Carousel Part 16-So Close to Completing the Folk Art Cat-Photo

I had really hoped to have a completed folk art cat to show you today, but it is not yet finished.  In a case of self-inflicted time loss, I have had very little time to work in the studio (a.k.a. the spare bedroom).  I had signed up for a couple of continuing education classes.  The reading and writing requirements seemed minimal.  Then the instructor doubled the writing requirement and added an assignment for a collaborative project and an oral presentation.  This is on top of adding nearly 500 pages of reading material.  So a portion of two other people's grades now depend on my stepping up to the plate and doing my part in the collaboration and presentation.  Lucky for them I'm a good team player, because I took the classes for personal interest rather than the continuing education credits.  Anyway, all this has taken a lot of time away from my art and will continue to do so for another week. 

Although I am feeling pressed for time at the moment, I know that once the class is completed I will be returning to the studio with renewed energy for having turned my focus elsewhere for a couple of weeks. Making art is a wonderful way to spend your time, but working alone most of the time can make you feel isolated.  I encourage all artists to take some time to engage themselves mentally and physically.

The cat is mostly painted.  I still need to paint the face and saddle.  I wanted the cat to look like an orange tabby but had a lot of trouble coming up with the color mixture.  My first and second attempts were too orange.  (One of them could only be described as neon.)  This particular brand of acrylic orange dried lighter and brighter than expected.  So I went back and base coated the cat in a tan color thinking that I would just add the burnt umber stripes of paint and make the cat look like a campy ring tailed cat.  Then I mixed up a batch of orange to add some accents.  It really looked like the color I was trying to achieve to begin with so I started to paint over the stripes.  The paint was too translucent, and the stripes showed through, so I painted around the stripes and touched them up afterwards.  That took quite a bit of time.  When I have time, I will get to work on the face.  I don't know that the folk art cat will be completed by my blog post on Wednesday, but I believe that it will be complete by Sunday.

Update on Folk Art Carousel Project

Due to a very busy week of appointments and meetings I haven't even had a chance to get into the studio.  I plan to spend most of the day in there tomorrow.  The cat should be completed by the time I post to the blog on Sunday. 

I thought you might enjoy seeing the animals all at once to see how the project is shaping up.

Carousel Part 15-Folk Art Pig-Photos

When I blogged last time I mentioned that I painted the folk art pig for my carousel to look like a pig in a dream I had.  Usually I don't remember my dreams, so when I do remember one I try to analyze it to see what if any message or information I might receive from it.  I had not had time to sit down with it when I posted last time, but the outcome was interesting enough that I thought I'd post more about it. 

In my dream, I was holding a pig by the scruff of the neck.  The pig's color was something like a beagle's coat.  I took the pig to the airport and it became distressed from all the commotion and broke away from me.  The rest of the dream was me chasing the pig and security personnel looking for me.  This is my take on the dream.  I had been thinking about what color to paint my pig, so that was on my mind.  The dream image of my holding a pig by the scruff of the neck really was a memory of sorts.  In reality I had not been holding a pig, I had been holding my daughter-in-law's large hound by his collar.  His coloring of blue black, rich browns and cream were the coloring I saw in my dream.  So I'm pretty sure that is where the dream image came from.

The dog is a fairly large hound.  And when it was a puppy it was unaware of its size and strength.  It was running into and knocking over things in that endearingly maddening way that big puppies will.  That garnered him his name, Havoc.   That is where the rest of the dream comes in.  I'm guessing I dreamed an airport because we live near one, and around holidays there are usually pictures on the news about the crowded lines at the airport.  I can just imagine that a pig dashing through the crowds would create havoc. 

So, I think that in response to my thinking about how to paint my folk art pig, my brain sent me a dream message to "Create Havoc."  It meant to create the folk art pig in the colors of an animal named Havoc, not to create disaster and ruin.  It was a play on words.  That kind or reminds me of the Delphic Oracle who always spoke in riddles.  I had been reading something that referenced the Delphic Oracle within a few days prior to the dream.  Weird.

Anyway, the pig is complete other than that it needs to have a coat of varnish put on as a sealer.  I gave him a curly tail.  His saddle is painted gold with orange decorations.  He also has a gold "ribbon" around his next with orange dots on it.  At the moment he is resting on the ground.  When he is mounted on the carousel he will be mounted higher.

The last menagerie animal for the miniature carousel is a folk art cat.  I'll be painting that next and then it will be time to start putting the animals on the carousel.

Carousel Part 14- Folk Art Pig-Photo

I had been pondering what color to paint my folk art pig for the carousel.  The full size folk art pig I made last summer (see photos in last summers blog posts)  was a pinkish flesh color.  I really wanted to do something different here, but I didn't know what exactly.  I had been holding off on painting him until I had a better idea than pink.

Then, night before last, I had a dream about a pig.  I dreamed that I had taken a pig the color of a beagle to the air port.  I was holding him by the scruff of the neck.  Once we were inside of the airport, the pig became upset by the environment, struggled, and broke free.  The rest of the dream was a comedic chase as I was simultaneously trying to recapture the pig while avoiding the security personnel who were chasing me.  I have no idea where this dream came from, other than that I had been wondering what color to paint the folk art pig for my carousel.

So, I decided to paint the pig in a beagle color pattern (sort of).  He is not yet complete.  I realized as I started to paint that the pig did not have its tail.  I will have to make one and add it once it has been painted.  I also have to paint the saddle.  I should have it done by the weekend. 

Carousel-Part 13- Folk Art Camel-Photos

At last, the camel is complete.  I added his tail, the harness and bridle, and some tassels.  The camel is only three and a half inches at his highest point.  As you might imagine, the tassels are really small and were so difficult to make at that size that it was only through pure stubbornness that I managed to preservere and complete them. 

The harness straps are made from hemp twine that I braided and covered with glue before painting.  The reins were made from size 10 crochet thread.  The tassels were made from the crochet thread as well. 

I'm really glad the camel is complete.  The other two animals won't have the same amount of decoration on them.  They will finish out fairly easily.   Mostly they will be paint, although I may add a small bell for the cat.

Every project has a cycle.  It starts out with a lot of enthusiasm.  Then you hit a phase where you realize just how much this project is likely to be, but you think you are still up for it.  At the lowest point, you wonder why you ever started this project and would like to just quit and throw it in the trash.  If you can find it within yourself to continue on with the piece, you will reach a point where you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  At the end you have the satisfaction of completing the piece and hopefully will enjoy the results.  Most artists will always think they could have done a better job than they actually did, but that is just the perfectionist coming out.  The point is that we created something that was not there before, and that is no small thing.

Update on the Folk Art Camel

I apologize for being a day late posting.  I had one of those days that I just could not get to the computer.  Sometimes the harder I try to stay on top of things the busier I get. 

Although I don't have any new photos, I have made progress on the folk art camel.  I have made the reins and straps that in real life would be used to hold the camel's saddle in place.  They have been created and painted.  At the moment they look like pieces of braided rope an inch or two long.  Today they will be glued into place.  

I should have accomplished more, but my first attempt of creating the reins and straps by the same method of fabric and paper mache' did not work well.  The pieces were so small that when I moistened them they completely came apart.  There was just not enough surface area to hold things together.  So, it was on to Plan B, making braided cording in various widths to create the straps.  That worked, but it took time to get each layer of braid coated with glue and paper mache' dried. 

Now I just have to attach them to the camel with glue.  I'll probably have to use a rubber band to hold the straps in place while the glue dries. 

The new tail is in the final stages of painting.  I have to add a layer of paint and glaze.  Once that dries I will drill the hole and glue the tail onto the body. 

There are a couple more accessories that I would like to add to the camel.  I should have them completed by my blog post on Sunday.  Either that or I will have discovered that they are so small that they won't work.

Carousel-Part 12-Giraffe and Camel-Photos

In the last blog post I mentioned that I had to remake the giraffe's tail because the first one was too large.  I have completed the new tail and glued it to the animal.  It actually sticks our a little further than I wanted, but I think it looks a lot better than the original tail.  I've decided to remake the camel's tail also.  That piece is still a work in process. 

I began this week thinking I would get two of the menagerie animals painted.  Silly me for thinking that.  I have some work done on the folk art camel, and a put a base coat of paint on the folk art pig, but neither animal is complete.  However, progress has been made, and that is something. 

Part of the reason for the slow progress is that I am experimenting with a paper mache' technique I have not used before.  I always like to try one experiment with each folk art piece I make.  At best, experimenting else it expands my skills; at the worst the experiment fails and I have to remake part of the piece.  I have learned something one way or the other. 

This projects experiment was adding dimensional pieces made from paper mache' backed by fabric.  It is an old technique that was used prior to the invention of fiber glass.  Layers of cloth were sandwiched between layers of paper mache' to give extra strength to large projects.  That was the foundation for my experiment.  There was a second technique that was also used in the experiment.  Some years ago I read an article in Art Doll Magazine by Susan deGeneres in which she had used a combination of fabric, paper, and tissue paper bonded by diluted white glue.  After the fabric and paper had completely dried, she moistened it with water, and then was able to gather and shape the fabric before it dried again to create a hard paper mache' type finish.  The technique seemed like an interesting experiment because the camel was supposed to have fabric looking blankets on it rather than a saddle.  (Note for anyone wishing to try this method:  The magazine article recommended setting the piece to dry on a silicone mat.  I used wax paper and the piece came up without sticking or breaking.)

So I gave the fabric and paper mache' combination a try.  I did make one slight change to the process mentioned above.  I also added some flour paste to the mix.  Adding the flour paste I use when making my paper mache' helped to help keep the material looking more like paper mache' and less like fabric.  I actually think I could have used a little more flour paste.   Anyway, I cut a rectangle of fabric a little larger than I needed to cover the area of the camel's back and glued the paper layers together (I used Mulberry paper rather than tissue paper because of its fibers and inclusions to add texture.)  The rectangle dried stiff as a board.  It did soften when I sprayed it with water.  (Caution:  too much water can cause the layers to become unglued.)  I used a needle and thread to make gathers in the fabric.  Then, while the material was still damp enough to bend and shape, I glued it to the camel's back with full strength white glue.  When the piece dried, it dried in shape on the camel's back.  Every once in a while I had to press down a piece that wanted to come up.  Once the section was dry, I painted it.  Then I added a second piece on top of that using the same method which was painted a contrasting color.  I had only given the rest of the camel a base coat at this point. 

Once the fabric sections were dry I touched up the base coat and then gave the camel a wash of burnt sienna and acrylic glaze, which I lifted off with a paper towel.  This helped give the animal some texture.  Before that, it had looked rather flat.  

I'm glad the experiment worked.  Making that camel was a lot of work.  Anyway, adding the saddle blankets is as far as I was able to get on the project this week.  The camel's face is not complete.  I have just put some dots where I want the eyes to go so I'll have some reference marks for making painting on the bridle.  I am going to attempt to make the reins by using the fabric/paper mache' method.  Those pieces are so small that I may or may not be able to get it to look right.  Time will tell.

Update on the Folk Art Carousel

The giraffe before his tail is added.

I have completed painting the tail for the folk art giraffe.  I had to remake his tail because the first one came out too thick.  I will be adding that to the giraffe today. 

Also, I have been painting the camel, which has proven to be a bit of a challenge.  The first color was too dark.  The second coat was too light.  And no, the third coat was not just right, but it might do if I add a glaze over it to highlight some of the rougher areas. 

If I ever have a hint for anyone, this is it:  Never say to yourself, I have things caught up and I'm going to spend the day working on my project.  I did that yesterday.  I planned to start on the project as soon as I checked my email and social media.  Big mistake.  On Facebook someone I had not spoken to in years messaged me and we messaged back and forth for a while.  The phone rang and it was a call I had to take.  That generated an errand that took over an hour.  I had lunch and finally sat down to work on my project.  My husband shows up from work hours early.  They were having some type of test of the backup electrical system and he could not use his computer so he came home.  After numerous interruptions about this and that I gave up and decided to iron.

Next blog:  I am going to try an experiment on the folk art camel.  I'm doing some dimensional paper mache' for his bridle and blankets.  Check back on Sunday for pictures.

Carousel Project-Part 11-Folk Art Giraffe Painted-Photos

I've painted the folk art giraffe for the carousel.  Well, everything that is except for his tail.  Once I started painting the tail, I finally had to say that the tail was too large in proportion to the giraffe.  Even for folk art the tail just looked too large.  Actually, I think it looked as if I were trying to add a fifth leg.  Once in a while, you just have to stop kidding yourself that something is going to work.  I decided to start over on that piece. 

The romance side or outer side.

Sometimes paper mache' is too bulky to do really small pieces.  Too get enough strength to make sure the piece won't break it becomes too thick to be useful.  I am working on a new tail made from embroidery thread stiffened by glue I expect I will have that finished by tomorrow. I can already tell that it will look a lot better.

The reverse, which faces the inside.

At one point, I considered putting glass gems on the giraffe as decoration.  I even found small enough crystals to do it.  However, the cost was prohibitive because I wanted multiple colors of gems for the different animals.  I was not able to find a pack with multiple colors so I would have had to purchase numerous packs.  That put the total cost way up there.  I decided that bright dots of paint would have do do instead.  After all, this is a folk art piece.I don't necessarily need sparkly.

Once all the menagerie animals are painted, I'll insert the poles in the pre-drilled holes and glue them in place.  The holes were drilled before I painted.  Getting the holes drilled was an adventure in itself.  The drill bits I had that were the size I needed were not long enough to to all the way through the menagerie animals.  It took some ingenuity to figure out how to get the wholes to line up.  However, they are in place now, and that's what counts.

The coming week is much calmer than the last couple of weeks have been.  I hope to get more menagerie animals painted this week.  I'm really looking forward to this part of the project.  Hopefully, they will come out as well as the giraffe.  At this point, I've put a base coat on the camel, but it just doesn't look quite right.  I'll have to try again.