365/2013 - Day 169

my day (and evening) in reverse order

Tonight I cleared a path to the table in the wet studio -- enough space to work on the rabbitish guy.  I don't know how committed I am to this guy yet but here are the important parts of this activity (for me):

• I cleared up some of the clutter, sorted things into a box, and took it to the basement
• I got my hands back into plaster cloth
• I tried working in a method I haven't tried until tonight
• I feel like I did something

It may turn out that this guy changes into something far different than what he is tonight -- it may turn out that I scrap these painted glass gem eyes altogether -- it may turn out that I keep working on him and actually start to "get" him and really like him eventually -- who knows -- tonight I am just feeling pretty good that I got this far.

I cleared enough space to work!

This is the second pair of glass gems I painted with that show in mind and then I decided not to submit anything to it after all.  These eyes are not necessarily something I would usually paint...I prefer to use taxidermy eyes now.  I needed eyes in a color palette that would have fit that show.  I sort of like these eyes,  but I'm not sure about them.

The glass gem eyes are flat on the bottom...the old plaster cloth eyes are round.  The glass gems are not the same exact size, they don't match very well.  The centers are not centered very well -- I was thinking I could shape the look of them once the plaster cloth was on.  In the meantime, I had a lot of space to fill in with plaster cloth and I still have a lot of head reshaping to do.

The first side went pretty quickly.  I tried something that I haven't done with the plaster cloth before.  I got the triangles really wet, folded/bunched/wadded them up and did not take any of the water out of the wads.  I crammed the very wet wadded plaster cloth into the gaps, like you might do with clay, and then smoothed it.

Here is an example of what I am talking about -- before I smoothed it.

I was just trying to fill in and shape as I went along -- instead of finding a shape to drape plaster cloth over.

Not too bad for a first try with odd eyes.

But I don't really like it after looking at it for a little while.  They have a little bit of personality (I guess), but I am not fond of the color and various things it could suggest.  I'm not sure what he is yet, but I know he isn't an insomniac, a substance abuser, a serial killer/bad monster guy, rabid, etc...that's what they suggest to me.

Luckily my utility knife was handy and I popped the second eye out pretty easily.  The other side was set a little harder already and I had to dig a bit more and use a screwdriver to get underneath the glass gem.

This is the first set I tried to paint to fit the palette.  I actually like how they look better than the red ones.  However, they also do not match -- you can see how much different these are.  The red ones are closer to the same shape -- these aren't even close.

I set them into the vacant spaces and kept turning them until they looked fairly even and like they were looking in the same direction -- as much as was possible...LOL.

This is a little better but I needed to stop for tonight.  I didn't want the head to get any bigger right now.  These eyes are about as straight as they are going to get.  Eyelids will help a lot.

Or who knows -- I have a whole bunch of wonderful taxidermy eyes now.  If I start to get attached to this guy I might give him better eyes.  For now, the home made painted glass gems are okay -- it is still a learning/practicing project at this point.

Before I worked on the studio and the plaster cloth rabbitish guy I worked a little bit on the stitching of the felted flower.  I am trying to concentrate on making even, decorative stitches.

And this morning (and during the earlier part of the afternoon) I finished up the work on the next ten Tookies.

Today's Tookies progress:  Finger puppets 31-40 (of 100) got eyes, eyelashes, mouths, side seams, bottom basting for the edges, and soft edges.  

I work on the Tookies finger puppets in batches of ten -- these are 31-40 (of 100).  It takes a day to do the ears/horns and then the next day I can usually do the eyes, eyelashes, and mouths...then take a break for a bit.

And then go back to them and add the side seam and baste the bottom hem/edge and then add the soft edge at the bottom.

365/2013 - Day 168

yep...more Tookies (and TWO cluttered studios)

Production of Tookies finger puppets for Art-o-mat continues!  Today ten more got ears/horns and eyes.  This is batch 31-40 of 100.

banded together like this, numbers 31-40 look like some sort of tentacled creature

now 31-40 have eyes

And this is why I can't work on any plaster cloth guys just yet...

dry work studio

wet work studio

I swear I am going to make some progress in BOTH studios tomorrow!

365/2013 - Day 167

Tookies production continues

Back on track with the Tookies production -- I completed ten finger puppets today.  Numbers 21-30 are all the way done!

my two favorites from this batch of ten

365/2013 - Day 166

experimenting with the felted flower

Remember the wonderful time we had at Second Thursday this month with Jan showing us a couple of felting techniques?  Today I wanted to experiment with stitching on one of my flowers.

Jan told us that the felt has "memory" and that if we put a rubber band around the wet felt it would hold that shape later.

And it did!

This inside of my flower -- the colors are a little off in this lighting...better ones later on in this post.

I have lots and lots of colors of embroidery thread.  I'm not trying to say that I am good at embroidery, but I do have fun playing with the thread and colors and stitching.  This is how you learn, right...early projects and practice, practice, practice!

This part is pretty well felted together...only a few tiny spots are not totally connected...

...but I wanted to have the illusion that the stitches are holding it on -- plus the color of the thread matches the fiber so well.

I have only just started on this flower -- I want to do a lot of embellishing with threads and fibers and maybe some tiny beads.  This is closer to the true colors.

The inside -- truer colors version.

Close up detail of truer colors version.

Today's Tookies progress:  I finished the horns/ears on the two finger puppets from last night that didn't make the blog posting deadline.

365/2013 - Day 165

back to production mode

I lost most of the day to some kind of sleeping sickness...I am not kidding.  No Benadryl today at all but man, I just couldn't stay awake.  Maybe it was all the physical stuff of doing the felting with the Second Thursday group and then the release of all of that stuff I work myself into before everyone comes.  I don't know...but I finally got enough sleep and went back to work on the Tookies.

While trying to beat my self-imposed midnight deadline for posting to the blog I came up two short of finishing the horns/ears on ten more finger puppets.   I am really getting into a regular rhythm with the stitching and it is much more pleasurable now.

Today's Tookies progress:  eight completed horns/ears and two partial horns/ears.

IN OTHER NEWS:  Today I posted a wonderful email with photos for the DIY Penciled In blog.  You can read about it here.

365/2013 - Day 164

Second Thursday 

Tonight Jan Waller showed us how to make two different felted flowers.  We had such a great time!

Jan starting to give us the basic info

Jan is showing us how her felted wall pieces develop

My needle felted "rose" before felting

I did the rolling for as long as I could but then Jan had to take over for me.

Tonight we had:  Peggy, Julia, Jane, Juana, Jan, Took

Our felted pieces for the roses are set out to dry on my front porch railing (I hope it bothered my neighbors -- hah!) -- I LOVE the color of Peggy's car -- that is the blue I wanted to paint my house.

This is my felted flower before felting

Ooops -- I added another shade of yellow to the middle.

And here are  my two pieces

ta-daaaaaaa! 

Juana's felted pieces 

Peggy's flowers

Julia's flowers

The one Jan worked on and Juana practiced needle felting on -- I feel badly I didn't get photos of Jane's beautiful flowers -- Jane needed to leave before the others did and at some point someone said "pictures please" and Jane was already gone.

Julia made a flower arrangement

What a wonderful, wonderful evening!  Jan will show us how to make felted masks later in the fall.  It will need to be a slightly longer evening, but we will figure it all out.  

This was so relaxing, so fun, so new to some of us...it felt like such a communal activity.  Really really wonderful!  We can't wait for the next time!

Tookies progress:  absolutely none...we did this all night.

365/2013 - Day 163

one step closer

I will blab all about it if it comes all the way true, but tonight I am just very excited to say that I am one step closer in the process of something that I really really want to have happen.  And that's all I am going to say right now.

I also made the decision to not submit something to the upcoming show that has a very very close deadline.  It is just waaaaay too humid for the plaster cloth to dry enough to get it to a finished enough stage for photos.  It is also taking an amazingly long time for the paint to thoroughly dry on the glass gems/eyes.  It is going to be a really cool show but I wasn't planning on submitting anything for it when it was first announced but then recently I kept getting reminders and stuff and it started poking at me and then it just got too late and much too humid.  Maybe next time.

There is a lot of room reflections/glare in these eyes, but you can get an idea of how they will look.

I still intend to complete this guy now that I have more of an idea for him...I may lift the show's restrictions a little since he won't be ready for that deadline...but I'm not sure yet.

Today's Tookies progress:  zero...I am taking a day off of production...giving my hands and shoulders a break.