Thought you might enjoy this little “behind the scenes” video. I had stalled badly on a project but finally decided to try a fix.
The little owl, Athena, gets her wings fixed!
Well, that greatly improved the little owl. I had to add wool over the new wire but it went pretty smoothly and when I put her little bed jacket back on, she looked good – well, sad, but in a way that I was happy with.
The next step was to secure her to the base which I did by drilling holes in the olive stump and gluing the wires from her feet in those holes.
Now I’m working on some fern fronds that I also want to attach to the base and have then arching over her. I’m making them from silk fabric – two layers with wires inside. There’s lots of hand sewing but hopefully it will be worth it. I looked on the internet for how to make silk fern fronds but didn’t find anything, so I’m on my own.
So, I’m back on track and hopefully she’ll be finished soon!.
My August Promotion
Take 20% off your purchases from my Etsy shop, TheFoxesGarden, by using discount code Aug20 at check-out. Valid August1 through 15. Click on the fox to go to my shop!
'Gators are in the Spotlight This Month
but not just any old gators - Shaman Gators!
When my sister and I drew our cards from my deck of Spirit Animal cards I was disappointed with my spread. I had envisioned a fox, bear, rabbit or anything furry and cute. Instead, as a person who doesn’t like the water, I drew several water dwellers including the alligator! When I read more I came to appreciate the spiritual qualities that alligators represent – they are thoughtful animals, cogitating long and hard before reaching a conclusion. Wish I could say that’s me. But it’s something to strive for I guess.
The shaman is a character who often appears in my animal sculptures, and I decided to try my hand at an alligator. I was happy with the result, but somehow he didn’t quite seem finished. His gesture made me think he might be expounding on some deep subject so I decided to give him a few students, or shamans-in-training.
Once I determined to group two on a log, they were quite fun to sculpt, their poses and characters emerging as I worked with the clay. One is a good student, paying attention and referring to the texts on leaves. A frog sits next to him, trying to understand but probably a little lost. On the other hand, student number two is sound asleep in the log! The shaman doesn’t seem to be bothered by this. He, begin a wise alligator, understands that while it’s his responsibility to teach, it’s the student’s responsibility – and choice – to learn.
The process of making a ceramic sculpture is to sculpt the clay, air dry it, fire it to about 2100 degrees F, apply three coats of glaze, then fire it again. I thought you might enjoy seeing the young alligators ready to glaze (right photo, above) and then glazed before they went into the kiln (left photo above.) One of the tricky things is that the glazes develop their color through chemical changes as they heat up. You can see the difference between the unfired and the fired colors.
These pieces are now ready for my Etsy shop!
In Search of the Elusive How-To Video
A few weeks ago I was very excited to begin a project that I had been planning for a while – video taping myself creating a collage, start to finish. Watching art process videos is, for me, second only to watching cute baby raccoon videos. I’ve taught various art media in workshops from time to time and trying my hand at videos just seemed the logical next step.
There was a lot to learn about recording a video, but I slogged through and was finally all set to go. I had my phone on a tripod looking down on my worktable. I had installed software on my laptop that would allow me to see what the camera was recording – how frustrating would it be if my piece were out of frame? I had the project planned out in my mind and had gathered all the materials. Time to press “record!”
It went well. I felt that I had produced a nice piece of art and had given clear instructions, explaining every step and many decisions along the way – all with contagious enthusiasm! I had 2 hours of video. Editing was another adventure that had a pretty steep learning curve, but I finished that too. I was so proud of myself. Then I watched the video.
No!!!!! It was fuzzy – completely unusable! I had learned a lot, but apparently not enough. I finally discovered what I had done wrong. I was discouraged. Very discouraged, actually. But at least I had a collage that I liked!
Now I’m ready to try again. I have a new fox drawing to create a collage around. In a few days I’ll gather the rest of my materials, set everything up, and, once again, press record. But this time, I’ll stop after a few minutes of just talking – nothing that I can’t do over if necessary - edit that little bit, upload it, and see how it looks. When, and only when I’ve got it right, will I proceed. Wish me luck! And stay tuned! A “how-to” collage video should be coming soon!
This Month's Free Downloadable Art
Click on the image and it will open in a new window (from Dropbox.com). You'll see the image, and at the upper right of the window you'll see three little dots. Click on them to open a menu, then choose "download." This file is 2.7mb. Please note that I'm sharing this image for your personal use only.
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