How they start. March 16, 2010

My sculpts start as wire armatures. I got some 16 gauge wire from our local gas station and cut it in to a 32 inch piece which I bent in half for the center(backbone) of my sculpture. She will be a fairy, sculpted in the Wendy Froud style...16 inches tall. Pretty weird looking aren't they. They(the wire armatures) have tin foil cores
( head and chest) and then are wrapped with the white florists tape. For one one thing so that the wire and tin foil do not react with the clay and to give the clay something to grip when it is fired in the oven. It also uses less clay...which is nice considering the price of the clay.....

Here are two sculpts that I have in process right now. One is for a friend who does so much for her family and the other is just for me to practice....maybe if it is good I will have it up for sale....maybe.

Works In Progress(WIP's)

Good Morning, I can not believe it has been so long since I posted here. Well it shows how busy my life got for awhile.

Life in the "Village" has been very cold with blizzard conditions for about a week. Which means no mail, no groceries, no travel....no nothin'.

But here are some sculpts that I got done...so being isolated has some "good points".

I have been working on a Wendy Froud type sculpt. It is a free online workshop offered by the polymer clay group that I belong to. Here is what I am working on for that and where I am right now.I hope that I can get the rest of the body to look correct in the proportions. It is going to have a wire armature and a cloth body with sculpted hands and feet. I hand dyed some silk that I had left over from a silk painting workshop .....I dyed it to perfectly match the piece of garment suede I found in my beading stash from making beaded check book covers. Here is the picture of the trim, the suede and the silk in a plastic bag...not the best pictures but it give an idea of what direction I am going. Roxi came and picked out the suede and then I dyed the silk scarf to match.

I still need to sculpt the hands and feet and put some color on the face ...oh yes! and bake the clay. This will be Roxi's doll as it is my first one and she is an avid doll collector.

I also sculpted a second torso for another doll but broke the neck and had to repair it. She has a straight neck rather then the nicely curving pose of the first but that is the learning process.

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...