Projects for 2016 and Latest Photos from the Road

Our weather lately.

Happy New Year everyone.  The sun came out yesterday and everyone around here was glad to see it.  From December 20th until yesterday we had nothing but rain, fog, overcast conditions and more rain.  The sun never came out but for about twenty minutes here in the entire thirteen days.  Fortunately it was warm enough that this was not sleet, snow, or ice, but I think we had rain precipitation in nearly every form: pouring rain, steady rain, drizzle, mist, or fog.  If it was not actively raining it was overcast and looked ready to rain at any minute.  Today will be fairly warm for January, but the temperature is supposed to plunge tonight and we may have flurries tomorrow.  Winter is on its way.

At a windy overlook Jan. 2nd.

I was traveling on December 30th and January 2nd.  The first trip was, you guessed it, rainy.  The second trip was made in sunny weather.  We stopped at an overlook on the second trip to take a couple of pictures while we were at higher elevations.  I also snapped a few pictures as we were driving along the road.  We drive down this highway so often that it sometimes feels that it gets boring,  but if you look for interesting scenes, there is always something new to see. 

Cattle on a hill in winter.

Now, on to projects for 2016.  My last project was a quick Christmas doll.  While I was blogging on the project I mentioned that I had seen instructions online for how to make polymer clay doll's eyes that looked like glass eyes.  I said I had wanted to experiment with that technique.  So my first project is another doll.  It is no use making eyes if you have no project for them.  Since it is winter, and the holiday season is just ending, I am making another Santa doll.  This one will be made in a completely different manner than the previous doll.  Although it is a long way until Christmas, I want to get this doll started while it is still winter.  I find it somewhat difficult to work out of season, so I would rather make this doll now while it is still cold and wintery.   If I wait until next year I will be rushing to complete the project before the holidays.  That is always a busy time for me and I just don't have time to craft as much.  So expect a Santa doll as my first project.

Beyond the doll and learning to make doll's eyes I have a few ideas lined up, but not exactly in the exact order I plan to do them yet.  I have to phrases rattling around in my head.  The first is keep doing the same old thing and keep getting the same old results.  The other phrase is practice makes perfect.  Over the last few years, I have made several gazing balls.  I have a fascination with spheres, but if I have to keep finding a new way to make them or the project feels stale.  So far, I have made gazing balls using glass gems, stained glass, iridescent glass, and vitrious glass tiles, grouted them with grout, resin, and frit embedded in resin, and painted them with acrylic paints and spray paints.  I learned how to cast the balls from Hypertufa.   One time I experimented with making a ball using papier mache' that could be used as a  base for an exterior use ball.  I even made a free standing ball from twine.  I have a new idea for making a gazing ball.  I will be  blogging on that later this year.  I want to keep working with spheres (practice makes perfect) but I don't want the spheres to feel stale (keep doing the same old thing and keep getting the same old results).

When I was in California I went to a folk art museum.  There was a large selection of carved walking sticks on display.  They have inspired me to attempt carving a stick rather than wood burning one.  I plan to try some wood carving this year.  My first carvings may not be on a walking stick, because I would like to practice a bit before I take on a large project.  So there may be some smaller projects first.

Another goal I have set for this year is to do more sketching and painting.  Last year I purchased some small art tiles that are about three and a half inches square.  I liked the small size because I could do something fairly quickly rather than spending hours or days on a sketch or painting.  This activity could be done without overly distracting me from whatever large project I would be working on at the moment.  If I could do one sketch or water color on a tile once a week I might actually improve my drawing and painting skills.  To be honest, my drawing/painting skills are very poor and I really would like to improve them.  One of the main reasons that I took to doing craft projects is because drawing and painting are not really my forte, but I would like to learn. 

In a similar vein, I would like to do some block carving and make some prints.  I am not sure what, but I purchased the linoleum carving tools a while back and I need to do something with them.  Maybe I will make a few stencils as well.  I just feel the need to do something different from time to time. 

My other large project is making sheep.  As I was going through some books on making the Father Christmas figures, I notices some of the photos had sheep in them.  Most of the sheep were small, but one picture had a photo of a life sized antique sheep in it.  I was becoming intrigued with making a sheep at that point.... and, I have a lot of leftover wool roving.  I plan to make a small sheep as an embellishment to the Father Christmas figure.  If it works out, I may make a life-sized lamb figure.  We will see how that goes.

So those are the ideas I have in the works for 2016.   I expect to accomplish most of them.  It is always possible that something else will attract my interest and I will suddenly veer off in a new direction.  But at least I have some sort of plan.  I will be posting more on the new projects soon.