Sunday, April 4, 2010

In Progress

Yes, I continue to start new things and finishing them is like dealing with an apparition in fog. I wanted to start my mini men heads and finally opened a pack of air dry clay. I've never used this particular brand before, so I didn't know what to expect. Possibly the cause of my procrastination. I opened the package and started playing around with it. It does not work well with smaller projects, such as miniature heads. It works quite well with larger pieces such as the two above. I've called them Mother Sun/Father Moon. He's chasing her around the world. Get it? These will be for the film and are wall pieces.

This little head (sorry about the pic) is the right size for a miniature male. I was proud of myself for attempting him and he has some potential. But not out of this clay. It was like working with wet marshmallows. For a moment I thought I was cooking. I do have another brand of air dry clay waiting in the wings.

I'm sure you're wondering why air dry clay? Well, you should have a separate oven (convection) for polymer pieces. I don't. Not too fond of the smell, even thought they say it's non-toxic. The one clay that I really like does weird things to my fingers and I'd rather not have my hands look like melted House of Wax creations. I will give the seoncd brand of air dry clay a shot.

On a papier mache site, I saw where an artist uses tissue paper and glue to make his creations. They are awesome and the idea has put many more ideas in my head. I can make the basic head out of this air dry clay and make facial details with, you guessed it, glued and tissue. He also uses paper towel. Pretty cool.

These are arms for Halloween Sprites I started eons ago. Yes, I do look good for my age, holding up quite well. Again, I was having a time trying to figure out how I was going to attach them in a minimal amount of time. My design idea changed mid-stream and I panicked. If I had stitched up the stuffing holes a bit better, I could have just attached the arms with a very nice stitch and called it a day. But no.
I knew I would have to cover the stitches with a sleeve, which would have again, changed the design. Oh how the frustrations continued to mount for these little creatures. I put them away and only recently brought them out because Bad Wendy had started to talk to them. I mean, they were almost done. So I found all their parts and am bound and determined to get them done.


Here are their bodies. See, almost done. Arms, a little trim, faces painted and some hair. I know I think too much. They will be done by tomorrow. I promise. Maybe I shouldn't. Oh, what the heck.



2 comments:

Kim said...

Why do we start more when we already have so much going on? I suffer from this horribly---I think I just want to try out every single thing I see! I think trying to sculpt that small with air dry clay would be hugely challenging! I have seen some artists using homemade cold porcelain clay- I have never tried it so I don't know how well it works, but they create some intricate tiny details with it. Here's a short little article on it- I am sure you could find more if you are interested in trying it (sorry- don't mean to give you new ideas- must be the bad Kim causing trouble:) )

http://www.squidoo.com/cold_porcelain

Love the halloween Sprites! Can't wait to see them!!!

Have a great week Wendy!!!

Wendy Luane Barber said...

Thanks for the link Kim. I checked it out and I'm the lazy sort and don't like mixing right now. I barely cook for myself. LOL I have bookmarked the site because they have other cool things on it.

I pulled yarn for the sprites hair and that should get on fairly soon. I hope you have a great week too. Your partner in many project crime.

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