"Wabbit" Number 1

Working on rabbits this week and hope to get this one started in paint tonight or tomorrow depending on how the other "wabbits" go this afternoon. I sculpted arms on four rabbits yesterday and did not like how they dried overnight so I will be working on them again today. Sometimes the paper mache clay has a mind of it's own.

From time to time I get emails and facebook messages asking me how I get the surface to look the way it does using Fastmache.... well, sometimes it doesn't work for me either!!! I work with this material all the time so if you have a failure the first time out don't give up on this usually cooperative paper mache. Occasionally I get a bad batch of paper mache clay mixed and it doesn't show until it has dried and it shrinks and dimples in an unpleasing manner. I finished the arms and paws on this figure with a batch of different clay and the arms dried just the way I like. I do think this clay has humidity and temperature issues when drying, but I so like working with it I don't throw fits when I hit a speed bump here or there.

This is the first "wabbit" for 2010. He will have eggs in his bucket and the wire handle will be rolled for a finished look. German glass glitter on his bow tie or not? I'm leaning toward yes, to give him a little more "something-something." I love making those big ears in this clay....always up for a challenge!!

Have a great day ....I'm off to mix a new batch of paper mache clay!!!
Laurie

Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la

Well, I just had a pleasant surprise. I went to Flickr to upload my images and much to my surprise I found this lovely holly frame to put around my photos. It is cold outside, snow possibly on Sunday, holly frames available to "Christmas-up" the figures...all is good with the world. (It doesn't take much to make me happy!!)

Below is the finished Pumpkin-Elf, "Standish". I need my head examined for putting the hours into sculpting and painting his hat and boots, but I just couldn't resist. Unlike last month's "Elf in the Ornie", this hat doesn't have real jingle bells, these are made of paper mache and painted to look like bells.

"Standish" is another one of my Pumpkin Boys that loves all holidays. He doesn't deliver presents on Christmas day, but he does help Santa with the distribution side of things up at the North Pole. He checks the names and packaging of each gift (along with a crew of "elves", if you know what I mean *wink-wink*) so that Santa successfully delivers each child the correct toy and gift. It isn't like it use to be at the North Pole as they have even gone to bar coding! "Standish" takes his responsibility very seriously to assure that Santa doesn't disappoint the children of the world and is shown here holding a teddy bear (also paper mache) and candy canes (paperclay) to be packaged for....oops, that would let the surprise out!

"Standish" is one of the more dashing of the Lumina family members and is never seen without his full elf costume except when he takes his January vacation to the Caribbean....then it is strictly island shirts and shorts for this little guy.

"Standish" hopes as Christmas approaches that you have a joyous and loving holiday season and that he doesn't see your name on the naughty list!!

Have a great weekend!
Laurie

2 New WIPs

It has been a busy week in the studio making paper mache clay, making armatures for hats and then building the hats, building faces, making elf shoes and boots and making bodies. Below is my first ever Pumpkin Elf. He will be a crossover piece from Halloween into Christmas and comes with an elf hat with balls on the tips and elf shoes designed in the same manner. He carries a teddy bear and candy canes and I plan on painting him in striped stockings with a little ornamental vest. The figures don't have much of a personality punch at this point....that will have to come with the paint.

I also roughed in several snowmen this week. The little fellow below has a carrot nose and an over sized top hat. and two "stick" arms. I think he gets a scarf today... he needs it to break up that large body of his.

That's how I work. I sculpt, set a piece down, work on another, then look back on the piece I worked on earlier and let it tell me what it needs. That little bit of separation during the creative process is very necessary for me to keep moving forward in the design of the pieces.

That's this weeks peek into the studio and my artsy little mind.

Have a great weekend!
Laurie

Cassi, Cassi, Cassiopeia

Little Cassiopeia has got her makeup and accouterments on, and she is ready to go trick-or-treating on earth. She only gets to descend from the heavens once a year so she wants to make the most of Halloween. You see, Cassiopeia tried to intervene in the marriage of her daughter to Perseus, but little did she know that Perseus had that ole' nasty snake head of Medusa that could turn you to stone, and sure enough Cassiopeia was turned to stone and then placed in the heavens by the Greek gods. Part of her fate was to serve half of the year upside down in her thrown because of her location in the constellations.

Since she sits in the heavens and looks down on earth nightly she started to notice a special night in the fall when children and adults would dress in costume and go door-to-door collecting "something" in their pails, sacks, pillowslips and buckets. She asked her fellow constellations what this strange practice was where humans would go to the doors of their neighbors, in disguise, and then receive something simply by standing there in costume. "What an odd practice," she commented to the other heavenly bodies. Cassiopeia then heard Little Dipper mention the giving of sweet treats and goodies to tempt the taste buds and palates of even the mythological Greek gods.

That's all it took! Cassiopeia has such a huge sweet tooth she discovered a means to descend to the earth on Halloween disguised as a moon figure. She is shown below wearing her little black hat with stars, carrying her cat scepter in her left hand and wearing her kitty bucket over her right arm. Her lower torso is covered in Halloween orange with yellow stars complimenting her "skin" tone, and she dons a black belt with a metallic copper buckle to coordinate with her hat and boots (Such a diva!!!). Cassiopeia also has hazel eyes and wears Halloween orange rouge and lip gloss. She really has this costume thing down.

If you know the best place to go in your hometown to get the best treats on Halloween night, look for her...she has it all scoped out and travels across the skies to fill her bucket full of the best treats available anywhere. There is a chance you might run into her.

Have a great weekend!!
Laurie