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!!

Almost Done!!

Here is the completed picts for the felting part of the Sparrow Sculpture. Just finished all the sculpting, and just need to finish the wood base so it can hang. Should finish it tomorrow... and have finished picts!!!






All the felting done!! Line work is fun, but takes a little time.












Detail of finished felting.









Time to put it all together! Just cut a small hole to allow the armature wire to slip through the felt to the back.












Felting the wings on!










All done & ready for it's wood base. Just laid it on the wood....









And traced around the outside. I like this look cause it will be like a bold black outline around the whole thing. And gives me a way to hang it!





Outline ready to cut out. It was too late tonight to jigsaw the wood (little kids living next door) but will cut it out first thing in the morning!






Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend!!
Be safe & eat lots of BBQ!!!! Yea Summer!!

A Long Day of Felting!

I worked most of today, it felt good to get some work done cause I've been kinda lazy recently. So I shared the first process picts for my newest piece yesterday, so I thought I'd continue! Here was today's progress picts for the Tattoo Sparrow Felted Sculpture!




I started by sketching a pattern for the wings. I wanted both to be the same, so I made a drawing to cut the wool-felt from.








I traced the pattern of the wings on some pre-felted white wool. This is my new favorite material to make things go faster. Instead of felting wool from scratch into a thin shape, I just use the pre-felt & needle on top!!






I want one of the wings to come off the base into 3d, so I felted the armature wire into the wing. This helps with support & posing.







Both wings all cut & ready for color!








I used my handy new PhotoShop Elements to scale the original concept drawing up to the size of the wings. I like the shape of the body that I drew before, so I just printed it out to be able to use as a pattern.







This is another great reason to have the pattern. I cut it up to insure the shape & placements of the different colors.








I wanted the blue color on the body of the bird to be slightly thicker than the rest, so I just added a layer of white wool to add a little bulk.









Time to start the color!!!










I'm a sucker for some nice clean lines & graphic elements in my pieces, so I took the time to sculpt in the colored highlights. I wanted to have some white at the bottom of the wings.






After much needling, I finished all the blue! It was alot of needling!!








I then used the body pattern to sketch in the placement for the red under-belly color.








Fun color on the body is done!










All the color is done! Looking good!








Time for the line detail! Just using my handy black wool yarn to felt in the bold black lines around the shapes...

It was a long day & I'm done working, but he is coming along nicely!!

More Koi Picts!!

Almost done... Got all the main parts done, just gotta finish the details & paint his wood base & mount him on!! I'm super excited & want to be done!!! Ready to move on to the next piece!!

I also am excited about my new toy!! I bought myself a Fancy-Shmancy Jigsaw. I've needed one for a while, and this project gave the best excuse to buy one. Went with the middle-grade one (rather than the super cheap or super expensive). I think it'll come in handy cause I'm dig'n making wall-hanging pieces. I think there might me more of a market to sell sculptures that hang on the wall. At least people might not ask me "What is it for?" anymore. These piece have a purpose... hanging on the wall... and now maybe I can open my buyers into people that buy paintings & prints to decorate their houses.

I used the jigsaw to cut out the wooden base for the Koi. I just laid it down on the wood & drew a nice outline around it. It will be painted black, have some armature wire to hold the tail up, & have the hanging hardware on the back.



And here are the Picts of the Koi!!

These are of the Koi before his last round of paint & after I attached the fins. You can see how he will be sculptural - going from his flat head to full 3D tail. To give you a bit of scale, the piece of wood that it is sitting on is 2' x 4'. I like how it is turning out!!









These are the picts of Koi after his final paint job! Now he just need a bit more detail.

EarthDay Giveaway!!

Just wanted to let everybody know that I have been included in an awesome Earthday "Love Your Mother" Giveaway that is being hosted on the Monster Bites blog today!!! My little Eco-Friendly Globe Needle-Felting Kit is included among a short list of amazing handmade items that are featured today in celebration of Mothers & The Great Mother Earth!!!

These are just a few of the items that are included in the Giveaway Today!!! Be sure to click & enter to win!!! And Thank You to Monster Bites for thinking of me & including my Kit in their awesome post today!!!

*Items include:

FeltedChicken - Eco-Friendly Needle Felting Kit
Odelea - Earth Gift Cards
Green Eyed Monster - Reusable Tote Bag

Waiting for the Rain....

Figuratively & Literally!!

It's supposed to rain here in SoCal for the next couple days, but hopefully it will clear up by the time my parents get here on Friday!! I'm so excited... but... also have to clean the house :( PLUS I might be starting back on the movie job that I was working on last month again next week. Tranformers 3 here I come... maybe... again...

It's funny cause I have FINALLY caught up with my everyday life, and FINALLY started to read my back log of blogs that I've been neglecting, and FINALLY have time to work on some new sculptures...

then...

"Here Comes the Rain Again...."


But I will share a few picts of the newest felted piece that I started a couple days ago. I'm really excited about this one because I'm making it to display at my job - Blick Art Supplies. Once it's done it will be on permanent display so if you live in the L.A. area, you can come & see it!!! (and buy some most-awesome art supplies while you're at it!!)




This is a picture of the Koi Wall piece that I took with my hand so that you could see the scale of the piece. It's definitely the LARGEST sculpture that I've ever started. He will eventually be totally airbrushed & have a wood base so that he can hang on the wall.







This is just a reminder of how BRILLIANT I am!!! I got the bright idea to use Wool Yarn for my black line work for this piece. It just takes forever to felt long lines of... well... yarn, by hand, so I thought I'd try using the real stuff!! It's going really well & fast & even the package states -

"Alpine Wool... This soft, natural 100% wool roving yarn is ideal for garments, accessories, and felting projects"

We have a winner!!!









And just a picture of how the fish is starting out! I'm pretty excited to see what I do with it!! i'm pretty sure it will be awesome by the time I finish!! HAHA!!

Finished Mini-Angler!!!

So I hope everybody had a great week & got your taxes done in time!! I did mine a couple weeks ago, so wasn't under the pressure of dashing to the Post Office on Thursday. HOORAY for TurboTax!!! And it wasn't sooooo bad doing my taxes even with all the business stuff included. I'm sure there was some sort of deduction that I missed, but got a killer return so I'm not complaining. I think it also helps that I've been a freelance sculptor for the past few years & have itemize deductions before, so I'm used to keeping receipts & organizing the items into their proper categorizes.

And I also wanted to share the final pictures of the Mini-Angler Fish!! He's all done, just needs to be packed up & mailed today. I darkened his eyes (which I think made him look a bit meaner!!) And got some nice photos of him yesterday! I also just started my newest felted sculpture yesterday too!! It's going to be the BIGGEST piece I have ever done!! I will hopefully have updated progress picts sometime next week!!!