Sculpting Mr Wonderful Part 3

Here are the finished Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads, clustered on a table.  They have holes in the back of their hats to I can wire them like I do my other ornaments, but the larger ones are heavy, and some may look more like him than others!

Sculpting Mr. Wonderful Part 2

Still can't find my camera!! so Brendan took these for me.  "Cold Hard Truth", Kevin's life story is very good and I read it in 2 days. 

Here are the Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads in progress, ready for glaze, as well as my first Nativity scene!  Minus the puppy, who has has run off somewhere.   I'm enjoying working in the low-fire white, which is grey as raw clay because apparently all talc in Canada is now grey.  So as the pieces dry they are different shades of grey.

Once I got the hang of Kevin's head, making more heads became easy.  when they're glazed and done I want to hang them all on a tree outside and take a photo.  I'm also thinking up a modern day legend to turn the Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree head into a Canadian Christmas must-have.  Maybe written as a poem that scans to "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.  so far all I have is:

Once upon a Christmas Cheery,
Floating there all smug and sneery
Was the Head of Kevin O'Leary
Hanging on my Christmas Tree...

Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Head #1 In the palm of my hand! later ones are smaller.

Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Head #1, side view

My first Nativity Scene

Update, and, Sculpting Mr. Wonderful part 1

So I've been remiss about posting more frequently on my blog... partly because I can't find my camera anywhere!! so here is a written report.

Last big objects (including the yin yangs and large bowls) blew apart in my kiln.  Oops, first such disaster since art school actually, and a good reminder to fire more slowly.  Good thing I'm all about process!  I'm glad the big pieces didn't take out more small pieces, and I'll definitely try to remake everything.

So I took a break from working in clay to work on some papier mache xmas decorations.  The ornaments I'm making are pretty ridiculous and need to be completed and photographed.

Then I started watching Shark Tank re-runs with a bag of Low Fire white clay because I've decided to have a go at sculpting Kevin O'Leary Christmas Heads.  The coffee table in my studio is now covered with 8 smirking Kevin O'leary heads wearing santa hats.  I'm pleased with how they're going as I haven't tried sculpting a human before.  At least not since I was about 5 years old.  They're big though, and may be heavy for an ornament so this week I'll be on to season II of Shark Tank and trying to make some smaller ones.

Today I went to Chapters to pick up Kevin O'Leary's biography "Cold Hard Truth" in order to get to know my subject better, and just found out I had just missed Jim Treliving's own book signing ("Decisions") at the same Chapters.  Drat!! I really would have liked to have met him!  Maybe some day on Dragon's Den I'll be able go in and pitch a proposal to license my "Canadian Celebrity Christmas Heads".  Maybe they could be produced at NSCAD.

In other gardening news I made my first ever pumpkin pie from scratch, including gluten free crust.  The pumpkins we grew were Connecticut Field pumpkins I believe, and actually surprisingly tasty! So this week as well as carving up my Christmas Heads I'll be steaming, mashing, draining and freezing more pumpkins, in order to make pies through the winter.  Might try making pumpkin leather in the dehydrator too.

Creature Feature prep and more...

So the Hope For Wildlife Art Festival was a fun day, but, wow, craft fairs are indeed a lot of work (packing, unpacking, etc).  I counted up 24 hours of time between Brendan and I just to do the sale!  Thanks to all who came out!

Pics of the finished pieces are now on the site at Swoon, thanks to Swoon owner/director Brandt Eisner for taking all the pics.  I didn't even finish the papier mache before the Hope For Wildlife sale, so it is now they're all at Swoon. 

 

Here it is, a papier mache Piping Plover.

Here are some works in progress that are about to get fired! A bunch of it is for Creature Feature, a Group Halloween Show opening at Swoon Sat. October 20th. I'm also repairing the outdoor halloween props to get out to the gallery tomorrow, along with a few new additions to the Swoon cemetery.

big bunny bowl; I'm using the opportunity of a very empty kiln to try out some large animal bowls

Big Crow Bowl

Big Dragon Bowl.. I'll be making a bunch of dragon stuff I think because I'm anxious to do a trade with Swoon's super awesome new folk artist, Jim Tracey, and he and his partner Alicia seem to dig dragons!

Halloween and Christmas Tree Snakes I thought I could make with my bead hanger thing, we'll see how they turn out!

Halloween/Christmas Alien Ornaments and monster figurines

Goat Bowl

Lion Bowl

Shot of all the Halloween Ornaments I'm making! skulls, pumpkins, crows, bats, black cats, ghosts... I want to put up some branches to hang them off.  The lighter coloured ones will show up well on a Christmas tree too! there are a few xmas ornaments mixed in here.

Santa Alien and Santa Santa.. Making Santa heads is so fun that for the one of a kind Christmas Ornament show/sale I'm gonna try some Canadian Celebrity Head Christmas Tree Ornaments.  Like Kevin O'Leary (been watching Dragon's Den re-runs on Netflixs).

This may not may sense yet, but is called "Baby, You're the Yin To My Yang - Angel/Demon Version" and will be a wall hanging Yin Yang symbol.

"Baby, You're the Yin To My Yang - Crow/Dove Version". 

Look at all the stuff I'm making!

Prep continues for the Hope For Wildlife Art Fest / Fundraiser Sept 29th.

I love the "greenware" stage of making clay art; watching as the clay dries to the bone dry stage and carving away the last few bits of clay as it does.  

Here are some shots of all the stuff I'm working on.  Of course everything is down to the wire in terms of drying so hopefully this all makes it to the sale.  If not I have a carload of older stock that I'm bringing, with the hope of clearing it out at sale prices.  Some of  new work and similar will be available at Swoon of course now that I'm back to making stuff all the time.... um.. provided my first firing out here goes well that is!

There are also a few new papier mache pieces I'm hoping to get finished before Saturday! More about those later!

Owl pencil holders.  From now on I plan to make fewer things but put more time into the things I make.  Sculpting/carving is my very favourite part of the process, so this makes sense to me!

Flock of 5 sheep

the beginning of my first nativity scene ever!  This will be for the "one of a kind Christmas Ornament Show/Sale" at Swoon.  Here we have Mary with her goat, chicken and puppy.  I tried a baby Jesus but he looks like a bear cub, so I'll try again...

Tree stump utensil holder

Dragon Bowl, perfect for Cream of Dragon Soup!

Fox Bowl and 2 Fox Mugs

Crow bowl, crow mug, vulture pencil holder and a fox ornament

Beaver bowl and Wolf bowl having a conversation

Deer bowl

view of everyone getting their feet slip-painted

There's a pile more stuff than what I highlighted, so a couple shots of my studio: more bowls, figurines and ornaments, crows, etc.  I think I have a kiln-full now!

Studio update! Hope For Wildlife Sale Prep!

Here's the 3rd of 3 blog posts I've posted today, will try and spread these out more in the future but it's been a busy week!

So I've actually been productive in my studio, excited about the upcoming Hope For Wildlife Art show and sale, Sept 29th in Cole Harbour.  I'm tickled that an owl vase of mine made it on to the poster.  I've decided to use this event as a good excuse to sell off some older stock at discount prices, as well as to showcase some new work.

I've come up with a few new animal bowls to try out: skunk, beaver, deer, ox, as well as some new figurines and ornaments.  I hope to also get a few new papier mache pieces done.  The awesome thing is that anything I don't finish for the sale I can take to Swoon.

This is my first time being in a formal sale!  I'm looking foward to it! (there are some pics from my studio after the poster).

Here are some pics with work in progress: 

I took this pic trying to capture my view of the sunflowers outside, didn't quite work out.  To the right is a skunk bowl and a new angel figurine I've decided to start making for Christmas, I got the idea from my friends the Makogons.  The other vessels have been thrown recently, waiting to be altered.

View from the couch in my studio, out one of the windows.  So bright after getting used to working in a basement! I love it!!!

Three of the five flying crows I've made, all carved up.

 My shelves are filling with animal figurines, ornaments and animal bowls.  Soon I'll start painting them with commercial glazes and slips, before their first firing.  Right now I'm working in Cone 6 stoneware (Tuckers Mid Smooth Stone).  It's pretty much all clay that I've recycled from my scrap buckets from two years of having a studio in my Halifax basement.

Garden Update, September 10th, 14th, 17th

Post 2 of 3 today! I'd been remiss about posting pics of the garden progress.   So here are some pics I took over the last week.

Garden View, September 10th... far enough away that deer-induced carnage is not yet visible.

The Giant Russian sunflowers, September 10th, thinking about blooming:

 Well we got a few tomatoes anyhow despite woes with bad soil, weather and deer.  A few is better than none! (Sept. 10th)

Pumpkins! Picture taken Sept 10th, I think we'll have a dozen or so:

 

 Broccoli! Sept 10, we've been eating lots and drying the leaves in the dehydrator (to be the topic of a different post)

 

We'd been lucky with deer until the morning of September 8th or 9th they had been in the squash and bean area munching.  

Bean teepee Sept 10th, topiary performed by local deer.

Squash patch, climbing our "deer fence".  We've been eating a lot of zucchini... a few days ago we had stuffed zucchini, zucchini pad thai, and zucchini cake all in the same day.  I've been researching zucchini soup recipes. It is better than no fresh produce so I'm not complaining! I've also dried a lot for winter stews.

Squash patch, Sept 10th, the green sticky looking things sticking up are stems where the deer ate off the leaves.  Grrr.  Brendan constructed this ingenious deer fence out of twine, with beer can 'windchimes' hung at intervals.  It has actually been working! Up until now we didn't think the deer would walk on the silage plastic, but they obviously were.  Twine fence with beer can windchimes = successful deer scaring object.

 September 14th: Broccoli patch with majestic maturing broccoli crowns.  Sad looking, yet productive, deer-eaten bean teepee in background.

Kale, Sept 14th.  The awesome thing about kale is you can pluck their leaves and they keep growing back! We've been making and eating Kale chips like crazy in our dehydrator, thanks to the delicious inspiration from Gali's Healthy Kitchen, but more about dehydrating to come in another post.

 

 Bean teepee Sept 14th with big delicious beans.  I had a moment stopping at Sobeys the other day and seeing beans for sale for $2.99/lb.  2.99/lb seems like a lot of money! I'm now following in my father's footsteps, marching around the garden announcing the price of everything we grow as compared to the supermarket!

Sunflowers, Sept 14th, mostly bloomed with the tallest few over 7 feet tall.  I'm happy to have blooms at all seeing as I got them started so late, we'll see if I get any seeds!

 

Here are the sunflowers today! They're almost all out!!  And full of bees happy for September flowers.