GreenMan Aside

Dear All,

Despite what appears on my blog (will get better!), I have been quite busy. I've got SIX baby blankets nearing completion and I've started on TWO lovely shawls with some GORGEOUS yarn I've recently discovered. It shifts color just beautifully and it's a joy to work with.

I've laid my Greenman aside for now. You see, I've decided that I what I REALLY want is to make figures---have wanted to for quite awhile. I've just been too afraid to give it a really good try. In addition to all that, I have mermaids/mermen on the brain, so I've decided to do a series of learning projects for myself. Awhile back, I made two mermaid armatures---and then I got scared to go any further---didn't want to 'mess them up'. Then the husband got REALLY, really sick. So there those two lovely armatures sat. Still, I decided that I still really want to make a few mermaids and I've decided that I really must get over all that nervousness and stop standing in my own way. Now that the husband is relatively well now, I've got the time. I think that my original armatures were too complicated for what I had in mind and I think I need to stick with a few basic poses---just to start. So I've been in my little 'studio' nearly everyday. I made two pretty awesome mermen and one tiny mermaid armature so far in addition to the two mermaids I have already made. I've decided that five is a good round number, so I've got one final mermaid armature to do and she will be part of a pair of lovers I intend as my fourth project. I figure I ought to have learned a few solid things by then.

I really enjoy making the armatures a lot as it gives me a little insight as to 'who' they might become. My wire-based armatures get really complicated pretty quick as I place wires everywhere I want the fins to go. I then crumple up aluminum foil and wire and glue that on, then I coat the whole thing in Aves Apoxie. I've discovered that I can make some marvelous fins using this product. I'll sculpt in the body with polymer clays which I've already mixed. Here's a couple of progress pictures.

Peace Always,

the DragonLady

I Hate Hacking at a Cured Piece!

Well, the Nature Face is cured, but. . . with a large air pocket next to the left eye. (Curses and Buggers!) I don't believe I will attempt a cover-up with neatly placed greenery, so that leaves just hacking it off and refilling it. I never liked doing that with a cured piece, but sometimes that is the nature of the medium. Other than that, it turned out well and I am reasonably happy with the features. I think it's more feminine than male, so that's what I'll run with. I'm not sure if I like the 'texture' bit, but I think it will really add to it once I get all the leaves placed.

Peace All---and thanks for looking!

the DragonLady

Face/Schmace.

Well, I started working on my Nature face again after I got the beading out of my system for awhile. I picked out the perfect pair of eyes and it's been refine, refine and REFINE! Just when I think I am ready to cure it, I go and change something and then I do it again. . . and again.

I am good with the noses, I am fairly comfortable with the mouth/lips, but I always get stopped up at the EYESES! I know I know how they go---after all, I've got two of my very own, but. . . something happens to me brain when I go and sculpt the eyes in! I'm sure that will go away if I do enough of them, right??? Still, I had hoped to be farther along in general.

Here's a progress pic. I like the basic expression so far, I am adding details continuously. I will bake it BEFORE I start adding in a bunch of leaves. Nothing like ruining good work by adding a a few dozen leaves and what not!

Peace All,

the DragonLady

Not Wholly Idle

Well, times have been somewhat difficult economically for us, but I've not been totally idle. I LOVE sparkly, feminine jewelry---although, I seldom actually wear it. However, I recently made this sparkly necklace and bracelet just for fun, but someone is already eyeballing it! I absolutely HAVE to get a pic in here of her wearing it as it drapes so prettily! It doesn't look like much unless you're WEARING it!

Peace All,

the DragonLady

When I want to play with the beads, then I absolutely MUST get them out and play or they will all roll around in the hallways of my mind like marbles.

Getting It.

I've gotten closer to the eyes that I want my current nature face to have, the last ones I made came out too big as I didn't size them quite right, but I'm really liking the colors I've chosen: a pale green with gold mixed in. I mean, it's a GreenMan . . . . or woman after all---it hasn't said yet, 'they' usually tell me who they are AFTER I get the eyes in. The weather has been SO gorgeous here lately, I wish I could bring the clay outside and sculpt away.

Here is a sort of sideways pic of eyes I made awhile back. (I forgot to flip it). Eyes don't look like much till you get them pretty much finished and glossed. They take on an even greater 'life' once they're in a piece, so you kind of have 'to keep the faith' so to speak. I work very hard to get them as even as possible, but they really don't have to be exact matches, sometimes a bit of difference really gives a piece that 'spark'.

Peace All,

the DragonLady

Eyes/Schmeyes

Dear All,

I have a whole jar full of eyeballs I've made over time (sounds creepy, doesn't it?) and I don't like a single pair for the current face I am making. So, now I am making another pair or two. I have yet to 'perfect' the best way to make eyeballs, so each pair is a learning thing. I can't really go much farther in a piece until the eyes are in, so. . . the 'eyes have it'---and they have to be just right.

My daughters wanted to take a trip to Goodwill for a 'new' purse. You never know what you will find there and for variety? Well, you can't beat a thrift store. However; I saw something that gave me pause today. I think someone who collected dolls like there was no tomorrow either died or got fed up and cleaned house. There was a large slew of dolls still in their boxes sitting on the Goodwill store shelves---from collectible Barbies to porcelain babies. (No, I didn't cart any of them home---some of them gave me the creeps.) I imagine some other 'collector' will snatch them up. I like dolls to a certain extent, but I can't imagine shelves and shelves just full of dolls staring back at me collecting dust along the way. (I hate dusting.) I think I'd have this crazy urge to take most of them apart and remake them into something less. . . cold.

Peace All,

the DragonLady

Those Lovely Doll Hands

Here is a pic or two of those lovely doll hands I'd mentioned earlier. I have no idea what they were doing on a doll with a big head; they're much too 'delicate' for that size.

One of my son's art professors recently told me that I would 'do quite well' if I were to try and sell my nature faces at local nurseries and such, so I'm starting another one. I think I'd like to fill up my Etsy shoppe with moon and nature faces too, but I'll ask a local nursery or two and see what they say.

These things never look like much when I first start them off---just aluminum foil crumpled up into a sort of face and then I cover it all with a good coat of tacky glue. The larger faces need a plate or a wood round, but I don't care to use wood all that much as it can split and ruin good work---even after a test bake. Cheap ceramic plates work rather well.

Peace All,

the DragonLady

Satyr in Progress

By the way folks; the picture below is obviously NOT beautiful doll hands. It is of the Satyr bust I am working on.

Peace All,
the DragonLady

Finds.

I found an UGLY porcelain doll in a Goodwill store, but she had the most beautiful hands and forearms. Her head was much too big for them AND the rest of her body, and her hair was . . . just plain BAD. Underneath all that, she had this look on her face that was . . .unbecoming.

So of course I went home and immediately took her all apart---which by the way, is a GREAT way to learn how a doll goes together---or. . . how one should NOT go together. Without her horrid hair, her face doesn't look that bad now and her hands are even lovelier now that they are are off that mismatched body.

I LOVE finds like that. You know, a little trinket box that would delight a mermaid, or an old piece of filigre that a fairy would adore for a crown. . . that perfect acorn WITH cap for a wayward pixie. . .

At the risk of making myself sound like a hoarder, I love to go FINDING stuff like that in flea markets, garage sales or, even in Goodwill. Ugly dolls are the standard in Goodwill---but maybe they just need someone to take them home and give them a clean slate. Every once in awhile, I'll buy a small one---or one that seems to beg for another chance at beauty.

Peace All,

the DragonLady

Coming Along.

Dear World,

Last week, while driving home fairly late in the evening, I spotted a young woman running in the grassy middle median of the road we usually take home. There was also a large man behind her. I had no idea what was going on, but. . . I somewhat reluctantly turned the car around to see if she needed help or something. Obviously, I really had not thought it through, but figured I could at least call 911. I soon come back upon the pair, only she was now on the other side of the road and the guy was sort of in the middle of the road, so I HAD to stop. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see her screaming and this was the moment I panicked inside as I wondered (of course, it would be NOW) what I had gotten myself into---and that I had my daughters in the car. In that same moment, also out of the corner of my eye, I see something small and furry run into the road---it was a small dog. My heart sank down to my toes. As soon as I saw the animal, I also saw it get hit by a pick-up truck. My oldest daughter fell apart right then and there and began to sob. I was in total shock, but the tears sprang up into my eyes soon enough. Fortunately, my younger daughter hadn't seen it as she was sitting in the back.

I roll down the window to offer assistance and the woman is running around screaming at the guy---who is completely and wholly freaking out because he saw the dog they'd apparently been trying to save, get hit. The driver of the pick-up simply takes off. So, I get out my phone as the woman comes running up to the car begging for us to help. Upon seeing the phone in my hand with the number dialed, she flies into a total rage and just starts screaming (in a highly postal fashion) at me about how I didn't call for help immediately and leans in and hits my hand hard enough to knock the phone clean out of it---BIG help. She yells various obscenities and more and then takes off at a dead run---pretty much just like the one I'd turned around for in the first place. Ordinarily, I'd have seriously thought about chasing her down and having her arrested, but. . . the poor dog starts crying. We hadn't expected that. It had actually survived that crushing blow. So, after much loud-speak at the guy to calm down and help us get the poor thing into the car so I can rush it to a vet the 911 operator has patched me to, we rush off and make a twenty-minute drive for life.

The poor thing cried the whole way while my younger daughter tried in vain to soothe it somewhat. Sadly, the vet felt the need to put him/her down immediately as it began to sieze when they tried to get it out of our car. We were just heart-broken over ALL of it.

I can't tell you how this woman's ugliness just added to it all---much like alchohol in an open wound. My older daughter (21 years old) was just so shocked at the way her behavior (on top of seeing a dog get hit) had turned SO suddenly (on a dime), and my younger daughter (17 years old) just wanted to deck her. The guy on the other hand eventually did calm down and even parted with a really nice jacket he'd been wearing---which we sort of used as a stretcher for the poor dog---which turned out to be just a puppy.

We still don't want to drive down that road anymore.

It wasn't all that nice to begin with.

Peace All,
the DragonLady

In the Werks.

Ah, Christmas is OVER---and we actually got the tree down BEFORE February! THAT is an amazing feat in this household.

Now that the husband is sort of through with the hospital/schmospital stuff, I can (and need) work on some stuff. I decided that I want to pursue sculpting full-time. I figure it's a crap shoot no matter if I decide on school (for some sort of career at the tender age of almost fifty) or full-time sculpting endeavors. Having decided on the sculpting avenue, I've been chained to me desk practicing. So far, I've got two heads. One will be a bust and one may get a body as I go along. I intentionally started working with brown/gold clay so I wouldn't drive myself insane with Sir Fuzz and Miss Lint that inevitebly work their way into MY clay! Just in the making of these two so far, the anatomy matters ARE getting a bit easier. Hopefully that trend will continue and I will be able to earn a bit here and there down the road.

Peace All,

the DragonLady