This little Bat Girl is only 5" and a total of 6" with her headdress. When she stands on the stand the entire piece is 8.5". So much fun and certainly something new for me to sculpt that tiny. She is sculpted from Rose Puppen Fimo and dressed in dyed silk gauze. Her wings are fantasy film with lots of glitter....must do more of these tiny pieces for Halloween....
I so enjoyed every minute of creating this mermaid. She is a 9" figure sculpted from Rose Puppen Fimo with a tail of gold leaf...While I was sculpting her, Jean Bernard started an on-line fairy wing class....and I became so excited and decided to use her method to create the fins and tail fin for my mermaid. Jean always gets me excited with all of her wonderful creative teaching classes..in order to see what Jean is up to check out her blog and also wander over and see more beautiful work and classes on her website .
I had more fun using so many of my baubles, beads and baroque pearls on this figure and the stand.
Art Dolls Only challenges you to make an Art Doll along with us.
Sign up starts today and will run until July 16th. ................To sign up, simply e-mail: artdollsonly@hotmail.com ............Please include your name and a link to your blog.........then get working on your doll!!
Your inspiration will be the elements (fire, water, air, earth) and we challenge you to make an art doll using one, two, three or all four of the elements as your inspiration.
On Friday, July 17th, participants post their art doll to their blog. Saturday, July 18th and Sunday, July 19th, begins the fun of seeing all the art dolls that have been created. All participants will be listed in the ADO sidebar for easy viewing.
Any and all artists are welcome to participate, including non-members. Here is your chance to explore the wonderful world of art dolls. First time dollmaker, old hat or have not created in a while, all are welcome to join in the fun.
Please use this badge to show everyone you are participating with a link back to the ADO Blog.
The Lunar Goddess is complete after having two heads sculpted and two sets of wings made, she finally came together. She is a 9" figure sculpted from Porcelain puppen fimo and stands on a mosaic stand. I dressed her in silk gauze and Venice lace and made her last set of wings from Fantasy film on a wire armature which was painted with 3-D Crystal Lacquer and sprinkled with micro glass beads. She has beautiful while mohair for her hair and her headdress is made of antique silver wire leaves. She will fly to E-bay tomorrow.
To the Men and Women who sacrificed their lives for this country so we can live a life of freedom...I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
God Bless the United States of America
This is my first piece since we returned from vacation...it took me awhile to get back into the groove of sculpting. I would come into the studio and just stare at everything, not sure what to do next. I have been wanting to try something different with the armature and after I finally got started, I was so engrossed in the new method that I sculpted the body before the head....I usually sculpt the head first...so the Goddess has no head at the present time. I sculpted her from porcelain puppen fimo to get that mystic white look.
Her base is made of apoxie clay and mosaic tiles along with some pieces of mirror tiles...it is suppose to represent the moon. I love working with mosaics and sometimes I think I should stop sculpting and spend time doing mosaic projects.
I decided since I took so many pictures of the gorgeous Wisteria at the Biltmore estate that I would show just those pictures in this post. I have NEVER seen such long blooms as were on some of these vines....and smell good...oh my goodness....soooo sweet. As you will see by the size of the trunks on these vines, they have been around for a very long time.
We took a week's vacation along with my sister and her husband and traveled to Asheville, North Carolina. The drive from Mississippi to North Carolina was beautifull with views of the mountains and dogwood in full bloom and quaint little towns along the wayside. Our destination was to visit the magnificant home "Biltmore" built by George Washington Vanderbilt,III. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the home, but could take pictures anywhere on the grounds consisting of 8000 acres. I have divided my posts into two...one will be pictures of the exterior of the home showing the limestone carvings of statues and gargoyles. The stone cutters were the highest paid of all the construction workers when Biltimore was built. My second post will be pictures of the grounds and beautiful flowers.
The Pierrot is an 8" full body sculpt from Porcelain Puppen Fimo. I dressed her in white silk and hand dyed some of it for a contrast. Antique jet beading was used for her head piece and also for the center of the flower on her hat and the flower accent on the back of her costume. She has hand painted glass eyes with real eyelashes. I must say, I really had fun sculpting the mandolin from paper clay and was pleased with the final piece. The base is a combination of apoxie clay, mosaic tiles and velvet.
Not much going on out in the yard and garden right now with the exception of the Amaryllis blooming. Today we planted periwinkle to add some color for summer, although most of them were white; there I go again, with a monochromatic theme, the same I do with my sculptures. If there were such a thing as a beige flower I would probably plant it.....boy, my back hurts from bending over so much. Anyway, here are a few pictures I took while wondering around with the camera.
The Banana Fiscata has green leaves all year and in the Spring these wonderful flowers appear that smell similar to a banana and it is intoxicating.
The Sweet Olive also have geen leaves all year and these tiny white flowers have a wonderful fragrance that tends to surround you leaving you to wonder where it came from. It blooms off and on from Spring into the Fall.
August Fern putting out new fronds that are copper colored now, but will eventually turn green.
A whirly-gig high on a metal pole that was made by a member of the Mississippi Craftsman's Guild (of which I am a member)
A statue of an angel protected by an old tub which has been sunk into the ground. I plan to mosaic the tub this summer....
A Redheaded Woodpecker working on his new home on top of a telephone pole.
The wonderful Martins who return every year to use our house to mate and have babies. Their constant chattering is really missed when they leave in July.
We must have about 30 amaryllis planted in our back yard garden and some of them are beginning to bloom. I wish that I had kept the names of each flower, but I did not, so all I know is red, white, multi-color. Most of them were ordered as bulbs from nurseries and others were purchased at Christmas time in full bloom. There is nothing any prettier than to have a blooming amaryllis during Christmas. As they continue to bloom I will add more pictures.
The Mother Angel is now complete. She is a 12" full body sculpt from Rose Puppen Fimo over a very strong wire armature. I dressed her in antique silk velvet and beautiful embroidered lace from England. She has glass eyes, real eyelashes and gorgeous white mohair for her hair. She stands on a base created with mosaic tiles and apoxie clay. She will be going to a very special place and after I check with the collector, I will tell more about it.
I am working on two pieces at the same time which is unusual for me. But, I have a commission I must finish before May..The Angel which will go to a wonderful collector who has a great idea for the Angel's destination...more about that later. I will show the base for the Angel which is made from apoxie clay and mosaic tiles..I am really pleased the way it turned out..as for the Angel, she is waiting for some English embroidered lace which is actually on its way from England... she will make her appearance later.
The Pierrot is a piece I had started when I enrolled in an on line class with Marilyn Radzat called Crowning Glories. If you are interested in taking this class or actually any of her wonderful classes, please go to her blog and check it out. Anyway, I decided since I had already started the Pierrot, I would apply some of Marilyn's techniques to the Pierrot's cap...sooo, I took some antique Jet black beading I had and covered her black cap....I still have more to do, but this is a start. The Pierrot is playing a mandolin...she is also waiting for her costume. More later.
The Angel's Base.
The Pierrot
What a pleasant surprise to discover I have been awarded "The Proximidade Award" by the wonderfully multi-talented artist, Tina Von Wiesen . Thank you Tina for considering me and my blog for this award!!!
Here is a description as to what this award means:
"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give attention to these writers!"
I must now pass this Award along to 8 blogs that I feel are deserving of it. The other criteria is that when accepting this Award, you must post the meaning of the Award on your blog (see above).
I do hope you will take time to visit each and every one of these blogs that I have listed!!
I belong to a group on Etsy called Art Dolls Only or ADO. Check them out because there are many very talented artists in this group and they all create Art Dolls. They have started a Shakespeare Challenge whereby you can create any character from his body of work. This was a hard decision since there are so many wonderful characters; but, for quite some time now, I have had a sketch (laughing, I do not draw very well, but I understood it) of Romeo and Juliet that I have been putting on the back burner. So, this challenge was the incentive to create this piece that has been haunting me.
I sculpted busts of the lovers and put them on top of a mosaic stand. They are sculpted from Puppen Fimo with a wash of burnt umber and wrapped with a piece of dyed silk gauze dipped into Paverpol. Their stand is a combination of mosaic tiles, stone and beads. The entire piece is 12" tall and can be found in my Etsy Store
Here she is!! A very Sweet Pumpkin Head...I had fun with this one. She is sculpted from Premier Paper Clay with the exception of her hands and I sculpted them from Puppen Fimo. I have no idea why I was having so much trouble with the paper clay while trying to sculpt the hands...after about 3 attempts, I threw all of them away and switched to the fimo. Her skirt and neck ruffle are dyed silk gauze dipped into Paverpol to give them some body. She has hand painted jasper beads for her eyes and her base is sculpted from Apoxie Clay. I may do some more of these for Halloween, but I think I will go back to the fimo.
She can be purchased at my Etsy Shop
This and That....My attention this past week has been all about taking care of my husband who has been in the hospital and was diagnosed with cholecystitis and finally had to have a cholecystectomy. Unfortunately the laparoscopic surgery was not successful and an open cholecystectomy had to be performed which will take longer to recuperate. The good news is....he is doing fine and it is good to be home.
And a little of this........
Yellow and Bronze pansies around the fountain brighten up a rather dull yard this time of year.
These yellow Johnny Jump-ups are on steps outside my studio door and smell so good.
And a little of that......
Here is a small 8" figure sculpted from paper clay I was working on when my husband became so sick. She started out to be one thing and ended up being a sweet little pumpkin head....Lots more work to be done on her, but I think I like the way she is turning out...Maybe while he is recuperating I can take some time in the studio and finish her.
Here is a multi-tasking Kat, requested by a collector. She wanted a Kat that could celebrate different holidays and here he is!!! He has a Flag, Pumpkin, Candy Canes, Shamrock and Easter Eggs....for every day he has a fish. I also made him a little box to hold his treasures when they are not in use. The Kat and his accessories were all sculpted from paper clay and the Kat was crackled and antiqued to give him that warm patina seen in Folk Art pieces. His treasure box was painted and crackled to match him...............
Melody has arrived with her flower flute. She is an 8" full body sculpt from Puppen Fimo with the exception of her arms which can be posed. She is dressed in dyed lace and silk gauze with hand painted glass eyes and dyed tibetan wool for her hair. Her flute is also sculpted from Puppen Fimo and painted. The base has copper colored mosaic glass tiles and leaves and mushrooms sculpted from Apoxie Clay. Her wings are mixed media and really glow and shine. This tiny fae will fly to E-bay tonight.
