Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 28

Ravens disappeared against dark branches.

If anyone saw a blank version of this post a few minutes ago, my apologies.  I accidentally hit a key and it published the post.  I'm not even sure what key I hit.  Anyway, on with today's post. 

I finished making and painting more ravens to add to the trees.  I glued them to the tree branches with hot glue.  It was not that hard to get the ravens on the trees, but when I finished, I was in for a big disappointment.  The birds vanished from sight amid the dark branches.  I was considering whether I should try to repaint the trees lighter, but I finally considered that done is done and time to move on. 

Ravens reappeared when contrasting leaves were added.

My next move was to start adding some leaves to the trees.  I did not want to have the trees completely bare.  I thought that having a few leaves here and there would add some color to the diorama.  I used silk leaves that I purchased at the craft store.  Of course, as purchased, the leaves are too large.  I had to cut them down into little pieces.  Most of the leaves on the stem that I purchased are a golden brown.  Other leaves were white with just a tinge of brown.  I decided that I needed a little more color in the leaves, so I started by painting the white leaves with various colors of craft paint.  I just used an old paint brush to dot orange, yellow, green, and tan all over the leaves.  Since the leaves are being cut down to smaller pieces, they don't look like dots of paint anymore.  They just have various bits of color on them.

The leave purchased from the craft store have a piece of plastic glued to them to create the vein for the leaf.  I pulled the vein off the leaves before painting them.  Then I used pieces of the vein to create the branch for the leaves.  I hot glued the small bits of leaf back onto the plastic with hot glue.  These are not individual leaves.  I cut strips of the silk leaf and then made random cuts in the strip so that it looks like a group of leaves once it is glued to the stem.  The cuts were only made to suggest a leaf shape.  Even with that adaptation, it still took a long time to put the leaves on the branches and glue the branches to the trees.  I have not yet finished putting leaves on the first tree.  I will be working on that more today and tomorrow.  It was a messy process.  Working with hot glue leaves little strands of glue everywhere.   It actually got to be a bit annoying.  When I find I am getting aggravated with a process, it is time to back off for a while and return to it when I feel more comfortable.

Adding leaves to the trees had a surprising effect.  Once the leaves were on the trees, the pops of color drew the eye to the branches where before the eye tended to just register them as dark branches.  The color also offered some contrast to the black ravens.  They became more visible.  So I am starting to see the ravens in the tree again.  With some more strategically placed leaves and branches, I think that the tree will appear to have a large flock of birds in it again, which was my intention.

All of this takes time.  My diorama will not be complete by Halloween, but should be finished shortly afterwards.  Rebuilding the lower floor of my home after the plumbing disaster took so much time away from my art making time this year.  Also, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, I was also working on a competition piece  from August until October.  That also took a lot of crafting hours.  So this piece is not going to be completed by Halloween.  I suppose I could stay up for two or three days straight and get it finished, but it would not look nearly as good and is overall counterproductive to a healthy lifestyle.  So it will be finished when it gets finished.  Perhaps it will take center stage in my Halloween decorations next year.

Check back Sunday for the next blog post.

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 27- Photos- Field Project

Trees added and base painted.

I am finally catching up after a trip to the mountains.  Now that things are returning to normal, I can get back into the studio.  I've been interrupted in this project so many times that it is a wonder that I can get back to it at all.  Every time I have to break off and return to a project after an extended period, I have to say, "Where was I?" and try to remember my what I was thinking when I had to stop.  Every time that happens the concept for the diorama shifts slightly.  This project is nowhere near my original idea for this project. 

Ghosts on the trees.

Field 10-26-2014

Sometimes changing the concept is a good thing.   I have had to distill my ideas down to what the essential message for the piece.  Just as trying to paint too many sticks and branches in a painting clutters up the painting, too much detail in a diorama gets in the way of what you are trying to say in the diorama.  I hope that by paring away much of the detail of the diorama will actually highlight the message of the diorama.  I wanted to keep the original idea of ghosts and goblins might get you from the idea from James Whitcomb Riley's poem Little Orphant Annie.  I also wanted to portray the feeling of  a person confronting their fears about the unknown and the abandoned and dying.  Hopefully, some of that will come out in the piece as it progresses.  Let's just say it will have a surprise ending.

I have done a little work on the diorama since I returned.  I have painted the trees and added them to the diorama.  I have also painted the base.  I have also made and painted more ravens.  Tomorrow I should be adding the ravens to the trees.  I plan to have a whole flock of raucous birds up in the trees.  The trees look a little dark.  I needed them dark in order to show off the ghosts.  If the trees were any lighter, they would not be seen.  I may add some leaves to the trees so that they are not completely bare.

The tree closest to the house has a ghostly figure of a woman at its base.  The tree furthest from the house has two spooky ghosts.  Perhaps they are a little to silly looking, but I want to confront childish fears of ghosts and goblins.  I tried to strike a balance of older tales of the "lady in white" with the fun of Casper the Friendly ghost type ghosts.

The ghosts were made using a used dryer fabric softener sheet.  I cut the shapes out glued them to the trees with acrylic gel medium.  The white dryer sheets are made from a very thin material which allows the color of the tree to show through.  This gives them a very transparent look.  Just the thing for ethereal ghosts!  I used a fine line marker to draw faces on the two whispy ghosts.  I did not add any features to the female ghost.  I wanted her to be nothing more than an overlay; perhaps the remaining energy of a former owner of the house.

Check back on Wednesday for more on the diorama.

It is Sunday and I'm home, so I was able to get a field picture this morning at 9:00 am.  It was 54 degrees (Fahrenheit) and winds were calm.  We have not had a freezing day yet this year.  The weather forecast does not predict one for this week.  I expect that we could get a frost in the next couple of weeks though.  I don't think the new owner of the field was able to get any tomatoes from the plants he put in.  I think he was too late putting things into the ground.  He did not purchase it until well after the planting season had begun.  He might get some tomatoes if the frost holds off.
 

My Piece for the Art Competition-Photos

My completed project.

Flying bird man and French balloonist.

I can finally blog about my project for the Mystery Build competition.  It has been difficult but also gratifying to keep a secret.  One of the rules of the project is that participants cannot blog about or share any information on the Mystery Build project until after the close of entry submissions.  You are not even supposed to share the contents of the kit before that date.  I guess I can understand those rules.  If people were blogging about their project then there could be disagreements over whether one person used another person's idea in their project.  If people shared the contents of the kit, then people might decide to participate based on what materials are available rather than choosing to do a project based on unknown materials.  I have followed the rules to the letter.  The close date has now passed so I can share my project.

Let me begin at the beginning here.   To join the Mystery Build competition you have to purchase the current years Mystery Build kit.  Each year the kit has a different theme.  You have to use the materials in the kit to create an art project using the materials in the kit.  You are allowed to use the box the kit came in,and  products such as

Underside of the bird man.

liquid glue, liquid craft paint, and some approved liquids in addition to the kit, but nothing else!  There are a few other specific rules.  If you plan to join the next Mystery Build competition, I suggest you read and understand all the rules before deciding to purchase the kit.

Flying Woman.

I learned about this competition in late July.  I decided to enter the competition even though I was very late entering.  The kits had been available since November of last year.  I really felt under a lot of pressure because other people had several more months to begin working on their kit.  The submission deadline was October 20th, so I only had a few weeks to work on the project not months.  Since I make dioramas for a hobby, I have an understanding of just how long they take to build.  So I have been working on this project like mad.  Because the rules state that you could not blog about the project, I also had to have another project going so I had something to blog about during this time.  So even thought it does not seem like I have been getting a lot done by looking at my blog posts, I have really been working hard n  on projects this year.

Making things "fly".

The 2014 Mystery Build Theme was Build a Dream.  They left it up to the artist to determine just exactly what it meant to them.  I considered that the work "dream" has many interpretations.  It can be taken literally to mean the stories that come to us in sleep.  A dream can mean our hopes and aspirations.  To dream can also mean to use our imaginations.  I could go on, but you get the drift here.  Anyway, I decided to use these themes in my art build.  But this was my starting point.

I decided to choose a universal dream theme: flying.  In our dreams we can fly unaided.  I knew I needed to represent someone soaring through the air, so I have a woman flying over the trees.  Early cultures dreamed of flying and used bird masks and feathered wings in shamanic ceremonies to represent flight and reach altered states of consciousness.  I created a man in a bird mask and wings for this aspect of dream.  Humans have always dreamed of leaving the ground and being able to rise to the clouds and planets above.  The first manned flight was a hot air balloon flight made in France in 1783.  I made a hot air balloon and added a figure with clothing of that period to represent that idea.  I used both male and female figures because dreaming is not gender specific.  The woman is free flying to balance the male domination of technology.

Once I had the idea, I had to determine how to make it fly.  I mean literally look as if the objects were flying.  The work had to be airborne, not sitting on the ground.  Unfortunately, the laws of physics still applied, so that meant I had to be creative.  The pieces that hold the hot air balloon off the ground are concealed by tree branches.  The bird man flies because he is wired to the inside and bottom of the hot air balloon.  The woman flies because she is glued onto a branch.  Looking at it from the front, you cannot see the balance beam.  To make this come off, determining the viewing angle was an important aspect of this art piece. 

I also decided to use symbolism in the piece.  Color and shape were also considered when choosing what objects would go into the art piece.  As this is a Mystery Build, I will let the viewer figure out the mystery of the symbolism.  Go ahead, have a field day with this.  In dream interpretation, flying has some very specific connotations.

Anyway, this is my competition piece.  It is a juried competition.  There is a judges prize and a peoples choice prize.  The people's choice voting starts November 1st, 2014 and continues until November 20th.  People are allowed to vote once per day per IP address/email address.   You will be able to vote by going to mysterybuild.com.  I hope my readers will vote for my build.  I will post a reminder about this each time I post on the blog once the voting opens.

The new Mystery Build kit for 2015 has come on sale.  If you purchase it now, you have a year to work on the build.  You can purchase a kit by going to mysterybuild.com.

Photos from the Cabin- Photos

New wall and cabinet paint colors and new wood slat ceiling.

We have been up to the cabin.  I hope regular readers have enjoyed the photos of some of my Halloween collectibles I posted for while I was away.  I'm back now and ready to get back to work on the diorama as soon as I get all the laundry caught up that is. 

 It rained almost the whole time we were there.  We arrived on Friday, and did not see the sun until Thursday.  We had planned to do a lot of indoor painting, so the rain was not that much of a problem.  It rained Friday night but although it looked like it was going to pour any minute, the rain did hold off on Saturday until the evening. The break in the rain gave us a chance to get down to the Wine and Garlic Festival held at Rebec Vineyards.  We brought rain gear with us
just in case.  No need to let the threat of rain
spoil a good time. 

Trees in the mist.

From Saturday evening to Thursday it poured rain virtually non-stop.  Then the high wind and flash flood warnings came up on the weather radio.  The stream behind the cabin was roaring.  By that time, it was too dangerous to leave even if we wanted to do so.  It was safer to shelter in place.  The National Weather Service reported that winds were blowing at 50 to 65 miles per hour.  The ground was saturated by days of rain.  Steep mountain slopes, super-saturated ground, and wind are a bad combination.  A number of trees came down across the road.  Fortunately, the trees had been cleared when we were ready to leave the mountains.  We bring a chain saw with us each time just in case we have to clear the road in order to get up there or out of there. 

More roadside art.

We continued our painting on the inside of the cabin.  Things are starting to pull together.  We completed painting the walls of the dining area and living room.  After that, we started painting trim and the upper cabinets in the kitchen.  My husband and I had a tag team approach to painting the trim.  He would get on the ladder and paint the upper part of the window.  Once he had painted down to where I could reach, he would move the ladder over to the upper part next window and start painting while I finished painting the first window.    By the time he was finished with the second window, I was ready to start and he would move on to the next window.  We were in a small space and having two ladders just wasn't feasible.  I think that teaming up on the windows made the painting go faster. 

We did get some sun on Thursday and Friday.  We used most of the time to rake leaves.  The leaves were still quite wet, so it was a bit of a job.   I wish we had time to let the leaves dry out more, but we had to head for home. I took time to get a few photos.  Many of the trees lost their leaves during the high winds.  There was more color up there before the storm came through.  Autumn is leaving quickly this year.  The weather forecast before we left said that the first snow flakes would be flying at the higher elevations this weekend.

On our travels, we came across another piece of unusual road art.  This piece was in Beuna Vista.  My husband knew what character it is, but I don't remember the name.  It is from one of the Transformer movies I think.  I could not get a better shot of it because I had to snap it as we drove by it. 

More Halloween Decor 2014

I think I have just about reached critical mass on Halloween decor.  It is everywhere, and I still need to places to put things.  I have two large dioramas to set out, but there is no place to put them upstairs.  I guess they will go downstairs in the den.  The den is pretty full of stuff too.  So are the kitchen and bathroom.  Hmmm, perhaps an addition to the house is in order.  (Just joking on that.)

Our door knocker is an imp on a mushroom.  Or maybe it is an elf.  Who knows what its creator intended it to be.  It has been with us for many years.  I've never seen another one like it.

I made the ceramic disc with the man in the moon face.  The face came from a pattern book on stained glass.  The pattern really appealed to me, but would have been a very complicated stained glass piece.  It would have looked great though.  Maybe one day I will take up stained glass.  Stained glass is mostly my husband's interest.

 The griffin at the right of the third picture is a cast iron door stop.   It is a contemporary piece, although we have had it for years.  About the time that I started getting nostalgic for the cast iron door stops I remember my grandparents having as a child, the price of antique door stops went through the roof.  I don't have any antique ones.

The center figure is one of my art dolls called Jack of Autumn.  He is the Jack (nature spirit) that comes and throws leaves on your lawn.  The leaves falling from his hand swirl in the breeze.

The smiling cat-headed figure is a bobble head doll.  It is a commercial piece.  The figure is made from paper mache' and the orange and black border on the base is a chenille stem.

The man in the moon figure in the fourth photo is also a commercial piece.  The shape of the lips make it look more like a woman in the moon.  The "man in the moon"  is more of a western concept.  Early Germanic tradition always held that it was a female.  Some countries don't see an anthropomorphic face in the moon at all; they see a rabbit.  I guess that what it looks like depends on your location.

The picture of the witch hat was one I painted.  The design was from a magazine article that was teaching you how to paint.  I think the magazine title was Paint Works, but it has been so many years that I can't say that is for certain.

The little witch on the left is from the Jim Shore collection.  It was a gift from my mother.  She will always be special to me.

Sometimes I just have fun with fabric.  The cloth figure of the witch was a commercial fabric piece.  I added batting and a backing fabric and quilted it to make the details pop.  The hair is embroidery threaded that has been knotted and frayed. 

I will be back to blogging on the Goblin Halloween diorama next time I post.  I hope my readers enjoy some of my Halloween collection.

Halloween Decor 2014

I've been getting out the Halloween decorations a bit at a time.  I still haven't finished.  Just when I think I have it all out, I remember that more of it is stashed somewhere else.  I love to collect Halloween pieces, so each year I am out on the prowl, looking for that next great piece.  I am on a budget though, so I am suppose that I am out looking for that next great piece I can afford.

The large paper mache' figures in the first two photos were purchased this year.  The smaller witch in the first photo is from The Thomas Clark collection.  I have had her for many years. 

I also make Halloween art.  I haven't brought out a lot of that yet.  The witch in the third photo was made a long time ago.  She used to fly.  I would hang her up with black yarn near a wall that was covered with dark paneling.   The yarn would disappear against the dark background.  She appeared to be hovering in air.  It used to really give people a start when they first saw it.  I created the stand because my collection was displayed in a public library one year and there was nowhere to hang her from.

The colorful gourds are dried gourds that were painted with acrylic paints.  I blogged about the method of painting them while I was doing it, so anyone interested can go back and read about it.  The blog posts were dated January 4 through January 15 2014. 

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 26 - Trees Continued

Trees have been covered in plaster cloth wrap strips.

I have completed the plaster wrap of the trees.  I know it does not look like I have made all that much progress, but it is a lot of work.  It took about six hours of work to get the plaster wrap on all the limbs.  One problem with using the plaster wrap is that it tended to crack as the limbs were moved about while they were being wrapped.  I patched over it with other pieces of plaster cloth wrap.  If further cracks develop, they will probably be patched with drywall patching plaster.  I have some left over from another project.

Trees will be near the house on the diorama.

The roots help to keep the trees balanced and standing upright.  I've always found tree roots to be kind of creepy.  They remind me of tentacles.   It also reminds me that some trees can clone themselves through their roots.  When I was growing up,  we had silver maples in the yard.  They were beautiful trees, but they sent out root runners everywhere.  Small trees sprang up all over the place.  And as the trees aged, the root runners grew thicker
and gnarly, creating a trip hazard, and were a nuisance to mow over top of them.  I remember that the roots would develop a callus where the mower hit them. 

So that is about as far as I have gotten with the project.  I've had a busy week and I expect things to get busier.  The holiday season is coming up fast.  The trees did not take nearly as long as the house.  I hope to have them painted by the next time I blog though. 

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 25- Making Trees - Field Project

Branch sized increased after plaster cloth.

Plaster with rough texture.

Sort of a quick post today.  I've been working on making trees for the diorama.  I completed the wiring and taping of the second tree. I started adding the plaster cloth wrap on the first tree, but it is not yet complete.  I still have a few more branches and the roots to wrap before I finish this tree.  I added a few large pieces of plaster cloth wrap onto the second tree, but have not added plaster cloth to the branches.  I had originally considered experimenting with making my own plaster cloth, but with Halloween closing in, I decided that it would be more time efficient to just purchase some more plaster cloth wrap.  If we had not had a plumbing disaster that caused me to repair a large portion of my home, I would have had this diorama completed a long time ago.  

Today's blog focus is what the tree looks like before and after the plaster cloth wrap is applied.  It adds a lot of volume to the branches.  I think it may add more volume than if I had been using strip pieces of paper mache', but not so much as to make the product unusable for this purpose. 

I used the plaster cloth wrap mainly because I had some left over from another project.  However, the quicker drying time for the plaster cloth was also a consideration.  I would have had to wait a day or more between coats of paper mache'.  And if I had used paper mache' I would probably have had to use at least two coats, perhaps three.  With the plaster cloth, it was one coat and done.

Plaster cloth can be smoothed to a smooth finish and sanded, or it can be left with a very rough texture.  I chose to have a rough texture because I want it too look like tree bark.  Once everything is dry, it will be painted brown and given a dark wash.  The tree should have a very textured look once the painting is complete.

It is Sunday, so it is time for the picture of my field project.  Today's photo was taken at 9:11 am.  Winds were light and variable.  The temperature was 49 degrees Fahrenheit.  We have not had frost yet, but it is coming soon. 

Check back Wednesday for more on the diorama.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 24- Making Trees

I've been working on making trees for the diorama.  It is not hard, but it is time consuming.  As always, I am trying to work with what materials I have on hand rather than buying new material for every project.  There are plenty of ways to do something, and some of them may be easier than the method that I am using at this time.  However, I enjoy the creative process of looking at materials and making them into the object that I want it to be.  Reusing materials helps keep my budget in check, which is always a plus.  If someone wishes to make a diorama with less work and would rather spend the money to have a diorama completed sooner, then I recommend looking at model railroad builders magazines and hobby shops.  You can find trees and buildings on various scales and even peel and stick products such as a stone foundation for a building.  It is also a plus to be able to purchase everything already sized to the scale you would like.

Tree will be next to the house on the diorama.

 

I started with malleable aluminum wire, some small bits of Styrofoam, and masking tape.  In this case, the Styrofoam was a portion of a round one inch diameter rod.  I only had a small amount left, so I cut it into pieces and used tape as filler between the portions of Styrofoam.  I inserted four lengths of aluminum wire about 14 inches long through the Styrofoam rounds.  I pulled enough wire out from the bottom to form "roots" which will balance and stabilize the tree.  Then I used smaller pieces of wire to form the  secondary branches.  The wire was folded in half, then twisted around the main branches to form smaller branches.  These branches were taped into place.  I twisted the wires around themselves to the end.  Then I untwisted them about half way and spread the wires.  This gives the branches the twists and changes of direction that you see in real tree branches.  Once I had all my branches in place, I taped over the entire project to make it a little sturdier. 

I have completed the first tree.  Currently I am working on a second large tree.  Once that is complete, the trees will be covered with a layer of Plaster Cloth Wrap.  This cloth is the type of material that is used to make a cast.  Plaster permeates the fabric.  When wet the plaster spreads out over the cloth then dries to a hard finish.  I have some left over from another project.  I don't know if it will be enough to complete two trees.  When I run out of the Plaster Cloth Wrap, I may use paper mache' for the rest of the project or I may experiment with making my own plaster cloth.  (You guessed it, I have some plaster and cloth left over from other projects.)  Using the Plaster Cloth Wrap will be much quicker than paper mache' because it dries faster.

If you look closely at the first photo, you can see that I left off a little of the tape so that you could see the Styrofoam rod.  In the second photo, you can see a close up of the wires for the branches.  Soon they will be painted and ready to go onto the diorama.