Monday, March 10, 2008

Today is a beautiful, sunny but really chilly March day. I thought it might be a good time to try and up load a few of the pictures that I tried in vain to load yesterday.
These are pictures of my dressform sculpt that is a work in progress. I am having a lot of fun with this one.
I began with gesso on the form and added a topper of shells and pearls and beads - oh my. The next step was to paint it out - just loving it and then I foiled in both silver and gold - life is too sort for just one. Next I worked on decorating the stand with paints, glitters and beads. (If you like this you need to check out Jean Bernard's link that I included in a previous post.) Then came the collar - too cool. The last picture here is a couple of sculpts that I've done that attach to the base on wire. (A sea turtle and a fish so far.) I'm not even close to being done with this one. Hope you enjoy and I will keep you posted.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

My Birthday!

Today was a good day and my birthday! I got to talk to all of my family members and it was nice to catch up. Ted and I went out to breakfast. He surprised me with a new ASUS pc. It's a little pc with a 7" screen that weighs less than two pounds. It will be great for on the go. He also gave me a beautiful red begonia. I worked on some of my outstanding projects and just had a really nice day doing things I enjoy doing. Life is good.

I want to share some of my work in progress on the Dressform class that I'm taking with Jean Bernard. This is the project that I won by guessing some of the products/objects she was using in a new endeavor. I'm having a blast and think it's coming out really good. I've also included a couple of items that I've sculpted using the techniques of Christi Friesen. This is a work in progress (WIP) so I will be posting again later as I get further along. (It helps that the weather has been rather wintery/rainy/cold/miserable, so staying in and working on things has been a welcome opportunity to stay warm, dry and happy.

Now for the dressform art. When I started this for some reason I had Ocean/Atlantis on the brain so of course - here is my rendition of the reigning queen of Atlantis. Blogger is haviing difficulty with uploading photos right now and says to try later. I am going to have to try another time. So stay tuned - pictures to follow. Have a happy night.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Happy Last Sunday in February 2008!

Hi and welcome to another cold but sunny day in Cambridge, NY. It's been a rather drawn out week but a busy one. We had the pleasure of Jacquelyn's company for the week she was on "spring break". I've finished my swap sculpt for Lee on my BPCAG list. This is two good friends sharing a special story. I really enjoyed swapping with Lee.
This is a picture of the Welcome to Bear Heaven that he sent to me -
Lee also makes very nice gliceryn (sp) soap that we are enjoying.

I've also sent a new pin out to my swap partner on Pin Doll Alley, Maureen Thornton. Our theme this month was a mouse and its swiss cheese. I had a good time with this one too. Trying my hand once again at making a free form miniature animal head. This pin is cloth whereas the two best friends are polymer clay. You can't really see the yellow fabric of the heart but it has shaded areas that make it look like swill cheese. This one is titled "The Queen Of Cheese". Cloth and clay are very different mediums to work in, and both have some very exciting possibilities. This little mouse is made out of craft fur/felt. It came out pretty good too if I do say so myself. :-P
Since it's the end of the month of February, all my challenge's are due that I've entered for the month. I have entered a hat in a magazine challenge. It's an edwardian ladie's hat. I really love hats and had a good time making this one.
I guess that's all for this post. Keep on looking up and pressing on. I'll leave you with a picture of my Jacquelyn the beautiful butterfly face. Have a safe and happy week.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

YMCA - isn't this cool? Only 1 man! Enjoy.

Another weekend - sunny and bright

This was a long week. Valentine's Day broke it up nicely but the weather certainly left much to be desired! More is on the way so I am just going to enjoy today's sunshine happiness. I have been working on various projects and am pretty happy with how they have been working out. I'll post some pictures a little later. I have a mouse and cheese pindoll to mail out to Maureen and another polymer clay feature that I'm swapping with Lee. I've also made an Edwardian ladies hat for the Doll Crafter and Costuming magazine that Judy Skeel is hosting. I am also working on a fairy to put on my shoe from an earlier post and I'm making another sculpt of an older man - I think he will be a fisherman. LOL. Been busy anyway. Well, more later - getting closer to spring! Yippee!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

February 9, My Jacquelyn's Happy 7th birthday!

Happy 7th Birthday to my Jacquelyn Rose! It is so hard to believe that she is already 7 years old - doesn't seem that long ago that we were in the hospital waiting for her! She is a smart sweet little girl and so cute - ok so I'm a little biased. (Very proud Nana, too!)

This was really a lucky day too! I'm on a roll! I took a guess on Jean Bernard's new scultp/art work on her group site and I won! Just thinking about the possibilities of the materials used by Jean really got my mind moving. LOL. I have lots of ideas - for different things - some for bases for my art dolls! I'm working on a figure now for a challenge on BPCAG and have been trying to think of how to seat him. Wonder what I'll put together now? LOL. If you'd like to see Jean's new sculpt - this is the link to her blog: http://www.jeanbernardv.blogspot.com/ Jean has some good classes too - that will open your mind to lots of possibilites - here is a link to lisa's heaven where Jean's classes are: http://www.classheaven.com/ Enjoy!

I've started working on a website. It shouldn't be too difficult - but boy is it time consuming and I jut don't have enough hours to spend. LOL. This may be the longest set up time of any website. I will try to perservere.

It has been snowing all day today and now it's raining. Tomorrow is supposed to be very cold. I am so glad that the groundhog didn't see his shadow - come on spring!

Take care now and stay warm.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Drum Roll Pleeeeease!

This is an exciting week for me - well actually it hasn't been the best of weeks, weather is pretty bad and I haven't felt that well - but - it all came together when I logged on to my email and saw that I had won the January "Shoe" challenge on the Beginner Polymer Clay Art Guild list! How cool is that , my little green fairy shoe is a winner! this shoe was a lot of fun to make and now I need to make a fairy to go with it - no nothing but a piece of leg in a shoe right now - more to come???

I also made a "Cold" pin doll for Jeri on Pin Doll Alley in the January Swap. I enjoyed making this pin doll - the challenge I gave myself was to make the North Wind and make her look cold and blowing. LOL. It was also a lot of fun. I got to bead and do a little bit of needle sculpting and to use a few additional products to ice her up. What fun in what has been a cold, cold month.




And last but by no means least was my final challenge of the month of January. It is a black and white Challeng on the Art Fest 4 the soul group list. The challenge was just that - an art piece in black and white. Period
No boundaries, no other rules - except of course to post the picture by the end of the month. Ellen and Sallianne will be giving a challenge each month and then when the conference is held in October we will all share the resulting art work in a gallery of works. This is a lot of fun and really helps to keep creativity going. This is a picture of my entry, "Winter Realm - the place where Spring waits"




Last post I spoke of my husband, Ted's Retirement party. I have a few pictures now. I still haven't gotten to the video but I'm looking forward to it. This is a picture of Ted, after his parting presentations, saying what a joy it has been working with various people and how much he will miss them. Ted's adieu:
And here are a couple of more family pictures. One is the family table at the party. Samantha, Andrew, Edward, and Aaron. Samantha is our granddaughter and the three men are Ted's sons.





So January has been a busy month and now it's February. What lies in store? Who knows - but the Ground hog didn't see his shadow - so that's promising.....