Saturday, July 30, 2011

SUMMER DUST



~The Summer dust settles on my blog like Ancient faerie dust and reminds me that what lies beneath will remain protected until I return with purpose as Lughnasadh leads us slowly and dreamily into Autumn.

~Mimi

(But if you want to see what I *have* been working on you can pop over
to http://www.yellowdogmagic.blogspot.com/)

(Aren't I shameless?!)
;)


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Feeling very Shakespeare-ish this day........




I adore my summertime teaching.
For 18-plus years now I've been offering my SHAKESPEARE IN THE ROUGH
outdoor theatre program in our local park.  This summer we perform MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

And nothing is quite as wondrous as children quoting Shakespeare.

I'm feeling very grateful this day.


"There was a star danced, and under that was I born."



- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 2.1

Monday, July 18, 2011

THE URGE TO SCULPT: Part 2

Well, it took nearly four days for the head to dry properly.  I was excited to sand and smooth the face but it turns out that even the coarse sandpaper won't do the trick on Claycrete.  I guess I kind of knew that as I was sculpting because there were far too many wrinkles that couldn't be smoothed out.  I've since perused the craft store and believe I'll give a different medium a go.  I'm wary of clay though as I'm not a big fan of trying to bake it.

But, nevertheless, I'll go ahead with this existing piece and see where it takes me.

I thought I had a plan, I can say it now- I was going to go for a Wonderland theme-in particular the Mad Hatter. (my soul favorite!)  But after sanding and painting and working for a flesh tone and coming up too pink in a face full of crevices and repainting and repainting,  it became apparent that this would be no Mad Hatter.  He definitely spoke clearly to me as he finally guided my hand to the green paint.  This was, indeed, the making of Nut Grassbottom, a Gnome appearing in a story I just recently began to make a blog for:
 A Faerie Magical Yellow Dog Tail  http://www.yellowdogmagic.blogspot.com/

Perfect cheeks...chin...wrinkles.....eyes.......oh, eyes. 

Yeah. 

This would probably be a good time to point out that I haven't a clue how to paint features. 
It's always been a problem that what goes on inside my head will never come out my hand.
(Probably good in some cases, eh?)  ;)

So, after mixing a lovely pale green (the green is much greener in person) and waiting (again) for all to dry I dug through my box of treasure scraps and here's what I came up with:



There is no way that this face isn't a Gnome so the flower petals worked nicely.
And since Nut Grassbottom is a trickster who lives in Faerieland it was perfect.
I used rather large pearls painted a blue iris, black pupil and white dot for reflected light.

And there you have it.

Plus, apparently now my lot has been cast.  I don't imagine the Creative Powers That Be will
let me stop until I sculpt the entire cast of characters!  lol

Now.......back in the bowl on top of the fridge you go Mister Grassbottom
whilst I think for a while longer.  Oh, and feel free to speak up if you have any more notions regarding how you should look.  Just tap me on the shoulder first!  ;)
******************************************


Friday, July 15, 2011

AROS BOOK SIGNING & BBQ


ME AND MY SMALL STONES








Well, I do have to admit that there really isn't a better feeling than showing up for a lovely BBQ and finding your entire crew reading your Small Stones
 and then arranging an impromptu book signing!   (plus feeding you!)

Never underestimate the power of some good and true friends.




The following is the publicity email that was sent out when the book arrived on Amazon US.
It was first available on Amazon UK
Please check out our River of Stones....or write some yourself!
You'll be glad you did!  ;)
~Foxmorton
*******
HUZZAH! Foxmorton makes AMAZON US!


(This is especially for my Bro, Jim, who won't need to travel to Europe now to read my Stones! I love you Big Bro, now order my book!) ;)



Once again, a small thing but oh, so worth it.

FINALLY appeared on Amazon US

love, Foxmorton   xox
**********
What is A RIVER OF STONES?

320 amazing small stones written by participants in the

River of Stones Project! www.riverofstones.blogspot.com

Observational stones written by lovely talented people, short prose pieces written by editors Kaspa & Fiona and longer quotes by several small-stoners and an appendix with lots of information about how to
write small stones/.


It's packed full of beautiful writing.

And we are all so proud!

****************************
A Note from Foxmorton:



I was humbled to have 2 of my 31 stones chosen for this project!

What a thrill to see your work in print!

You can see ALL my STONES on this blog!

Thanks for caring!
~Fox
xoxoxo





Tuesday, July 12, 2011

THE URGE TO SCULPT


So, at 8 o'clock on Sunday night after perusing one too many art magazines, this intense urge to SCULPT a doll comes over me.

Now, if you know me you know that when the urge to create strikes me I must act immediately.
I'm guessing it's all about my compulsive disorders (not necessarily all bad) in combination with my poorly developed impulse control.  (Um, probably not my finest work-impulse control.)  But no matter, sculpt I must.

Of course, 8pm on a Sunday evening is no good time to acquire clay but I *did* just happen to have a bag of Clay-crete,  a roll of foil and a chopstick handy (actually, doesn't everyone with even a single, hopeful, creative bone in her body?  Art project hoarding yields many things on a Sunday evening!)  So, much to Yellow Dog's distress (bedtime is 8:30pm) I got to mixing......and sculpting.

It went surprisingly well considering I haven't a clue as to what I'm doing.  I just followed my instinct and let the doll take over.  If dolls are anything like hats I have no doubt it will tell me what it wants me to do.

Clay would probably have been smoother to work with.  The Clay-crete, basically papiermache, got rather gobby but it was fun to see the face take shape.  The material also left quite a bumpy surface so it will  probably be quite a deal to sand it smooth.  Or perhaps it will be more Prim-like and the cracks will add character.   We'll have to wait an see.

  The drying process takes up to three days and in this weather probably more.
I'm anxious to move on with the process but clearly sculpting will be my lesson in patience.

I have an idea of where I'd like to see this project going but I won't say out loud quite yet.
I want to wait and see what the doll tells me first.
:)

STEP 1  Foil ball and a chopstick.


STEP 2  After much slapping on, over lapping and poking and prodding of the Claycrete.



AND NOW....WE WAIT...............

(Stay tuned for the Next Step!)