Cuckoo, Cuckoo!

So this is my latest piece that I've finished up.  It is definitely the most ambitious sculpture I've made to-date!

This is a little Cuckoo Clock & Bird that has decided he's had enough with these new-fangled Digital Alarm Clocks!  He's taken his revenge!

The Cuckoo Bird is needle-felted, with armature wire in his wings.  The Alarm Clock lights up using a 9V battery, and the REAL Cuckoo clock base actually works!  It was so much fun making him!

Type 2 Diabetes Alert!

Please read this article if you or someone you know has Type 2 Diabetes.  There is a highly prescribed drug called Actos that has been linked to increased risks of Bladder Cancer.  It has already been banned in many European countries and needs to be banned here!

I just found out that this issue has had a VERY PERSONAL affect on my life.  So please share, ask, & tell anyone that is affected by diabetes if they have heard this information.  Information is power!

Dia De Los Muertos!

We spent yesterday at the Day of the Dead festival at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. There were so many talented artists there selling work!  It was so awesome to be surrounded by wonderful costumes & beautiful art. I LOVE the folk art look of the altars, sugar skulls, masks, & skeleton figurines. The festival was such a celebration with live music & dancers... even though it was in a cemetery!

Most of these skeletons are hand-made of paper-mache or clay.  I just LOVE them!! So fantastic & so inspirational!  I wanna make skeletons now!

Totally Back on ETSY!!

Yep, That's Right!

I'm officially BACK IN BUSINESS!! It's been over a - year? Maybe a year & a half that my shop has been on "Vacation Mode". I only have a few things up right now, because I want to reshoot all my photos, and I have to go through my inventory to see what I still have. Check in to the shop to see all sorts of stuff that I'll be adding!

Here are a few more photos of some pieces that I have up in my shop!!

Lights... Camera... Fish!

LIGHTS...

So I finally invested in a Photo Studio Kit.  It came with a HUGE light-tent & lights.  I've been thinking about it for a while, but was hesitant about spending the money.  BOY, am I glad I did it!!  Still learning how to use it to it's full capabilities, but I'll figure it out.  I'm already happy with how my first photos have turned out.

CAMERA...

We also invested in a new fancy DSLR camera!!  It's actually more for my husband & his photography, but takes AMAZING picts of my sculptures.  I never thought that camera quality made that much of a difference, but it does.  This is a Pentax K-r, an entry level camera, but still a huge upgrade to my previous point & shoot.  


*I took this photo with my iPhone in my Studio!  Looks like a stock photo, but it's totally our camera!

FISH!!!

So this was my first attempt at taking photos with my new set-up.  I think they came out WAY better than before, but still am learning how to use the camera & lighting.  I love the colors & detail the camera picks up.  That is one thing I've always been frustrated with, how do you show the real texture of a needle felted piece?  Most of the time it just looks fuzzy.

This Felt Koi I made a while ago, but he always seemed unfinished.  One the project before this one, I experimented with some Clear Casting Resin.  That inspired this "pond" base.  I colored the resin & left some texture with the aluminum foil I poured it into for the "water" texture.  I then made a few Felt Cherry Blossoms (the ones from my previous post!)

Usually I like to finish sculptures right away, but I'm learning that if something seems unfinished, don't push it.  Let it sit & stew for a while (a year with this one).  Then maybe you'll come up with the perfect solution!



***This weird picture layout is kinda a "happy mistake".  The layout for my blog has changed & I'm still figuring out how to use it, but I kinda like how the photos created a nice collage look.  Don't know how or why it happened, but I'm okay with it....

When an Accident Makes You Go "hmmm..."

Do you ever work really hard on a project, then you really screw it up?


You think, "IT'S RUINED!!! ... i worked so hard... why did i do that...


With me this usually happens when I think I know what I'm doing, I have a grand 'ol plan!  Then I kinda forget to think about one tiny step in the process, & I mess it up, BIG TIME!!

This happened to me yesterday.  I had some cute little cherry blossom flowers that I had made for a piece that I'm finishing up.  The plan was to pour a clear "water" resin base & place the flowers on top so that they were attached.  Well, dumb me didn't think about how casting resin is a liquid & that it would soak into the flowers....

Well I quickly pulled them out, ruining all the hard work I had done painting the flowers.  I worked long & hard on them.  But this is what came out of the "Happy Accident".  Kinda a cool pile of solid resined flowers.

This specific one isn't that pretty, but it did get me to thinking about how maybe I can use this technique later on... ON PURPOSE!!!  So take your mistakes & look at them with an open mind, you might like what you see!!!

These are the new cherry blossom flowers I started today, I like them better that those others anyways!!

DIY - Wire Bending Jig!

So I bought some awesome thick 1/2" armature wire a while ago for a project that I'm finishing up.  What I didn't realize was how incredibly difficult it is to cut & bend.

Instead of investing in one of these traditional wire bending gadget-jig-things, which I don't even think would work....

I decided to use what I got around the house! 

Used a couple C-Clamps & a scrap of wood.
Clamped it to my work "bench", which is really
just an Ikea shelf outside. 

Before I unclamped it, I just bent the wire up!

This was another "wire bender jig" I used.
The iron bars that are on the outside of my windows!!

So the moral of this experiment is...

You don't need no stink'n fancy tools to get the job done!!  Just look around the house & you are bound to find exactly what you need!

MIssing Hawaii... already!

Last month, my husband & I took a trip with his family to the Big Island,  Hawaii.  It was my first time there (his 10th or something) and I think I have found my place in this world.  There is something magical about being surrounded by so much beauty & the spirit of "Aloha".  It's a place that EVERYBODY has to visit at some point in their lives.  We didn't go to Honolulu or any place that touristy, but Hilo, more of the local, real Hawaii.  I used to dream about visiting this unbelievable place, but NOW it's my dream to move there & make art!  What a place to live & be inspired everyday!

ahhh... someday...

My talented husband took so many beautiful photos while we were in Hawaii. 

Oh, Yea, that's LAVA, baby!!
Totally took a helicopter ride over the Volcano! No doors, you could feel the heat!

These turtles were just spending a lazy day sun-bathing on the sand!  We went snorkeling at this black sand beach, and was so awesome to swim with them! Surreal!

My totally awesome camera ROCKED!  Underwater feature was so worth the $

Evolution of a Drawing!

Maybe I'll start at the beginning... Of a sculpture!

So to get back into the swing of things, I thought I'd show you part of my process.  This is a concept drawing that I did for a SUPER TOP-SECRET project that I might be working on!

Steps of drawing a Dinosaur....

Really bad sketch of idea!

My new favorite paper to draw on....
TRACING PAPER!!
Makes drawings so much easier to clean up!

Cleaned up Tracing Paper line drawing.

Transferred line drawing with some added shading.

Final drawing with some painted color & background!!  

So like I said, this is just the process of a CONCEPT drawing.  Doing a drawing like this helps me figure out the structure & anatomy of the subject.  Then when it comes to actually creating the sculpture, I can focus more on making him look awesome!