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.