Soon to be March madness and WIPS

 As I headed out the door this morning I was greeted with a gust of cool air. The wind jostled me as I headed up the hill and the thought occurred to me that March might just roar in like a lion. I was hoping to beat the impending storm and get a full 30 to 40 minutes of slog in, but the clouds swirled around the sky, shutting off the sunlight over the mountains. I looked behind me to the west and saw a solid wall of white. Soon my face was covered with crystal pellets, and I was assaulted by the wind, so I trudged around the block and back towards the house, holding my wooly mitten over the right side of my face to block off the icy flakes smashing against my cheek. As folks drove by, I know they thought I was nuts, two ladies who got out of their car to go see what an estate sale had to offer shouted, "Look at you!" or something like that. I managed 20 minutes before I had to come home.

Now I'm in my studio, ready to tackle several projects. There's a bunny I'm finishing up for ebay, another that might be for a charity auction if I haven't missed the deadline. I've been feeling pretty poorly up until today, so I may be too late. I also have an Expressionist piece for our art society meeting that I need to finish, a demo set up for the same night, and a lesson to finish putting the last touches on for tomorrow. There's a towel blocking the icy cold from the stairway, shoved under the studio door, and a little heater set up to keep me toasty. I'm hoping this will be a productive day! In the meantime, Mother Nature continues her blustering outside.

Just so heads don't roll....

 I often use rice in a tub to help steady what I'm working on, or for a place to put things to dry. I had so many little snowman heads though that I had to resort to a pizza pan to keep the little darlings from rolling over and crushing their hats. What do you use?

Here's a sneak peek at some WIPs I'm finishing up as well. The big show set up is Tuesday, eeek! I'd better get back to work!

I'm on the Creative Paperclay Design Team!

I have been so remiss in making this announcement! I was chosen to be on the Creative Paperclay design team for the next few months, and there's been so much going on I haven't posted this as I should, so here I am now, sharing the exciting news! I am looking forward to testing new products, and challenging myself to new heights, or lows....lol. We shall see what happens, but what ever may come, I know this will be a fun and growth promoting experience. You can follow us at Creative Paperclay Blog to see the rest of the team, and the fun new projects for you to try out.

A Christmas Song Quiz & Giveaway Part 4

I must be a glutton for punishment. After running 3 1/2 miles I came home and finished the trim on the roof of the garage, patched some repaired holes in the house siding, (ugh, renters!), and then got a wild hair to repair the walls in my living room and paint. I pulled off all the baseboards and window trim, taped the seams and cracks, and slathered joint compound all over the walls.  Tomorrow we are driving to Spokane to go to the temple and then I will be back hopefully in time to paint. Friday is my first day tending the store for Roxy, a gallery owner who is running down to her sister's to help with her BIL as he had back surgery today. I will get the opportunity to set up and work on my sculpting and painting while tending the place, and plan on making the most of it. If you have a moment, check out some of the amazing hand crafted furniture and such she has here - Roxy's. Friday night we are having a Shelf Reliance demo at my place, so I must get the walls done and things put back together before folks show up. Gee, think I have enough to do? Well, it's fun and games time as 4 AM comes very early....

13. Uncouth dolt has his beezer in the booze and thinks he is a Dark Cloud's boyfriend.
14. Far back in a hay bin.
15. Leave and do an elevated broadcast.
16. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city.

Have a great night all!

Two Heads.....WIPS

I left my sanding block at home so these fellows will have to wait on that before I can continue with them. A Santa and a snowman that will have to make their debut another time. What's the delay? Baking, wrapping gifts, helping friends, dinners, and well.... just life can be the roadblock or the slight delay depending on your mindset. So I'm preferring to look at it as a slight delay, and thus perhaps turn them into more than I'd originally planned. These will both be dolls which is exciting for me. I've always wanted to create a Santa doll so I'm taking the time to do it. What are you working on right now, or have you set aside creativity for the holidays?

3 Ribbons

We have a tradition in our family when it comes to the fair. If I've entered a painting or something in the creative arts competition we head straight for those buildings after arriving at the fair. Kent and Annie, if she's with us, will go ahead of me to see whether I've won a ribbon or not. I'm always a bit hesitant to just rush in and look, so he does it for me....lol. Well, I can tell by the look on his face when he rounds the corner whether I've won a ribbon. So he comes up to me and says. "Oh, you'll like this one!" and I have to guess whether it's a blue, red or other color. Yesterday it happened to be red. Last year I hadn't won anything in fine arts so this was a nice surprise. I have a hard time sharing sometimes, because I don't want to appear boastful. There are so many talented artists out there, and winning a ribbon is most often subject to the judge's taste. This year, my piece happened to appeal to the judge. The blue ribbon piece was an incredibly detailed colored pencil drawing of desert mesas and the red sands of southern Utah.

So far I've not been able to get a blue ribbon at the fine arts competition so as we meandered over to the creative arts building Kent asked me what I thought I would have to do to get one or even better, a best of show. Well, as we entered the building he ran ahead again, and came back with a huge grin on his face. He says, "You're not going to believe this one!" Much to my surprise and delight I had both a blue and a best of show on my Jingle Bells Santa. Whoohoo! Why do I do this? Compete for ribbons? It's fun for one, and of course it's nice to get recognized for the progress I've made in my art. It also keeps me on my toes, and I look at it as a way of getting exposure. My husband asks me months in advance what I'm doing for the fair each year, so it's a family thing as well. How lucky I am to have such a loving and supportive husband.

To show you what a trooper he is, Kent stayed with me for 6 hours while I demonstrated my sculpting techniques to passing fair goers.

He made sure I was fed, had plenty of cool water to drink, and sat there and chatted with me when there was a lull in the crowds. I loved the look on the children's faces as they watched, and what was fascinating was that the 10 year old boys seemed to be the most interested. I had a lot of inquiries about classes so I will be looking into teaching some. Logistics will be interesting as I will have to travel to teach, but I know it will be fun as I've done it before and it's so rewarding to see the look of joy on a new sculptor's face when they finish a piece. I'm also going to be working with someone online to teach online classes so I will keep you posted.
If you are looking for a way to get good exposure, and meet new people, buyers and collectors, or perhaps students, look into your state or county fair.

Utah State Fair Here I Come!!

My hubby and I were just talking about this September's schedule. Yes I know, we are way ahead of the game, but my hubby likes to plan ahead. He asked me about Peach Days in Brigham city, which I had said would be fun to go to. I love peaches don't you?? Well, wouldn't you know it, Cathy from the Utah State Fair called me to confirm my being a working artist in the Creative Arts building the first Saturday of the Fair, September 11th. I will be there from 2-8 pm sculpting on gourds, with several to share hopefully. I'm so excited! What great exposure for me, and a good opportunity to show others what can be done with gourds. I've been told by gallery owners to not share how I do what I do, but hey, someone will come along and see my creations and try to copy them anyway. This happens a lot in Utah, but their style will be different and I have the advantage of more experience. I hope what I do will inspire someone to try something new. Sooooo, unless we get up really early to run to Brigham City, we will have to pass on Peach Days this year. Perhaps next year. Utah has so many fun things to do, such as the Greek Festival, which will be the same weekend we will be at the fair. The food is to die for, and the dancers are fabulous. So Utah State Fair, here I come! I hope to see some of you there!

A Fishy WIP

Sometimes you see something so cool you want to try to make it for yourself. A dear friend and I are working on a fish wall hanging for her as she saw one she fell in love with. We put this one together as a team, but she wants to make another one with me just supervising. It will be fun to see what she ends up with. This handsome salmon will be sectioned where the deep lines are and hung from copper wire with beads and driftwood between each section. We are waiting for the top to dry enough to flip this over and take the mold out so the back can dry. We call ourselves the 2 Portugees as we both have Portuguese ancestors. Who woulda thought I could come to Oregon and meet someone I could call my sister in blood....lol.

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts WIP Done!

Talk about a journey! I've never sculpted a horse head before but had looked at my goose neck gourd knowing it was destined to be one. I started out with a vision of the head looking like carved stone, with a base that had a tooled leather look to it along with an oxidized copper background for the tooled leather. Sometimes things don't always end up the way I start and this was certainly no exception.

After adding the floral flourishes, I realized that it wasn't quite the way I had envisioned, so I decided to blend the top and base together. So I thought I would try a bronzed look with a leather look base. After putting the first layer of the bronzing technique on, I had another thought come to me. So I tried burnishing the floral design with an antique gold, which really made the bronze too pink or well just not right.

I was getting discouraged and had all sorts of wild ideas running through my mind. After antiquing over the bronze to give it some definition and a more realistic look, I took some Champagne metallic paint and dry brushed over the gold. It toned down the gold and changed the whole feel of the piece. So I'm done! No more fussing, and lot's of lessons learned. I would really love to do another horse head or two, using my previous ideas but in a different way. Now I need to come up with a name. We've jokingly titled it El Caballo de Calabaza, perhaps that might stick!

Wallowa Valley Festival of Arts WIP continued

I got my clay order very fast so now I'm up and running again, getting the leather tooling design look on the base of my horse sculpture. I suppose I could pyrograph the design on, but since I don't know were my wood burning tool is or whether I could do it right, I will stick with what I know, and that is clay and paint.

I'm getting excited! I am itching to get this finished and get to the painting portion, but I better be patient. I do enjoy sculpting and designing with clay so I need to enjoy the journey. After the clay flourishes and design work are done, I will clean everything up, and start painting. I hope to achieve a tooled leather look on the base, at least in part. The rest will be revealed as I go along.

Take me to your leader.......

I have a message for the President......bwahahaha...... okay, not really.... Edwin, oh yes he has a name now, was goofing off as I was starting to get him dressed. His arms kept raising up all on their own, and I was sure he was ready to jump off the ironing board!
But he decided to hold still as I told him I would take away his next birthday if he didn't watch out! He's still getting dressed so stop by tomorrow and see the finished results!

There's a new Santa in town....

Well actually there are several new Santas in town..... I had a group of friends in Oregon that wanted to make Santa ornaments for their family members for Christmas so these are what they came up with. I'm so proud of how they did and they are just tickled. Here's a photo of their pre-painted pieces:

The creator of this ornament also created a much bigger Santa which is shown below:

I also have a photo of a grandmother and her 2 granddaughters: 

All three of them did great, but I was especially impressed with the girls. They were so particular about the work they did, and their ornaments turned out fabulously!

All in all it was a very fun adventure, and because we took 3 days to complete these pieces I got help from some of the ladies with painting my house so it was a win win for all! I'm so grateful that I'm a part of AHAO as I was able to teach myself through the resources shared by others in our wonderful ornament group on ebay.

Here's some pieces I sold recently as well:

Here's the 3 I like best.

I will be posting some photos of Halloween creations I've created so check back soon.