Grandmother Bone.....

I started sculpting this piece early last year, but stopped before the head was completed....can't remember exactly why, must have been distracted by other projects. I went back to it in January after watching 'Young Frankenstein' (a favourite!) and being inspired by Marty Feldman's 'Igor' ("it's pronounced eye-gor") and his wonderful hump and popping eyes. After I had re-worked her left eye, the rest of the piece just fell into place. I also had in my mind the old junk-yard woman from 'Labyrinth'.....I wanted Grandmother Bone to be a collector as well and to have her clothes made up of bits and pieces.

The fabric part of her costume is linen, which I have distressed and 'rusted'.....the rest of it is made up of silk cocoons, mulberry bark, feathers, beads and dozens of individually sculpted little bones which are tied all through her costume. There is a real part of a bird skull on the top of her staff. I'm pleased with how her clothes look 'nest-like' and the fact that she reminded a dear friend of mine of a vulture sits really well with me. She actually makes me think of a bantam chook that's been in one too many scuffles.

The wip photos at the bottom show the head as it was before I 'popped' the left eye.

That sounded really gross.....sorry.

Here's the little poem I wrote for her:

"Grandmother Bone,

face like a crone.

fearsome to all

as she wanders alone.

Indeed she's a sight

with her hair all a-fright

but, she's lost all her teeth

so she really can't bite!"

Till next time.

"Wilbur"...

Last week I completed one of the individual projects I have going at the same time as working on the "deadly sins" project. It was a lovely feeling to finally complete a piece after so much preliminary work on a range of other things. This little guy is Wilbur, and I like to think of him as a gentle soul, contemplating one of the tiniest miracles of life.

He has been sculpted in polymer clay on a wire armature and painted in my usual way with acrylic paints. The photo at the bottom with magenta skin is the undercoat color I use for almost all of my skin tones.

The tree-trunk base that he is sitting on is also sculpted from polymer clay, as are the 'fly agaric' toadstools. The dried fungus and snail shells are real. All of the fabrics and fibers used for Wilbur's costume have been hand-dyed and are completely hand-sewn. His shoes and his back-pack are sculpted and painted by hand.

So, now it's on to the next one....quite different in theme, but should also be challenging and fun. WIP pictures as soon as I can.

Till next time.

Head designs for the last three 'sins' complete.

Over the past two days I've managed to complete the head studies for all seven 'sins'. Now that I have an idea of how I want them to look, I can work on body construction, pose and costuming and also decide on a size for each piece. While the temptation to make them big and imposing is very strong, I don't think it will be practical given that I need to complete them all before August. Still, it's early days and I'm sure it will all work out as I go along.

Till next time.

Individual side-projects.

In addition to the larger projects I'm undertaking this year, there are a few unfinished individual pieces that I hope to complete.

This rather pensive (and regrettably warty) little dude is starting to take shape and should make a nice piece when I've finished sculpting his seat and figured out his costume.

Over the next few months I will also be updating my website, so please forgive any glitches in the meantime, although I sincerely hope that I can keep them to a minimum.

Meanwhile, our new puppy, Milligan is settling in beautifully and is proving to be a very intelligent cookie indeed.....I can only hope that he'll use his powers for good and not evil.

Till next time.

Old project, new vision.....

Well the New Year has come and gone and with it went the promise I made to myself to blog at least once a week. What happened? Well, too much actually, most of it far too dull to relate but aggravatingly time consuming nonetheless. So I'm going to pretend that January didn't happen and in that case I'm right on track.

Last year I decided that I wanted to create a "fae" version of the Seven Deadly Sins. I got as far as sculpting two of them (gluttony and vanity) before realising that I wasn't thrilled with what I had created and so I put the project on the back burner and moved on to other things. During the month that never was, I found myself returning to the idea with renewed interest and after making a few drawings am excited about the project all over again.

I still have to finalise the designs for the last three sins, but already this feels much more cohesive to me. I'm really trying to move away from 'human' looking faeries to concentrate more on creatures and making all of the sins Goblin-like seems somehow appropriate.

The seven resulting sculptures and their accompanying drawings will form my SALA exhibition later in the year. I'm still planning to produce a small book for the exhibition and also a new line of cards and bookmarks.

I will be creating other unrelated pieces during this time as well as updating my website and re-starting work on another project that I'll spill the beans on at a later date.

A busy and exciting year!

Till next time.

Completed piece.....

Well, here it is almost December already and my favourite holiday fast approaching. This is the worst time of year for me as far as my concentration level is concerned.....there is so much going on with winding up the end of the year and there never seems to be enough time to do everything. I'm not complaining though....unfortunately I'm one of those annoyingly cheerful people who love the hustle and bustle, the copious amounts of fairy lights, the cheesy movies and everything else that goes along with the season....well, almost everything. Stress and drama I can do without and honestly, if you can't make an effort to be pleasant at this time of year, what hope is there?

All that aside, I managed to complete this piece yesterday and while they are still not named, I do know that they are two old friends who have shared much in their lives and are completely comfortable and at ease with each others company.

I'm hoping to create one more piece before I take a break over Christmas and replace the clay with gingerbread and fruitcake.

Till next time.

New piece in progress....

So, a number of things have kept me from blogging, facebooking, twittering etc. of late. Not that I'm exactly what you'd call 'prolific' regarding any of these....I just find it very difficult to spend that much time on my computer....but this has definitely been a 'less productive than usual' couple of months for me.

Aside from a general feeling of melancholy (a common occurrence but no less irritating for that), I've been having some major dental work which has involved extraction of wisdom teeth among other delights. I have a classic textbook fear of going to the dentist (heart racing, sweats, sleep disturbance and on and on) and although I have found a wonderful, gentle and sympathetic dental surgeon, the whole process is stressful and exhausting. Unfortunately, my dental health suffered very badly during chemotherapy several years ago and now I'm facing a considerable amount of repair work (partly my own fault of course for letting things go too long.....see *dental fear*). Anyway, the worst of it will soon be over and I've decided to have a break after my next appointment until the New Year. A Christmas season without anxiety is what I'm aiming for.

I've been working on the above piece for a couple of weeks and just finished painting them today. The first two shots were taken after firing and before painting and the next two are after the painting has been sealed. The next step is choosing fabrics and fibers for these two little friends and designing their costumes.

The drawing at the bottom is an idea for another 'Tree Faerie', this one not so frightening as the last. It's colored pencil and ink on cardboard, which is a new surface for me and one that I'm enjoying very much....although it does tend to lift if you muck about with it too much.

Before I go, my awesomely talented friend Linda Catchlove has just released a beautiful range of greeting cards featuring her incredible work. They are superb quality cards by a truly gifted artist and you can see and buy them here.

Till next time.