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.

Missing Sheep! Perhaps Found??

So I arrived at Swoon on Sunday (Sept 2) all excited to finish off the sheep, and confused to see there were only 2 of the 3 on the lawn! So I called Brandt to see if maybe he put it some place, though I can't imagine where it would fit.  Nope.  It was taken....

Reminds me of a nursery rhyme...


 

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,

And can't tell where to find them;

Leave them alone, And they'll come home,

Wagging their tails behind them.

Anyways I don't even want to speculate on who did this, I'd just like to think positively that the pranksters will return the sheep and alpaca! some night.  I was so distraught about the sheep on Sunday that I didn't even notice that a large papier mache alpaca I had made was also taken from the lawn!  

 

I'm just grateful that the lifted sheep was the one that no kids helped me with, it's nice that that happy kid energy is still on the remaining 2 sheep.  The missing one is mostly chicken wire and is probably the one in between Sharon Fiske's hands in this pic.










 LOL hooray! just as I was creating this post, seriously, just now, Brandt just called from Swoon (at 12:44) to say the sheep may have been found! He sounded busy and couldn't give details but said it might be in poor shape. That's fine! I don't need to know where it went, I can fix it!! way better than starting from scratch!

Colleen Cosgrove wrote this great article about the missing sheep in today's Herald, to help spread the word:
Sculptor Hopes Missing Sheep Comes Back

I tweeted at Thingumajig Theatre in England (Puppet makers/performers/friends Andy and Kathy Kim) who cheered me up by replying: "If imitation is a form of flattery, then outright theft must be a rave review!"

Finally the whole thing reminded me of a Kids in the Hall Sketch I saw years ago..."Open letter to the person who stole my bike wheel"

  Which is actually a bit harsh... but then I found my all-time favourite KITH sketch! "French Fur Trappers"

Anyhow if I were to write and Open Letter to the person/people who took my sheep and alpaca, I'd say hey, thanks that's flattering but if you like them so much just look me up and I'd be very happy to show you how to make your own sheep and alpaca!!!

My Studio!

So I spent most of yesterday finally organizing my studio so I can start throwing and working away at stuff.  Last week I recycled a whole pile of clay, so now I needed a space to actually work.  When I first moved into the house I thought I'd get a separate building built eventually but I realized it's a large house for 2 people and the big room on the 2nd floor suits me just fine.

I had started taking off the wallpaper when I first moved in, and was going to paint, but decided that can wait til after Xmas.  Time to get to work!!  I did find some pieces of vinyl flooring in that black/white checkerboard pattern I like.  Cheap! From Kent.

 


 View walking in from the door; awesome large painting of woman in red dress by super talented Swoon owner Brandt Eisner, pull out sofa for me to lounge on while looking up stuff online, and also for hosting overnight guests... The studio will double as a spare room so I'm determined to work very very VERY clean from now on so as not to give visitors silicosis!  

I've been reflecting on my process lately and realized that I'm happiest just really taking my time and putting more attention/mindfulness into fewer pieces.  This is the way I used to work back when sculpting was just my hobby and before I decided to make a career of it.  It's more fun for me and less consumptive of materials (clay, glaze, electricity for firings).



Another view of studio showing my wheel and spot where I sit and carve stuff.  IT IS SO BRIGHT!!! After working in a basement I'm loving this! I've already thrown 12 bowls to make into animal bowls since yesterday as well as making a few more figurines.

 
View out window to the left: the branches of the giant oak beside the house



View out the window in front of my wheel; more trees and I can also see part of the garden.

 I felt compelled to make some flying crows that can hang on the wall; these are works in progress.  I've made a few doves like this and I love them.  Being stoneware the finished crows could be hung outside too, my doves used to be on my front porch railing but now hang in my kitchen.

Stoneware doves in my kitchen flying around a framed fox-catching-snowflakes print card by Niko Silvester of White Raven Arts (at least I think that's who I bought it from, Halifax Crafter's Market!).

Gotland Sheepapalooza

Look at me actually finishing a project I've started!! Not quite yet, but close... 

After painting the sheep heads and legs I began making the bodies out of chicken wire.   It's always fun when I start a project and end up finding exactly the perfect supplies; in this case the local hardware store in New Germany had a variety of black zip ties (commonly used for electrical stuff) which were ideal for "stitching" together pieces of chickenwire to mold a sheep body shape.  I attached the heads by using a staple gun, and stapling them to the chickenwire, which didn't actually work that great, so I stapled fabric strips to the heads, and tied them down to the wire.

Gotland Sheep #3 frame on Swoon's veranda

I'm pleased that once I started working away the whole project made sense.   It became apparent that the best use of all that fabric was to cut it into MANY strips and tie them to the chickenwire, so it would read as "wool" from a distance.  I admit I got inspired to do this by watching puppet maker teacher friend Andrew Kim make a giant chicken parade puppet in Taiwan.  LOL or rather, watching Andy's wife Kathy tie hundreds of "feathers" to the puppet...

Giant Hen parade puppet by Andrew Kim, Dream Parade, Shijr City Taiwan, 2005

Sheep #1 with fabric strip "wool" in front of Swoon sign

I got to work cutting up many many many fabric strips, mostly while watching youtube videos with teachings by Louise Hay and Abraham-Hicks (lots of great "law of attraction" type stuff).  I decided I'd love to attract some sheep helpers to make the tedious part of the job more fun, and it wasn't hard!

Sheep helpers engrossed in helping make sheep woolly

Super talented painter/ friend Evgenia Makogon heeded my cry for help and showed up with her two kids and her brother's two kids!  They got right into it and did an amazing job, us adults cutting fabric strips and the kids tying them to the frames!

Sheep helpers looking up to smile for the camera thus demonstrating that helping make sheep is fun!!!

Sadly my free child labour crew had a swimming party to go to, believe it or not the older 2 girls wanted to stay and help!  After they left I was pleasantly surprised by a visit from master potter/ Nova Scotia Potters Guild co-president/ friend Sharon Fiske who dropped in to Swoon, dressed coincidentally in an outfit that matches the Swoon sign!  Sharon helped me shut down for the day and move the flock on to the lawn.

Sharon Fiske attired in Swoon Sign Camouflage and posing with flock of Gotland Sheep

I'm quite pleased with how the sheep are turning out, and hope they will be relatively weatherproof for the Swoon lawn... It's fun to make life-sized animals and to entertain the commuters of the Hammonds Plains Road, and to suck people into helping make big art!  It's strictly for fun as these pieces aren't for sale, so I'm all for volunteer help.   I'm already daydreaming of some birds that I could make using this method (papier mache feet and beaks, chicken wire/fabric bodies).... hmmmmm....

I'll be gallery sitting at Swoon this coming Sunday and Monday 12 - 6 (Sept 2 - 3rd) with my bag of fabric to finish fleecing the sheep!  Hence the post title "Sheepapalooza"!  Any and all are welcome to join in the fun!  I almost decided not to leave the sheep on the lawn until they were 100% done, but somehow I like the thought of the public getting to view a work in progress, showing how labour - intensive art making can be, as well as engaging others in the process!

Gotland Sheep Update and How To Make Papier Mache Paste

So I've finally returned to the Gotland Sheep project that has been taking up my living room for the spring/summer... Now that the book is in print, I'm on a mission to finish these things.

People often ask what I use for papier mache paste.  I used to use flour and water but the drawbacks are it's brutally hard on your hands, not really all that sticky, and if you store giant sculptures in your parent's garage they may get eaten by rats (just saying).

In 2002 when I went to volunteer on the Isle Wilde fest on Vashon Island, Washington State I was taught how to make cornstarch paste by some giant puppet makers (meaning they build giant puppets, not that they were giants themselves).  Some "makers of giant puppets" I suppose.  Cornstarch is awesome!  I never measure anything but I did for the purposes of this post.

For a pot of paste,  boil a pot of water on the stove... in this case I boiled 2 litres.

While waiting for the water to boil, put some cornstarch in a bowl...

Mix with  some cold water

When the water is boiling quickly mix the cornstarch/cold water mixture into the boiling water.  You should really do this with a whisk. I used a fork (so it's a bit lumpy).  Turn the heat down but boil this paste for a few minutes while whisking/stirring.  Beware of splatters that can leap out of the pot and hit your face (it has happened to me on occasion, if your paste is splattering stand back!)  The paste should be at least as thick as runny snot.  The paste I made below was perhaps a bit on the thick side, but still works.  wait til it cools then papier mache away.  I think a good ratio to use would be approx 1/3 cup of dry cornstarch to 1 liter of water.  It seems to be stickiest if you use it while still warm, but will be good for a day or two.

Here are the gotland sheep getting their final coats of papier mache, while being watched over by my shepherd mix dog, Jersi:

And, as of last night the sheep legs and heads are mostly painted.  I'm using glossy black Artist's Touch indoor/outdoor paint which I hope will make them relatively weatherproof.  I have marine varnish as well that I may coat them with:

As soon as I'm done painting them I'll be making their bodies out of chicken wire and all that fabric I bought so cheap. I'm not actually sure how I'm going to do this but have sort of been following the voice in my head that sometimes suggests things to me such as "Let's make life-sized sheep!"  Things generally work out fine when I'm working intuitively in this way, so I'm curious to see how they turn out! And excited to get them out of my living room and on to the lawn of Swoon!