Some New News on Old Projects and News on a New Project

I wanted to let everyone know about some news on previous projects from this year.  Some of the projects I completed this year have been placed in competitions at the Virginia State Fair.  I am trying to get my work out there for people to see it in places other than online, so I thought I would put some of it into the competitions.  It is one of the few times I have entered my work anywhere. In this case, it is not so much about winning as it is about getting my work out in public.  The prizes at the state fair are small, five dollars for first place, second and third place are ribbons only, and a twenty dollar prize for best in category.  So the main thing is that thousands of people will walk by and see some of my art.  I am excited about that.

I entered three contests.  In the Wearable Art contest I entered the embroidered denim jacket that I completed this year.  It was a tough choice to pick between the Wearable Art category and the Embroidery category for the jacket.  Yes, it is embroidered, but I consider it to be more of wearable art item than an embroidery piece.  The category descriptions are somewhat nebulous, and the website states that the contest entrant is responsible for picking the category.  So maybe I picked the right category and maybe I did not.  No way to tell but to try and see if it flies.  If it is in the wrong category, it might not be eligible for judging.  So it could end up being disqualified.  But, from the standpoint of a jacket is something you can wear, and it does have art on it, I think the jacket fits the qualification.

 For the Handmade Stuffed Toy category I entered my Folk Art Lamb.  One of the few competition rules for all categories is that the item must have been made this year.  I did not start out making the lamb with a competition in mind.  I just happened to have decided at the beginning of the year that I would make a lamb.  Someone had seen my embroidered denim jacket and suggested that it aught to be displayed at the State Fair.  When I went online to check for information on entering the jacket I also learned about the other competitions.  And, I had recently completed the toy lamb.  So I decided to enter that as well. 

The third item entered was in the Handmade Doll, Dressed category. The doll entered was the Victorian Style Belsnickel doll that I had also completed this year.  That was the first art project that I started this January.  I generally don't like to work so far out of season, but this year I started the doll while it was still cold and wintery.  It seemed like a good time to be working on that type of doll even though Christmas was over.  Being that it fit the time limitation for eligibility into the competition, that went in as well. 

It was exciting to enter the competitions.  It was not expensive to enter the competitions either, just a dollar per entry.  So it was a great way to get the work out there.  Winning would be nice, but just having my work seen by people is thrilling enough in itself. 

Now onto the new project.  When I made my plans for the year I had said that I wanted to do some carving.  I would like to do both some carving to make stamps and some wood carving.  They are the two things that I have not gotten around to doing yet.  I think I will be starting on carving some linoleum first because there is a technique that I wanted to try using stamps and embossing powders.  I think this should be a fairly quick project.  I only have a couple of linoleum blocks.  However, the weather is turning cooler and it is getting to be a nice time to get outside and work on my outdoor table so I shall soon be doing some wood carving out there.  I want to do a little piece of carving on a block to develop some skill on using the tools.  Then I will start trying to carve a walking stick, although the walking stick may roll over to be a project for next year.  But those are my plans for the rest of the year. 

Check back on Thursday for the latest on my new project.

Vampire Halloween Doll Completed

The post is a little late going up today, but at least it made it up on Thursday.  I was able to complete the Vampire Halloween Doll this week.  I completed his cape.  And I was able to install a spring in the bottom of the casket box so that he partially rises up when the box is opened and looks as if he is trying to sit up and get out of the casket.  It was a fun little craft project, but it took longer than I had anticipated.

The spring took a little experimentation.  I found that a larger looser spring worked better than a smaller tightly wound spring for this application.  It also took some time to get the spring set in the right place so that the doll would rise up facing the right direction.  In my first few attempts, the doll sprang up and flipped face forward into the lid of the casket.  Not exactly the look I was going for.  In other attempts he sprang out of the casket and landed on the table.  That was funny from a surprise standpoint, but it was not exactly what I wanted.  I kept working until I got something that I could live with.  He appears to rise to a sitting position with one hand reaching for the edge of the casket.  I expect I could have refined it further, but at some point I needed to declare the project completed. In any case, it should be fun for a Halloween decoration. 

The cape is black with a red lining.  I suppose I could have just used black.  I just wanted some contrast.  Unfortunately, I had also lined the casket box in red as well.  When he is in the casket box, the cape is somewhat lost in the background.  If I were doing this over again, I would have lined the casket in white.  I suppose I could still do it, but at the moment I am ready to go on to something else. 

So another project is wrapped up.  I will be letting you know about the next project on the Sunday blog post.  Also, I have some exciting news about some earlier projects.  Check back on Sunday.

Vampire Halloween Doll - Part 6

Here he is! He is almost finished.  I just have to make his cape and the doll portion will be complete.  It feels like this has been a long time coming.  I have been running non-stop for weeks and just have not had time to get into the studio.  When you craft as a hobby, it is all too easy to say that crafting is what gets put off when life gets busy.  But this year, it has been busy in a good way for the most part, so busy is still a plus.

This doll was the dickens to make since it is so small.  I had to look under a magnifying lens to see what I was doing when I was sewing on the clothing.  Things went much smoother once I started using the magnifying glass.  It was so much easier to see what I was doing.  Of course, under a lens, it is also easier to see every mistake....  The hands and arms could have been done better, but it is a little late in the process to worry about that now.  But overall, I think the doll is acceptable for a quick craft doll.  It was just supposed to be for a bit of Halloween fun.

I added a little bit of mixed red and burnt umber paint to his mouth.  I must admit, without the extra paint he looked a little goofy.  The darker color adds a little gore adds some depth and makes him look a little scarier.  The area was so tiny that I had to paint it on with the tip of a needle.    

I still have to make his cape.  I expect to have it completed in the next couple of days.  The cape will tie under his chin, and will take up a bit of the open space under his neck.  I plan to make the cape black with a red lining.  I'm going for the old-school vampire look for the moment.  Who knows, I could change my mind after I see what he looks like with the cape.

Anyway, the doll finishes out at just five inches tall.  That will fit nicely into the casket box.  I have not yet addressed how to make him move once the box is opened.  I think my first choice will be to try some compressible (open cell) foam under the lining of the casket.  I will post the doll as if he were trying to climb out of the casket and shut the lid, which will mash him down against the foam.  Hopefully, when the box is opened, the foam will decompress to its normal thickness.  This should cause the doll to rise up and look as if it is trying to come out of the casket.  Well, once can hope.  If that does not work, I will try to make a spring and glue it into the bottom of the casket.  If that does not work, I will try to purchase a better spring.  It it still does not work, then I am pretty much out of ideas.  I will just have to try it and see.

So the project is coming to a close, most likely by the end of the coming week.  Check back on Sunday for some news on a new project and some local excitement.

Update on Vampire Halloween Doll

New plans await the casket.  Something creepy.

I don't have any new photos for the blog yet.  The Vampire doll's suit coat is almost complete.  Okay, half-way complete.  It has been a comedy of errors here all week long.  At least the doll is starting to have a finished look to it.  For so long it looked like it would never get finished.

Basically, the arms of the coat have been cut and sewn onto the doll.  The back and front pieces will be cut and sewn on next.  Then a cape will be constructed.  The cape will have a black outer layer with a red lining.  I don't think that will take too long once I get a chance to get to it.

The casket has had a little work done to it.  Layers of batting and satin have been glued into it so that it appears to be lined.  I may be doing a little work on the casket.  When I first started out with the idea for the doll, I had thought that I might pose it so that it looked as if the doll were climbing out of the casket.  The trouble with that idea was that the top did not stay upright.  That might be easy enough to fix.  But then I had another thought.  Suppose I put a small spring or perhaps a bit of compressible foam underneath the casket lining.  Then pose the doll as I wanted it to look as if it were climbing out, but then stuff it into the casket box and close the lid.  When someone opened the lid, the spring or foam would decompress, making the doll move as if it was climbing out.  Creepy?  You bet!  I hope I can pull that off.

I expect to have some new photos of the Vampire doll for the Sunday blog post.  Perhaps I will have the casket photos also.  The doll is close to complete. 

Vampire Halloween Doll - Part 5

Progress has been made this week!  It feels as if this doll has been dragging on for a while.  But first, a note to self:  If you have to hold the doll three inches from a sixty watt bulb and look through a magnifying lens to see what you are doing, you are working too darn small.  I used to enjoy the challenge of working on small dolls.  Now it is not fun any more.  It is just too hard to see it.

Anyway, I did make significant strides on the doll this week.  The face was painted and the vampire fangs added.  Hair has been attached.  And the doll is partially clothed.  The pants and shirt are on.  I have not attached a collar to the shirt.  The bow tie and cape ties will cover that area.  I am beginning to feel like the project is moving forward again.

It really is not just a matter of having been too busy to work on it with this project.  The doll is so small that it comes with a more problems than working on normal dolls.  The doll is harder to hold on to because of its size.  The tiny arms and legs easily get tangled up with the thread used to sew the clothes onto the doll.  Normal size paint brushes and sculpting tools are to large for painting and sculpting tiny features.  Sewing stitches need to be very small to be in scale with the clothing.  This is probably going to be my last tiny doll.  My fingers and eyesight are not up to the task any longer.  It is safe to say that this project has not been the a great joy to create.  But, I still plan to finish the project.

Trying to get the hair onto the doll was a challenge.  It was some sort of synthetic fiber.  It was very stiff and very resistant to being glued onto the doll.  First I tried a tacky craft glue. That did not work.  Then I tried a low temp hot glue:  not working well.  I was beginning to think I was going to have to sew the hair in as individual strands.  I generally do that on my dolls, but this was supposed to be a quick craft doll for a fun Halloween project.  It was not in the plan to spend so much time working on this doll.  I finally found a way that worked, but I am not sure that I would use this method on a regular basis.  I pulled a dollop of glue from a glue stick with a toothpick.  I cut a small piece of doll hair (about three times the length of the head) and mashed it into the glue and held it in place until it stayed.  I continued doing this across the entire head.  After the glue was dry the doll received a hair cut.  He still needs a little more trimming.  That is as far as I was able to go on the project before I had to stop and get on to something else.

The clothing for this doll is created by sewing pieces of cloth directly onto the body of the doll.  It would be very difficult to make the clothing and try to slide the doll into it.  The shirt is short sleeved because I did not feel the need to make long sleeves that were going to be covered by a jacket and cape.  The cape is the only item that will be constructed like a garment.  It will be a black cape lined in red.  At least that is the plan for now.

So things are moving along.  Maybe the doll will be completed in a week to ten days.  It depends on how long it takes to make the jacket and cape.  I also have sort of a surprise idea for the casket.  Check back on Thursday for the next update for the Vampire doll.

Road Trip September 2016

Painted rock.

When I blogged last, a hurricane was possibly headed this way.  I was concerned that we might be without electricity for a while.  Fortunately, the storm headed out to sea just south of us.  We had a little rain, but that was about it.  After the storm, the weather turned nice and pleasantly cool.  We decided to head out on one of our trips.  I took a few pictures along the way that I wanted to share.

Road humor.

I like to take pictures of old buildings, folk art, and unusual signs we happen to come across along the way.  I have been trying to get a photo of this painted rock for a while.  We come up on it suddenly around a curve, so it has been hard to snap a picture of it.  This time I had the timing right.  I really enjoy when someone takes the time to make something interesting for others to see.  I really have not seen much new folk art this year.   I hope that more of it will be appearing soon. 

You just never know what you will see when you travel.  Amusement comes in all forms.  The back of a vehicle yielded the photo of the dinosaur joke. 

The Highway Workers Memorial is at a fantastic overlook.  You can see for miles up and down the valley.  Note the shape of the sign.  the cutout is
in the shape of a worker's face wearing a hard hat.

Highway Workers Memorial

This old barn is at a bend in the road.  It is very tall and thin compared to the average size barn.  I am not sure if the barn is still in use, but the area around it is well cared for and the roof appears to be in good shape.

The hay is in, and fields are left to grow as they will.  This field is filled with wild flowers called Black Eyed Susan.  These wild flowers are native Eastern and Central North America.  It is the state flower of Maryland.

It is interesting to travel the same route at different times of the year.  I see the road in the rain and fog of winter, the energetic burst of growth in spring, the fullness of growth in the summer, and the blaze of Autumn colors.  The vegetation is always changing and has something new to show on each trip.  Now that we are nearing the end of summer, the vegetation is starting to look a little tired and dry.  I can see that the change of season is coming soon.  At the higher elevations, there is a slight tinge of yellow and red on some of the leaves.  In seven or eight weeks, we will be at the height of color.  I can tell that the climate is warming.  It used to be that the height of color would have been about six weeks from now. 

The temperatures are already starting to cool down up there.  Overnight the temperatures would drop to about 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13.3333 C.)  Down below it was in the upper eighties (26.66 C) after the storm, but temperatures have returned to the mid-nineties (32.22C).  After such a hot summer, it was wonderful to have some cool days. 

Next blog post I will be back to blogging about the Vampire doll.  Check back on Sunday.

Vampire Halloween Doll - Part 4

I am back to blogging about my Vampire Halloween Doll.  This was supposed to be a quick craft project, but it has been such a busy time for me that I have barely had time to touch it.  I had expected to be finished with this project by now, but that is not how things have gone.  I have made some progress on the doll, so I guess that is something to blog about.

I completed the sculpting of the hands.  It took a long time because this doll is very small.  It will only be about five and a half inches tall (13.97 centimeters).  One of the reasons it took so long was that much tiny needlework caused a lot of discomfort in my fingers.  The small size also made it difficult to cut off small bits of string.  It seemed like I could see a lot of stray bits that I could not cut off.  I decided to cover the hands with modeling compound to get the frayed edges under control.  When the modeling compound dries, it is a white surface.  So now my vampire will look as if he is wearing gloves.  That would be acceptable with a suit.  After all, it helps cover him from sunlight.

While I was working with the modeling compound, I decided to make his boots as well.  It helps cover up an inconvenient seam.  I need to do a little sanding on the boots, and then I will paint them black.  With a little gloss sealer on them they will look like nicely polished boots.  At least, that is the theory of the moment.

I added the head.  Again, this doll is really small.  After the aftermath of the needle sculpting of the hands, I really was not ready to commit to needle sculpting the face.  The head is barely as large as the tip of my forefinger.  I decided to move into uncharted territory here.  I decided to try making the features out of modeling compound.  If it worked great.  If it did not, well I just might have decided that the coffin the doll will lay in could be re-purposed into a candy container.  So working with tiny dabs of modeling compound, and using an embroidery needle as a tool, I modeled the features and hoped that they would stick.  They did.  So I have a very tiny face in place.  I am hoping that it will survive the painting process.  The little pieces were so small, I was not sure that they would have enough adhesion to stick.  But, so far, so good.  Once the face is painted, I will go back and add some more tiny bits of modeling compound to make the fangs.  They are not on at this point because they would be in the way while trying to paint the lips.

I had a lot of trouble getting a shot of the face.  It was so small that I could not get a good picture with the camera.  I finally sat the doll under a magnifying lens and snapped a photo.  I had trouble getting in close enough to something that small.  I must have snapped thirty pictures of the face before I was able to get a clear shot.  Thank goodness for digital cameras. 

So things are moving along, even if slower than I would prefer.  This time of year is very busy for me.  That is why I start my Halloween project so early.

There is a hurricane coming.  We are not in the direct path of the storm, but may get some rain.  The path of the storm is still uncertain.  The storm could shift further out to sea and only impact the coast, or it could come further inland and give us some heavy rain or flash flooding.  We are right on the border of the rain area right now.  It is possible we could be out of electricity if the winds get up or there is a lot of rain.  In the past, we have lost electricity for several days.  If I am out of electricity, I may not be able to post on Sunday.   I will get back online as soon as possible.  Stay safe everyone.