. Some of the trees look like they were twisted where they broke, although the storm wasn't officially labelled a tornado.

It is hard to tell from the pictures, but most of these trees were at least 40 feet tall.

This one barely missed hitting the house. There were a few branches on the roof, but nothing was damaged, apart from the tree and the little cranberry bush it fell on.

This little pile of fallen trees was just one of many, and it took us two complete days to clean out the path.

We still have many days of clean up to do - we have only tackled two of five piles.

Although we lost a lot of trees, we aren't complaining. Nothing hit the house, and there was no significant damage. The storm continued on to Camrose (about 30 miles east of our house), where it killed one person and injured dozens who were attending an outdoor concert.