Sunday...Feb. 21, 2010

Well you can see..I have not posted even one single picture yet! But I have been busy with lots of things.

Yesterday I did some clay work for my summer projects and just barely got them started.

I did a lot of visiting with my brother, my son Scott was by and picked up my trash for the dump...dump day in a small town is an event! If you have ever lived in a small town you will understand the social part of it all.

We are having unusually warm weather for out part of the world(Alaska) it is 39*.....I am personally hoping this will be an early spring...but everyone says that is "wishful thinking"...but you know...what other kind of thinking is there??????

Gavin was busy on "my" computer yesterday...facebook and all that...so my time on the computer was limited...no WF video or meditation. Darn! School tomorrow though....so I will be back up and running.

I am off to have my coffee and start the Wendy Froud Video..( Gavin is at a friends house)....so I had best get done what I can on the computer before the 11 year old computer whiz shows up.

Saturday Feb. 20, 2010

Good Morning World! It is a glorious day here in Seldovia. Almost perfect...no snow, no rain, no wind....and a balmy 36* what more could I ask for?

My brother Todd is here and waiting to go fishing on the F/V Joanne Marie. I think cod/and or halibut. He is staying in my upstairs bedroom for the time being.

Yesterday I spent a better part of the day looking for the correct wire for the Wendy Froud DVD workshop I am going to take with the students from the "Beginners Polymer Clay Art Group." My goal for the day was to get the wire and have the armature at least wrapped with tape before the end of the day. Well it did take me all day. First I got the wrong wire and had to return it. Then the wire I did get ...needed to be cleaned before I could wrap it. But I reach my goal.

So that is the good part. I got so involved in making the armature that I forgot I was making bread in the bread machine and when I smelled the bread.... went through the house looking for what was burning...getting old sucks.!!! Totally did not enter my brain about the bread machine.

More later....I will post pictures...of the armature.

Tuesday, More Rain!

Yippeeeee! it is still raining and we all know what that means here in Alaska...right?....it isn't snowing!!! I am hoping this means we will have an early spring. But of course we could get another 3 feet of snow by the end of February or even in March. So even I know this is "wishful thinking"...but...yippeeeeee it is still raining!

Today I am going to do armatures for 3 projects I need to do. One is a special order for a friends wife, the others are for two really cool things I got at the Craft Fair. A very old bronze shoe..a high button child's shoe and a beautiful small clear glass green pitcher...lovely items to begin a fantasy with....don't you think? Hmmmmm...I shall post a picture later..

So I am off to work....also getting ready for the WF workshop....really excited about that.

A couple of online workshops

I went to the Jean Barnard www.jeanbernardart.com and signed up for two of her online workshops. The fairy crown and the tree topper angel, they looked like they would be fun to do and I hope to make tree toppers for the next Christmas Craft Fair...oh my!... am I getting ahead of myself? Hmmmm don't think so...I am really slow....so if I start now, I might really have one or two done by next Christmas.

Still raining here in Seldovia. This morning at 5:55am we had a 911 call and then a medivac. I am the 911 dispatcher this week so it was my turn to answer the call. All is well and the plane left the field about 9:30am. I am so glad for those EMT's who get out of bed on a soggy, windy, cold morning and go out to answer the calls....5 thumbs up to them.....

So now I am running on adreneline....maybe I should clean house?Awwww and waste all this energy on work? I'm gettin' out the clay!!! Signin' up for classes and working on the computer....playing takes energy too!!!

My aero garden lettuce have got little green leaves...." a salad by the end of the week" I just know it! Maybe no tomatoes by then....

Aero Gardens

My Aero Gardens came from QVC on friday and I am so happy. I immediately planted the first one with lettuce...oh happy day! And the second one I planted with tomatoes...cherry tomatoes...yesterday. The lettuce is up already and of course the tomatoes aren't...but I have high hopes of having fresh, pesticide free lettuce in about 6 or 7 weeks and tomatoes in about 12(maybe)...they are kind of variable.

It may be winter outside...but inside there is a rumor of spring time....with new little lettuce plants. Yes!

Gardening in Alaska....they can't keep a gardener from gardening....even at 39*....we will find a way...

Wendy Froud Workshop dvd

I am so excited about the opportunity to learn to sculpt and make a fairy using the "Creating A Faery Figure" by Wendy Froud dvd. A class is being offered by the Beginner's Polymer Clay Art Guild online. Janet is going to be the instructor and she is such a fun person I just know I will learn alot and love the class.

I will post pictures of my progress(good or bad) for all to see.

The rain continues as it has all night....Gavin, my granddaughter is on her laptop doing her facebook stuff... it is so quiet you can hear the rain outside....very peaceful. A perfect rainy Sunday afternoon at home....

Soggy Day In Seldovia

Oh my gosh! Soggy, soggy day in Seldovia. It is raining and 39* I can't believe how warm it is. The snow is melting and things are starting to show out from under where they have laid since last fall. Hmmmmm Spring yard cleaning a must do.....

Yesterday was the Valentine's Day Craft Fair . It was nice to be with fellow crafters and see all the new things they had for sale. The crowd was light I think in part due to the 3 days weekend. Everyone in town has gone on trips....to warmer places or to shop.

Although selling was not fast and furious, spending the day with some really nice people made it all worthwhile and even when we have few sales it is still fun.

Within the next week I will start doing a group project....Working together with other artists on a Wendy Froud dvd sculpting project. It will be a great opportunity for me to learn

Work, work, work

Yesterday I worked on my foot practice rounds. I only got one foot done...oh my gosh they are hard to do. Here are some photos of "the foot"...lots of tweeking to do on it...but I finally put it down and went to bed...post a picture to the group site for critiqueing first.

Not too bad for a first foot ever...but a long ways to go before they are believable as "real" feet.

I also worked on my "warrior fairy" She looks like this now. She has been through a lot of changes. I need to just finish her because everytime I learn something new I see where I need to change her and rework the whole thing...I just need to finish the piece and move on.

I will add a hair do and the finishing touches today and call it good. Then I may put this one on ebay for sale also.

The "Special Delivery" fairy sold. And that is encouraging. Learning to make and sell your handcrafted items is a process that I am just now beginning. The group I belong to Beginners Polymer Clay Group is an amazing group of artists who, support, encourage and teach and critique....new polymer clay artists. I can not begin to tell you how much I love this group.

Well, now to finish my first cup of coffee and start my second foot and finish the fairy. I will post what I get done today.

Monday, Monday

Holy Catfish! Clear cold and 7*....when is summer coming? Gavin is up and off to school...an 11 year old bundle of grouchy-ness trouncing off into the dark with all the new snow kicking up around her Ug's.

Going to work on sculpting the feet for the practice sessions going on in the beginning polymer clay group. But not until I get the studio warmed up....yipes its cold.

Will put pictures up as I go...until then I am going to the front room, where the wood stove is and wait for the whole house to warm up. Later.

Blizzard in afternoon

Oh just when you think the weather is going to be sunny...it starts to snow. Well we make our own sunshine....so Gavin and I made fudge....hmmmmm.

Super Bowl Sunday

Sunday, bright and beautiful. There is nothing like the sunshine after a winter snow. Everything is so bright and clean looking.

I love the place I live. Seldovia is beautiful in summer and in winter. I never get tired of the ocean beaches, mountain spruce forests, and the light. The sun does amazing things at this latitude...everything is kissed by the sunshine which gives it a quality like nothing else. Hard to explain if you haven't seen it.

Today I am going to start a new sculpture and work on practice rounds from a group I belong too. The Beginners Polymer Clay Group....I can say this is the best group of people I have ever met. Generous, supportive and funny....if you are a beginning polymer clay artist I would encourage you to join this group. They are amazing.

Right now I am trying to learn templates for selling my work online...and a lady from this group just stepped up and started helping me...did I say this is a great group or what?

I sent for 2 aero gardens from QVC and I am excited to get them and start growing. I love to garden, but in Alaska in the winter it is impossible. My roses are under snow...I miss my garden. I planted lilies last year and I am looking forward to summer to see if they wintered over..I hope so. They were stunning. I have never seen such colors.

These lilies are beautiful and the colors bloom at different times so I have blooms all summer long.

Off to sculpt and oh ya...clean house....

Saturday Morning In Seldovia

A beautiful, snowy day here in Seldovia. About 25* just a perfect sort of wintery day.

Here is my finished "Special Delivery" fairy. I have her posted on ebay for sale. I think she looks good with or without her beautiful butterfly wings.

It has taken me over a year to finish her. I was so surprised when I went back and looked at the dates on some of the photos of when I started her.

Yesterday my son Scott brought me two octopus heads. Yaaaaa! He fishes on a large boat out of Seldovia Bay(think deadliest catch type) They use the octopus for bait, but they are also very good eating!.

I remove the ink from them and use it for painting. I get about an ounce of ink from each one. My friend Leny came over and helped me so I gave her the ink from one of them. She is a watercolor artist and a long time friend and has been wanting to try painting with the ink for awhile.

Here are two pictures painted with octopus ink. The first one is from when I was a commercial fisherman(woman). It is of two people mending their net at their setnet site on the bay. The net is pulled across the bow of the skiff and mended and returned to the water to continue fishing.

The other is of my favorite flower the "wild rose". I never get tired of painting the beautiful little flowers..they grow wild all over Alaska and I'm sure other states...I have no idea how many paintings I have made of these tough little flowers .....