Works in Progress- BUG

While she may not have an original name at the moment, Bug is the first in a new series of insect women sculptures I've been working on over the past few weeks.

She started out as another half doll for the doll making book I'm writing.

But when my husband saw her finished head, he thought the face was very insect- like and
suggested I follow through on the idea.

The biggest problem was that
the doll's torso armature was
covered with yarn, batting
and fabric.
Adding legs meant that I would either have to tear apart what I had completed or build a separate leg armature that could support the torso in an upright position.

Since I felt that the doll up to that point was successful, I opted to construct a combined set of 4 legs with a center opening that the doll could be inserted into and secured in place at the waist. I used 14 gauge wire on this armature section instead of the lighter 16 and 22 gauge I used on the torso because I wanted the legs to be able to hold the weight of the torso and the embellishments I intended to use when the skinning of this figure was complete.

At this point, the arms and hands need to be completed, the wings need to be made and secured to Bug's back. I'm thinking that beading done on her torso and head would be the best final touches. My favorite final thing to do on a doll is it's hair, but in this case I probably should let Bug stay bald.....maybe a turban or some other head piece might work?

And-Now For Something Completely Different- Works in Progress

I've been sculpting with fabric for yrs now, but my initial training was sculpting with traditional materials like clay and wax.

I had an odd dream the other night about these elemental cat women. You know Earth, Air, Water and Fire....I got up and did some sketches.

I had been reading this fabu book on the sculptures of women during the time of Akhenaten and decided sculpting them as tiny bas-relief sculptures. The pieces are around 2 inches in diameter.

I'm going to make molds on the sculptures and produce them in limited editions. They should make nice pendants.

I was thinking of faux finishing them so they look like things like yellow jasper or faince (turquoise colored) beads.

I need to smooth the surface of earth cat a bit more before I have a mold put on it and the water cat is still rough, but I think they're going to be quite nice when they're finished.

Collaborations

I usually make my FlutterCats out of plush, but I got a commission recently for a fabric one. I'm so glad, because it has been fun to alter this design so that it will work with fabric.

The things I learned making this new cat from cloth will make all my cat designs better. I'm not sure how many cats besides the HexCats I'll make out of plush any more. I may find I miss the soft fur. It makes the cats more cuddly. I probably will keep using both materials.

Who the HECK are YOU?

I was making a monkey figure or in my terms a "minkey" last night. I know I was. But low and behold this little guy appeared. HE wanted a tail...but not a fuzzy one and no external ears. But he was adamant that the tail have a vinyl tip and that he needed vinyl stripes on his face too. A lizard monkey? Well, I guess that's what I've made.

I thought he might like wings... wasn't interested. I didn't make this doll by myself. He just seemed to take control of the process and I followed along for the ride. So here is my newest addition to my Pet Shop of the Old Ones.... A lizard ape.

Man, I need to come up with a better name. Winter Lizard, Scaly Ape, Wooly Dragon, do any of these sound good to you?

New Chihuahua Poco Diablo

I really enjoy making these little patchwork dogs. Diablo is my newest piece in this series. He's also the
first chi I've done with an open mouth.

I re-did the head a couple of times to tone
down the facial distortions. The mouth was more time consuming than I thought it would be. The fact that this dog design needs 2 eyes of different sizes made things more difficult.

Sewing Free Form Figures CAPTURED

The way I work can seem very involved. In this tutorial, I wanted

to share how I
made one of my favorite pieces, CAPTURED .

I've always loved the colors of the Egyptian Funerary Art and the textures and spiraling shapes in Gustave Klimt's work.

I've always done
sketches to
help me
plan my
sculptures,
but I have never let the drawings get too involved though. The fabrics and the sewing itself often dictated changes in the finished piece.

After I collected up different shades and textures of fabrics in the the Egyptian inspired colors , I chose the wires I wanted to use for the armatures.

I wanted the starfish to act as a base and it needed to hold the mermaid securely. Even though it was only 8 inches in diameter, I chose 14g galvanized steel wire for the basic framework because it was stiff enough to hold the shape I wanted. After making the basic shape, I wrapped the 14g with 22g wire.

This texturing of the armature made it easier to cover the wires with acrylic yarn. I used a buttonhole stitch for this step. The yarn covering made it easier to attach the strips of batting used to plump up the starfish's shape.

The mermaid may have been a smaller piece, but her construction was much more involved. The process was basically the same as the starfish, but I worked in layers on this figure. After setting up the armature, I covered her with batting and started sewing fabric on the tail.

Once I had a stable fabric base I used more pieces of batting to create breasts and the facial structure . More fabric was then whip stitched over top. On the head, the eyes were sewn on and the forehead, nose and chin were then shaped and sewn down.

On the torso, the breasts were formed by sewing batting around a marble and sewing it in place. Once they were covered with fabric, I continued the spiraling fabric shapes I started on the tail up the torso and over the breasts.

The final steps on the starfish were to secure the resin eye in
place, sew on an eyelid and embellish the entire surface with beads.

The mermaid's finishing touches were beading the hair and embellishing the torso with seed beads. Elastic trim was used to bind the mermaid in place.


This has always been one of my favorite pieces.

My Ode to Cats- In My Life and in Art

I love you my darling cats. Jackie, even when you jump off the
plant shelf and land with a huge bang on MJ's drawing table.... I may jump 10 feet, but I still love you.


Or when you have a wild game of "run and tumble" with your siblings at 2 am, I'm usually up sewing anyway.


Even little Kirby's turning into a vampire that one night wasn't that bad. He was abandoned at such a young age I guess the suckling thing is to be expected.

But sometimes I like my cats to be artwork. It's nice to look at a painting or sculpture of a cat. No biting or scratching or craziness. Just beautiful cats.

Cellic http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5412690
the etsy shop run by Cheryl Ellicott shows cats in all their regal beauty. I am so in love with Devon Rex Prince M. I love to look at this beautiful
painting.

But sometimes the joy of having
a cat is witnessing it's occasional zaniness. Papermoongallery's cats are so charming. I love the giant eyes and teeny legs these sculpts have. Sophisticated Kitty Cat is quite the charmer. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021458

Yes, I'm a crazy cat lady and I do love my cats.

Adding More New Items

MJ is adding a new line of Limited Edition Art Cards to our shop.

The Bleak Girls are the first set.


His next series will be Cat Women.






The Pet Shop of the Old Ones Coloring pages will be listed this week.




I'm finishing off a new Futhark Feline and a little cat soon to be either a Moonlight Cat or a short haired HexCat. I'm still undecided. It depends on how the body turns out. I've only made one short-haired Hexie so the idea is appealing. Micah was one of my first HexCats. I was looking in my files for a picture and came across this one of him and it got me to thinking about getting out the velour for a Hexie.





I'm starting a couple of new pieces too. This sad story made me want to do a memorial to poor George. Since I want to call it St. George, I'm going to do it in accordance with traditional portraits of Saints. He's going to be all battered from his fight. But I don't believe all angels are pretty.... Especially when they're being brave. http://tinyurl.com/38mnv5


I'm also staring a medium sized longhaired Hexie. I just got the most beautiful black,white and purple faux fur and MJ made me some beautiful deep purple eyes. I love fabric sales.