Photos from the Road

I don't have anything new to post on the blog about my Anthropomorphic Figure project because I have been away for the week.  We made our first trip up to the cabin this year.  It is always a relief to get to the cabin and find that nothing unfortunate has happened to it over the winter.  There is always the worry that a tree might have damaged it.  Snow and ice can take a real toll on a building.  The nearest weather readings recorded an actual temperature of -17 degrees Fahrenheit.  The wind chill was probably in the range of -25F. 

Spring has begun in the Piedmont area.  Dogwoods and Redbud trees were in bloom everywhere.  There were dozens of shades of green from a greenish-white to chartreuse popping out as the leaves began to appear.  I snapped a few pictures as we drove down one of the Virginia By-ways.  Taking the scenic route is well worth the trip.

This trip up my husband fixed that pesky leak under the kitchen sink.  That was our big project for this trip.  We were concerned that we might have to replace the lower cabinet because the leak had done some water damage to the floor of the cabinet.  Fortunately, we were able to repair the area by cutting a piece of plywood for the bottom.  We also have to replace the kitchen counter-top.  Because the cabin is drained and unheated during the winter months the counter-top had warped.  I guess the countertop has lasted a couple of decades at least, so I can't really complain too much about it.  We will get to that once we finish other kitchen
projects. 

It is still winter in the upper elevations.

We plan to finish the underlayment and floor covering in the kitchen on our next trip. Other than replacing the countertop I think that is the last major project in the kitchen.  I'd really like to replace out cast iron cook stove with a more efficient heating stove that I could also cook on, but I
don't think that is going to happen unless I win
the lottery or something.  Those stoves are pretty expensive.  The stove we have works just fine, but a cook stove has only a very small opening for adding wood and wood cut down to the size for a cook stove is hard to come by.  Last year the usual wood cutter did not cut any cook stove sized wood.  We ended up chopping wood ourselves.  Chopping wood is just one more chore that needs to be done up there.

Now that I have returned home I am busy trying to catch up on all the chores and errands that need my attention.  After that I will be getting back to work on my Anthropomorphic Figure project.  I should have something to post on that soon.  Check back on Sunday for the next blog post.

Anthropomorphic Figure for Halloween Part 8

Today I have photos of the torso.  I guess these photos illustrate what I mean about embellishing the doll.  I had previously blogged that when I made an art doll that I tried to give it at least three layers of embellishment.

First I make the basic vision of my doll with whatever embellishments I imagined.  In this case I just envisioned a basic orange pumpkin shaped figure with some sort of decorations on the legs.  I had originally thought that some basic drawn on leaf shapes on the limbs would be enough.  The leaves are just basic heart shapes, rather that trying to draw actual pumpkin leaves.  (Artistic license.)  That seemed sort of plain once I had the pieces made.

My next round of embellishment added shading to the pumpkin to make it look more like an actual
pumpkin.  I painted and added veining to the leaves.  I also added gold paint to the legs just so that they would not look exactly like the arms.  The figure still seemed a little plain.  After all, if I am going to make a figure of an imaginary being, I might as well make it over the top.   I felt that it still needed something more.

I went for a third round of embellishment.  Next I added stars to the torso.  It still seemed to need something more so I added moons to the torso as well.  The position of the moon or star was changed with each addition so that not all the embellishments were facing the same direction.  During my last addition I decided that the contrast on the legs just was not where I needed it to be.  To correct this I gave the background of the legs a wash and wipe off of antique copper.  This helped somewhat.

The head has not been done yet.  As I blogged last week, I was experimenting with clay formulas to see if they would be suitable for the head.  I was still waiting for the clay around the head armature to dry.  I will have more on the head of the project on the next blog post.

Anthropomorphic Figure for Halloween Part 7

Another quick post today.  Thing settle down this week and I will have more time to devote to the blog.  I painted the legs in different shades from the arms and added some gold paint.  Why?  Because I felt that the figure needed a little sparkle to it.  The contrast was not exactly what I needed.  I also darkened the background by washing on and wiping off an antique copper color.

When I have such a small amount of text, I cannot place the photos where I want.  Please scroll down to see both photos.   I will have pictures of the torso for the next blog..

Anthropomorphic Figure for Halloween Part 6

I only have a short time to blog right now.  I had a post here and somehow managed to delete it.  Leave it to me to mess up when I am crunched for time.  Anyway,  I painted the arms of the anthropomorphic figure.  I started out with a medium green base coat.  Then I drew in some heart-shaped leaves with a marker.  I added more shades of green paint and finished out the veins with the marker. 

Making Craft Clays at Home

Recipe 3 on left, recipe 2 on right.

At last! I finally am getting around to posting my experiments with different types of craft clay.  It is easy enough these days to go to the store and purchase clay for a craft.  Easy unless you live a considerable distance from a craft store.  Sometimes it is helpful to have an alternative to a commercial
product.  You may need only a small amount and don't want to spend several dollars for a package that is much larger than you need.  Or maybe you just need a quick activity for the kids on a rainy day.  There are a number of reasons to make your own craft clay.  I decided to experiment with making clay and use it on the head of the figure for this project.  It is worthwhile to post the results so people will have some idea of how recipes played out.

My first experiment was such a mess, that I won't post the recipe.  It is one of those things that it is better to put behind me and not speak of again.  The second and third recipes worked out much better.  They have some different characteristics when dry so it is worthwhile to consider the finished look when choosing a clay.  You can find all sorts of craft clay recipes on the internet.  I chose these two  because I had the ingredients and did not have to purchase anything extra.  Well, maybe not everyone will have Alum in the house but it is easily obtainable at the grocery store.

Recipe 2 Modeling Dough
3/4 cup flour --DO NOT USE SELF-RISING
1/2 cup salt
1 & 1/2 tsp. powdered Alum
1 & 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup boiling water.

Mix the dry ingredients.  Add oil and boiling water and stir until blended.

Note: Alum (powdered aluminum potassium sulfate) is used in pickling spices and baking powder.  In rock form it is used as an underarm deodorant.

The experiment:  A thin layer of the clay was patted smooth and used to cover a Styrofoam ball to check for adhesion and texture.

The results:  The clay dried in about a day and a half.  The surface was fairly smooth. 

Recipe 3  Play Clay
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup cornstarch

Mix the salt and hot water and heat to boiling.  Stir cornstarch into the cold water in a separate bowl.  Add cornstarch to the cold water and then stir the mixture into the boiling water.  Stir the mixture until a stiff dough forms.  Remove the mixture from heat, turn out onto waxed paper and allow to cool.  When cool enough to handle, knead until smooth.

The experiment:  A thin layer of  the clay was patted smooth and used to cover a ball of aluminum foil covered with masking tape to check for adhesion and texture.

The results:  A fun science fact here; cornstarch mixed with water behaves as a Non-Newtonian fluid.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid   I added a link to Wikipedia for those who want a more scientific explanation than I am going into here.  A Non-Newtonian fluid can act like a solid rather than a liquid.  If you mix enough cornstarch and water, you can form a liquid that is solid enough to walk across it.  When mixing the cornstarch and water for this project it formed a solid mass around the spoon while I was trying to stir it.  I lifted the spoon from the bowl and the material was rock solid.  Then the mass fell from the spoon.  When the mass hit the counter, the mass turned back to a liquid and ran all over the counter.  So remember to be careful when stirring this mixture.  Once everything was mixed, the craft clay had a very grainy texture.  It felt like coarse sand had been added to the mix.  The clay was patted to the same thickness as the first recipe and applied to a ball of aluminum foil covered with masking tape.  It is not quite dry yet on day three.

All clays have an odor.  Clay used for ceramics smells like moist earth. Commercial clays have a chemical smell.  The clays made with flour have a very distinctive odor.  I can only describe it as funky.  It reminds me of a sourdough starter.  My studio was not the most pleasant place to be for a couple of days.

At this point, I am still waiting for the clay on the head to finish drying.  I am not completely sure that I will use the head on the project.  It may just be easier to start over and do a regular strip  papier mache" head.  Both of these recipes are supposed to be paintable when dry, but I am not sure that the texture is exactly what I want for the project.  I will paint the heads before I make a final decision.  However, either of these recipes would work well for making children's crafts and Christmas ornaments. 

Sunday I will have the latest photos of the anthropomorphic Halloween figure I am making.

Not what I Expected

When you experiment with art supplies, you have to expect that sometimes things will not go as planned.  That happened in my plan to make a homemade clay to use when making the head for my anthropomorphic doll.  That is what happened with my project this week.  What I ended up with was a sticky mess that only hardened after slithering off the armature onto the table.  I'm glad I had plastic piece underneath it to keep the table clean.

If you had seen me working on this you would have had to laugh.  It pulled like taffy, trailing stringy pieces everywhere you touched it.  I was thoroughly covered with it.  I think I might have some in my hair still.  The more I tried to get the clay to stay on the armature the worse it became.  I did not take a picture of the mess.  Perhaps I should have, but I did not want to get my camera anywhere near me at the moment.

I think I had the mixture too moist. Once the clay was on the armature it started to very slowly slide off.  It was like watching a disaster in slow motion.  Eventually I decided that the only thing to do was to start over with a Plan B. 

This was a particularly busy week for me, so I did not have time to get to my Plan B yet.  Fortunately, the week is very clear and I expect to work on the anthropomorphic figure a lot this week.  I will have new photos on Thursday. 

Anthropomorphic Figure for Halloween Part 5

Base coat and some shading.

I did not start to work with the head as I had planned to do.  It required another trip out for supplies.  However, I did get a base coat on the body and limbs. 

Now that the base coat is on, it will be time for some embellishment.  I have learned from past experience that dolls need a lot of embellishment.  I usually try to create my basic idea of the doll and add whatever decorations that I imagined it should have.  Once that part of the doll is complete I go back and add a second layer of embellishments.  After the second layer has been completed, I go back a third time and add even more embellishments.  The third layer sometimes seems over the top, but it takes that much work to keep the doll from looking too plain.

Tomorrow I plan to spend a significant part of the day making the pumpkin head for the doll.  I will also be making a head for another anthropomorphic figure I am working on.  The material will need to dry before it can be painted.  We are having very rainy weather so it might take a couple of days before they can be painted.

Check back on the Sunday blog post for the latest progress.

Anthropomorphic Figure for Halloween - Part 4

Slow progress, but it is still progress.  I have the torso and limbs sanded for the doll.  It does not look all that much different from previous pictures at this point.  The main difference is that it is now smooth and ready to paint.  I will begin painting tomorrow.

I was glad to be able to accomplish even that much this week.  Spring has sprung here and the weather is turning warm.  Yesterday we went shopping for herbs.  I purchased some Basic, Parsley, and Sage.  It was a delight to be able to work outside in shirt sleeves.  It is not truly warm yet.  It was 63 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday; the
winds blowing at 25 miles per hour with wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour.  It has been so cold here that 63 degrees seems like a heat wave.

This week I will be working on shaping the head for the figure.  I plan to experiment with an air dry clay that I made from materials in the kitchen cabinet.  More on that next blog post.

Happy Easter everyone!

More Easter Bunnies and Art Doll Project Update

Bunny from 1960s

Although there is not a lot visible at the moment, I have been working on my paper mache' doll.  I have
completed the third layer of paper mache'.  At the moment, it looks exactly as it did when I put on the second layer.  That will change soon.  Today I start sanding the pieces.  After that I will start painting.  I hope to have at least some of it done by the weekend. 

Contemporary ceramic bunny.

As the days get warmer, my crafting time gets shorter.  There is more to do outside and our activities pick up all around.  I try to make time to do something in my studio every day, but progress is slower.  I know that a lot of people are working late into the night to get things done quicker, but that is not my lifestyle.  As Mark Twain wrote in Tom Sawyer, "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do.  Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."   I prefer to work on my art as enjoyment rather than make it into a forced march into completion.  I guess it is lucky that I do not have to survive from income from my art.

I should have some new photos on Sunday's blog post.  In the mean time, I hope that you will enjoy some photos of my Easter collection.

Contemporary collectable bunny.