Now Available at Jenny Jib August 13, 2016

Here are pics of 9 new Pulp Creatures dropped off at Jenny Jib in Lunenburg this past Thursday.  

It's been awhile (almost 2 years!) since I've worked in papier mache so these were a lot of fun and fortunately it turned out to be a great day to get some pics at nearby beautiful Hirtle's beach.

First up are the 2 "Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguins" made in honour of Nova Scotia's own Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Peguins captain who is quickly becoming a national treasure.

Here's a great CBC article from last month about the parade for Sidney Crosby and the Stanley Cup in his hometown of Cole Harbour.  This is a really sweet article too about how he surprised a fan in rural Nova Scotia

In one sculpture "Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguin" is holding the Stanley Cup, and in the other I tried to copy the pose of the penguin on the team's jersey.  Big thanks to my super hockey fan husband for the suggestion and input!  These are way more detailed than the hockey raccoons I made in 2014; as an aside one of the players who inspired these raccoons has since switched from the leafs to the penguins.

 A close up.  Turns out Sidney Crosby shoots left and the penguin on the jersey shoots right:

... Then they  went down to the beach to check out the great white shark and show off the Stanley Cup.  (For non-hockey followers, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks for this year's Stanley Cup).

Another shot of that shark, it has a hook built into the top so it can hang as well as sit:

Next up a herring gull with three piping plovers.  Piping plovers nest on beaches and are endangered, check out the Nova Scotia Piping Plover Conservation Program for tips on on how to help these summer visitors thrive.

Next, two crabs.  This wasn't intentional but posting these pics makes me think of play on a well loved Dr Seuss book... "one crab, two crab, red crab, blue crab"

 

 


 A group shot of the crabs and birds:

A photo of everybody:

And final photo before dropping everything off at Jenny Jib, Sidney the Pittsburgh Penguin with the Stanley Cup in front of the Lunenburg Arena. 




Hooray!  These creatures took a lot longer than expected! but I'll be getting back in to the clay soon and working on the next firing!

Merry Creatures! November 14th 2014

The first batch of "Merry Creatures" one of a kind papier mache Christmas ornaments that I've made since 2007 are now at Jenny Jib.  

Each ornament is initialed and has a "Merry Creatures" label with its name - the labels are made out of recycled cereal boxes etc that were fed through an inkjet printer.  The Merry Creatures are made out of recycled Chronicle Heralds, masking tape, cornstarch paste and sometimes wire for the armatures.   Their gold coloured elastic cords are sculpted into them.  They're painted with professional quality acrylic paints and varnished with an acrylic varnish.  The early ornaments weren't documented, but from now on I'll be naming and photographing each Merry Creature, with posts indexed on this Merry Creatures page.

Audrey The Christmas Haddock $25

Mark the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Jason the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Doug the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Mike the Christmas Piping Plover

Frank the Christmas Bluebird $25

Beatrix the Christmas Rabbit $25

Bill the Christmas Dinosaur $25

Alfred the Christmas Owl $30

Esther the Christmas Owl $25

Glenda the Christmas Octopus $35

Julia the Christmas Goose $25

Kim the Christmas Owl $30

Lucy the Christmas Cat $25

Oscar the Christmas Pig $25

There are 3 other Merry Creatures from this batch with pics that can be seen elsewhere on the blog:  2 Christmas Hockey Raccoons: Brendan and Nazem, and the second "My Little Lobster" Christmas Ski Jumper. 

New Papier Mache Art

Look, Look! I made 3 new pieces of papier mache art this month:

The first piece was this Rainbow Triceratops which was a commission for an old friend inspired by a very early piece I made in 1993, back when I was making big papier mache animals while doing my biology undergrad.

 

Next was a seagull and beaver that I finished up to take down to Jenny Jib today along with a bunch of figurines and other pieces from my available art page.  I don't give my creatures name tags anymore, but I nicknamed these ones "Steven Seagall and Justin Beaver".  Here are a few pics from a quick photo shoot at the Lunenburg waterfront before heading to the store.

Checking out the Bluenose II, the iconic sailboat found on the Canadian dime

Here is Steven at Jenny Jib peckishly checking out the lovely Fish Shack painting by Evgenia Makogon

 

Gotland Sheep... In the beginning...

One day driving down the Northfield road I saw a small flock of sheep and thought, how pretty, and noticed that sheep have slender legs, not like the plump cartoonish sheep that I had made last year. 

 I'd really like to have some sheep out here!! But that will take time as we need fencing.  Meanwhile I decided it'd be fun to make sheep that would be life-sized, more realistic, and could stay out on the lawn of Swoon all the time.   We'd been putting my animals from last year on the lawn, but they weren't designed to stay out in the elements, nor are they life-sized.  After some thought, I got an idea on how to make 3 life sized sheep using minimal time and money.

The first thing I went and did was buy supplies.  These sheep will have bamboo armatures, papier mache heads and legs, and bodies made of fabric covered chickenwire.  

The project depended on my finding just the right fabric, for cheap.  So I went to Fabricville on Bayers Road and spotted some rolls of a mixed colour grey fabric for only 50 cents/yard!!  How lucky! It was so marked down because of some yellow water stains, but seemed excellent to me for making sheep.  I bought 12 yards which will hopefully be enough for 3 sheep.  

 

  

I want to tear the fabric into strips to attach to the chickenwire, hopefully this will make it look woolly.  I did a google search for grey sheep with black heads and legs,  and decided that Gotland sheep are what I'm trying to make: 
 

Next I bought chickenwire and bamboo poles.  For each sheep I used 2 x 6' bamboo poles, and 2 x 5' bamboo poles.  The legs are 5' poles cut in half, and the bodies each have 3 x 3' sections and 2 x 1.5' sections.  Here's a shot of my messy workspace, I like to watch documentaries while I work, on things like our Fiat Currency system and GMO foods.  I am going to try to work tidier though!! At least this shows the beginning of the 3 frames.

I cut up the bamboo with a small hacksaw and attached the bamboo using strips of discarded bike tire inner tubes.  This is a method I learned from some awesome puppet builders in Washington State. 

To stabilize the joins I also used some small bamboo pieces, and then wrapped up everything with newspaper and masking tape.  I find the Halifax Chronicle Herald is the best paper to work with, it's nice and 'papery' unlike the Globe and Mail.  Once my skeletons were made I started fleshing out the legs.  I made the heads separate.  To make the frames for the heads I crumple newspaper and cover it with masking tape. 

Two of the sheep leg frames

Frames for the legs and heads finished, I made my first pot of paste in my new home.  I use a cornstarch paste that I cook on the stove, also taught to me by awesome Washington State puppet makers.  I think I'll give instructions for that in a future blog post.  Last night I started papier macheing, my next task being to coat the head and leg armatures with enough layers of papier mache that they are solid when dry.

Sheep heads and legs, with bowl of cornstarch paste.  These legs and the head on the left have had their first coats of papier mache.

As well as working tidier, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf of starting one sculpture project and seeing it through, rather than living in a jungle of half-finished projects.  So I'm pretty focused on these sheep but have frames for a couple of other creatures who might get papered while I'm at it... once the sheep are done I want to make more dogs, cats and crows!

Frame for Pug and Crow

Lots of Catching Up To Do!

It's been a while since my last post but I plan on starting to make regular updates to my blog from now on!  2011 until now was such a busy time! June 26th I got married to my lovely husband, my "Petting Zoo" show at Swoon was shortly after.  Once it ended I had fun putting the animals out on the lawn and veranda for the perusal of the commuters of Hammonds Plains.  I think the chickens on the railing especially helped to draw in curious passers by who aren't quite sure what Swoon is all about.  

Later in the year I really indulged my love of creating art installations became excited about creating a large Halloween display for the front of Swoon.  This consisted of a 9' tall grim reaper and pet wolf, giant snake with a baby in its tummy, several tombstones, 5 giant bats and a black cat.  It made for a VERY messy house for about 6 weeks.  Better late than never, here a few pics:

These props were all made out of papier mache, painted with acrylic indoor/outdoor paint so they weathered the elements fairly well for the 2 weeks they were out.  October was a busy month at Swoon, with the October show opening at the beginning of the month, "The Other Side" Swoon's first group Halloween show, and a costume ball with the very swingin' Jazzette.

Right after Halloween I set to work on some papier mache Christmas tree ornaments which I used to call "Merry Creatures".  I hadn't made any since my last Christmas in Regina (2007) so it was a pleasure to make these guys again... little papier mache animals with Santa Claus hats.  I made over a hundred and fifty during my 3 years in Regina.  Saturday November 19th was Swoon's first annual "One of a Kind Christmas Tree Ornament Show and Sale".   It's off to a great start, and we think it will grow into a popular annual event!

December brought "Christmas Presence II" which is Swoon's second annual pottery show and sale, timed just right for people who missed out on the area's various craft fairs, and to provide potters a venue where they can just drop off their work and let Brandt work his talent for display.  this year in addition to ceramic ornaments and small ceramic figurines, I have begun making larger figurines, that are more the size of my "Pulp Creatures".  It's been fun to translate some of my favourite papier mache designs into clay.  Here are pics of a few, available at Swoon.  (the bunny is my favourite!)

Right after Christmas it was time to start packing and moving!  What a lot of work!  We moved out of my Halifax home on Westerwald Street, to our country home in Upper Northfield, which is near New Germany.  It is so peaceful and beautiful out here I can't wait to get my studio set up and get back to creating, and to try my hand at gardening and raising a few animals.  I'm hoping having Polish farmers for parents will have rubbed off on me somehow, despite having grown up in the suburbs...