Monday, December 11, 2006

The end of a very long journey

The Doll Street round robin swap based on the character of Flat Stanley is almost over. Unless she got mailed out of order, my "Spirit of the Dance" should be coming home soon! This has been a loooooooooong process -- over a year and a half. I am looking forward to having her home and reading the journal of her adventures.

"Flat Fiona" is a lovely mermaid by Linda Danielson of Sooke, British Columbia. My original plan was to give her a complexion -- she is still wearing only her original coat of gesso -- but I couldn't paint over her tattoos because the tattoo ink isn't waterproof. You can see where I smeared the ink on her wrist just a little... oops!

I could have sealed her and tried again, but by the time of thought of it, I had already had another idea... this travelling mermaid is going to go home with her own portable body of water in which to swim, complete with swimming buddies.

The plaque is made in the style of Christi Freisen, from her new book, Under the Sea. I used 2 layers of polymer clay sandwiched around a sheet of wire mesh for strength. The "stones" on the sandy floor are lampwork beads along with some shells I picked up on the Oregon coast of the Pacific Ocean this summer. The waves are accented with pearls and beads as well.

I may have gone a little overboard, but it was so much fun that I couldn't stop once I got started...

I am already planning another one, this time a little larger and for ME.

6 comments:

MaryO said...

Ooh, Judi, Linda will love it! I'll look forward to the one you make for yourself!

Shashi Nayagam said...

Judi you are growing leaps and bounds in your artwork. Beautiful work!!

Judi W. said...

This is very cool! You do great work with the clays!

Kai said...

Linda is going to be thrilled! I feel so bad for dropping the FS a while back, but I really had to. Still, I enjoyed the ones I did, and loved the things I found in MY FS! You know, reading what you wrote in mine is how I first got to know what a really wonderful person you are! So I have to credit FS with giving me a beautiful friend - one I truly cherish!

Linda Fleming said...

What a terrific addition to the mermaid! Really sets her off- wonderful work, Judi!
Peace-
Linda F from FL

tamdoll said...

This is beautiful, too! (I found your blog through dollstreetjournal.) For her complexion -did you consider brushing on dry chalks (like rubber stampers use) ?