Adventures of the Leaping Calf

Finished!

2009-07-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Even though I only had a few more hours of work on the Hatchling since the last time I posted before I could call him finished, it still took me nearly an entire month to put in those few hours. (It is the end of our fiscal year at my day job and coping with the year-end details sucked up a lot of my energy.) BUT, here he is at last.

And from the other side.

I finished him off with lots of layers of different colors of acrylic paint. What really made his color come to life was the final glazes of Luminarte's pure pigment powders. You have to be careful with those as a little goes a long way, but I think I got it right this time. You can see the faint wash of Sun Gold on his face in this close up. It's a cool effect.

I owe a huge thank you to Sprite for teaching me her technique for creating skin textures. These show up best in this photo on his hips, thighs, and tail. I need a little more practice with this method, as I tend to squish one side while working on the other, but I'll get it eventually. (If you like baby dragons, or fantasy sculpts in general, you have to check out her blog!)

Sprite also gave me the idea to line the inside of his shell with the illusion of crystals. I don't know how she did hers, but I created mine out of several sizes and colors of shard glass glitter, micromarbles, fine glitter, and thin washes of the luminarte glazes again. I love the way the silver shards catch and reflect the light.

I have always loved dragons - I definitely see more of them in my future!

Photo of the Week - Fresh Fruit

2009-06-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

I love Farmer's Markets!

Success at last!

2009-06-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

My faithful Google has done it again. After several false starts, missteps, and the complete loss of all my gadgets, I finally found the customizable 3-column template of my dreams to play with! I case anybody else wants to play, there are an assortment of Blogger-Beta-compatible templates here. Mine is the "minima white".

As you can see I still have some tweaking to do, but from now on it will be fun rather than frustrating. Thanks for all the good luck wishes - you have no idea how much I appreciate your company here online.

Updating

2009-06-23T17:37:00.000-07:00

I hope you will excuse the random changes in the appearance of my blog. I am attempting to coach myself through some HTML exercises and make this blog a little more personalized. It isn't hard, but the learning is taking place in the midst of other "real life" tasks, and it may be a while before I am satisfied with what I am able to accomplish.

My main goal at the moment is to change this "Minima Stretch" template into a 3-column layout. I *thought* I had found the solution, but I haven't been able to make it work yet. ...grumblegrumble...

Anybody care to wish me luck, LOL?!

Photo of the Week: TWINS!

2009-06-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

While twin calves are not common, they are not particularly rare either. However, twin heifers only come along once in a blue moon. These two little darlings were born early early Sunday morning, and Jake is accepting them as a Father's Day gift from the universe, LOL.

As you can see, getting born and having your first meal is exhausting, so they were not in the mood for a portrait shoot.

On the way back to the house, I stopped to pull a weed from my tomato beds and lo! and behold, we have tiny green tomatoes on the vines already. I always plant too many tomatoes, but I can't seem to help myself. They are SO good!

And oh, the promise of good things to come!

Sunday was also Alice's 18th birthday, and she requested a cheesecake for dessert. I tried out a new recipe for a Raspberry White Chocolate Truffle version, which turned out very well, but it is very rich. Trust me, a little goes a very long way!

The photo didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so I guess food photography has its tricks like any other subject. Time to do some googling.

A Dairy Tale

2009-06-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

I am busy gardening this week. My art time has been taken up with finishing projects and beginning work on a challenge piece that I can't share until it's over, so let me tell you a little story instead. It's a sad story, a true tale of woe.

I took my camera out one lovely evening to snap some photos of my roses. (I found this blackberry vine growing up through the canes of my old rambler rose. It has to go, but in the meantime, don't the 2 look pretty blooming together?)

As I wandered around the yard, I gradually came to notice a calf in the weaned field making an awful lot of noise. She was actually following me up and down the fenceline, mooing her little head off. This little calf has just been moved out of the calf barn and taken off milk, and she is NOT happy about it. Not happy at all. She wants some milk, and she wants it NOW darn it!

I wasn't paying much attention to her, but she continued to moo. I think a flock of birds caught her attention here...

Please believe me, she is not starving! There is plenty of food available in her new part of the barn, and she has free access to pasture. And yet she is suffering badly. Just ask her, LOL.

She has been mooing nonstop now for 4 days, and as of this morning, though she has lost her voice. she keeps trying to convince somebody to bring her some milk. It is the tiniest bit pitiful to hear them try to moo when they have no voice left, and yet I can't help but laugh and be grateful that the racket has finally quieted down.

Don't you feel sorry for her?

Photo of the Week - Payback Time

2009-06-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I take a lot of teasing from my family for living in a place where it rains so much and so often, and yes, I have done my share of complaining about the rain too, BUT... this is the time of year when we are reminded why we love it here so much. Trust me, Oregon in June is about as beautiful as it gets. Everywhere I look, something is blooming, or ripening, or being harvested in abundance.

These Royal Anne cherries are about as colorful as they are going to get, but they are a little firm yet. By next week I will be hustling to pick as many as I can before the birds get them all.

If you have ever had a real Oregon strawberry, you would turn up your nose at the giant rocks disguised as berries being sold in the supermarket. These beauties will soon become berries worth holding out for! They only last for a few weeks, so we indulge while they are here. Yumm!

Hatchling, Ready for Make-Up

2009-06-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

I have been on such a roll with this little guy - here he is with the rest of his muscles and skin applied, and his wings assembled and attached. I tried to take a good sample of photographic views of him, as he is different depending on how you look at him.

His pose turned out exactly the way I envisioned him in my mind, which is a rare achievement for me. My intent was to capture a fire lizard at the moment of his hatching, ready for Impression. (I am a huge fan of The Dragon Riders of Pern series of books by Anne McCaffrey - I have always wished for a fire lizard for my very own, LOL.)

I am also pretty happy with the way his wings turned out, though they ended up getting a little thicker than I wanted. If I try this technique again I will do it just a little different. Even so, they are wonderfully translucent -- see the backlight shining through?

Here is one last view of the detail of the texture of his egg. This was made using techniques and instructions developed and written by the wonderful Julianne Sizemore.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Baby Dragon next steps

2009-06-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update for those who like "in progress" photos. My baby dragon has his pose on with completed feet and his egg. I need to make a base for that egg yet so that it sits still, add a tail and wings to the new hatchling and finish texturing his skin. I'm getting to the part now where I'm afraid to work on him for fear of messing him up. I WILL keep going!

Really, LOL.

Photo of the Week - Works in Progress

2009-06-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

I meant to upload these last week, but due to multiple family events and activities I literally did not have a minute to set up a photo shoot. Fortunately today has been much more laid back and I was able to get out my camera again.

As promised, I bring you my second Breyer repaint for my daughter. I was going for a "Goth" sort of feel on this piece, and I am satisfied with the way it turned out. So is Lydia, LOL. Unfortunately, the subtlties of the colors in the finished piece don't show to advantage in this photo - I have no idea why the red around the eyes is so pronounced, and the shades of green that are dappled through the coat are all but invisible. I guess you're just going to have to trust me on this one - it turned out pretty cool.

I still need to embellish and insert the wings, but although I like this pair I'm not certain now that I want to use them. I think I want something a little more dragon-like.

And finally, here is my little baby dragon as is he so far. He's come a ways from that ball of tinfoil, hasn't he?

His little face turned out exactly the way I wanted it, so I went ahead and baked that part already. I have been doing some reading and experimenting with sculpting then baking in stages, and I think this might just be the technique I need to protect my works from inadvertant squishes and fingernail marks.

Next up will be to give him real hands and feet instead of the mittens that show here. I am really anxious to finish him, but one step at a time is better than never finishing him because I don't have time to settle down and concentrate on the whole thing in one sitting.

Photo of the Week - Annika at Silver Falls

2009-05-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

My sailor son is out to sea for a few weeks, and I had the great pleasure of entertaining my daughter-in-law and granddaughter for a whirlwind visit this weekend. We have been harvesting the spring silage crop this week and busier than busy, so we decided to take today "off" and go up to Silver Falls State Park for a picnic and to have a little quiet family time away from the farm.

(Oh! how I wish we had been camping instead and could have stayed for a while. sigh...)

Of course I took my camera along. Nothing compares to the charm of a happy and playful one year old, especially to her Nana, LOL.

Hatching the Eggs

2009-05-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

I finished my UFO for the month! I still need to open the 2 larger eggs, but here is the little one completed and mounted on its base. It turned out really cool - I need to make more of these!

The little tape creature inside is the armature of the baby dragon who will be "hatching" out of the egg. (I see now that a neutral beige background was a mistake for this particular photo. Oh well...) I have the clay mixed and conditioned and ready to begin sculpting... now I just need to find some time to concentrate.

And, just because I can, I have begun another Breyer repaint, this time of a Spirit Classic. I am *trying* to remember to make myself take in-progress photos, but so far I keep forgetting. I lifted this photo off of the internet to give you a decent "before" shot.

I'll post an "after" shot later this week. His paint job turned out beautifully, and now I'm just waiting on a supply of embellishments so I can finish his wings.

I have been reading up on these. Turns out there are techniques whereby you can actually reshape the model into other poses. That sounds like something fun to try next...

Photo of the Week - He's Still Got It

2009-05-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest things to accept about getting older is the loss of the ability to do things that once came easily.

Jake used to be a star basketball player - his team voted him MVP his senior year in high school, so it was not surprising that he was invited to play in an alumni exhibition game this week as part of "Team 80's". He got a little nervous as the night of the game approached as he hasn't touched a ball in 10 years. His stated goal was to not suck and not get hurt. Oh dear...

He did OK in warm ups though.

He still had good moves under the basket too.

This was his favorite moment - he grabbed that rebound out of the hands of an ex-pro football player 10 years younger than he is, and the announcer even pronounced our name correctly. ;-)

I think he liked sitting on the sidelines chatting with his old buddies best though. (The gentleman on the far left was his coach in high school and actually still teaches at the same school.) He was a little stiff the next day, but he didn't suck and he didn't get hurt so it was all good, LOL!

I love this little town!

Just one more...

2009-05-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

And yet another UFO becomes a Finished Project, thanks to these fun fun FUN wings! This fantasy horse began its life as a little Breyer model unicorn. Lydia collects Breyer figures - she has several of this kind, so she gave me one to play with. He's been sitting on my work table covered with gesso and ready to go for months, but I was never inspired to get going on him until I thought of giving him wings.

I wanted him to be more purple, but I stopped here because I had achieved a subtle shading from pearl white to blue to purple to gold that really pleased me. If you click on the photo to bring it up to full size you can see the color shifts better - he really does look magical.

Hmmmm... now that I get a good look at his portrait, I think next time I work with film that pale for wings I will use lighter color wire. The purple wire I used for these is kind of overpowering.

The horse on the left in this photo is exactly the same as how the repainted one started out. Quite the change, eh?

OK, now that I've had some good fun with these wings I really need to get back to work on my dragon eggs. The month is wearing on.

The Twilight Fairy

2009-05-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

I finally finished her, my first fairy sculpt. I see so many flaws in her now, but I knew that if I didn't keep going, I would never ever finish a sculpt. I learned so much in her creation, so even though there are so many things I would have done differently or change if I could, I am happy with her. Plus, she is NOT going to become just another UFO under my work table, LOL.

I have started working on a seat for her from a new class by Jean Bernard so the next time you see her she won't be sitting on my tea mug!

I got the tiniest bit carried away with the flame that created the holes in her wings - next time I will try it with my soldering iron. I'm told it's messy, but I don't want such big holes and they appeared literally in an instant.

I need to make a handle for the lantern for her left hand too. She looks a little odd just holding her hand out like that. And... I think I might retouch the paint on her face a bit.

And before I forget, here is the little practice fairy all finished as well. She is so small that even my smallest doll stand is too big to hold her properly. I think she looks relieved to be off of the UFO pile at last!

Wow, two finished dolls in one week. I'm feeling pretty smug today.

A Few Quick Updates

2009-05-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

I finished my practice wings - I'm so glad I did a practice pair because, like everything else, there was a slight learning curve to the techniques involved. This was BIG fun though, and I can't wait to get going on my real pair!

This little fairy is the very first doll I ever designed by myself from scratch. She has been waiting for a face and costume for years under my cutting table for, and right now she's waiting for her hair glue to dry. Once I get her hair styled she is going to wear the practice pair of wings. Wow - 2 finished projects for the price of one, LOL!

And just to see if I could, I crawled into the calf barn where the starling's nest is in the hole in the wall to try to get a photo of my own. Taking this one involved some interesting maneuvers on my part, and once I almost dropped my camera into the nest. Thank goodness for wrist straps! The babies are a week older in this photo than they were in the photo on yesterday's post - Lydia and I are trying to decide if there are 4 chicks in the nest or 5. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, then look closely at the beak in the upper right, you might agree with us that it looks suspiciously like 2 beaks.) What do you think?

I think that big one looks hungry...

Photo A Week - Spring!

2009-05-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's spring! Woo Hoo! I can't believe the difference in my mood and energy level when the sun comes out.

This week's photos were taken by my 20 year old daughter. One of the happiest signs of spring around here is when the ground is hard enough to let the animals out to graze because they get so excited about having so much room to run and so much FOOD that they dash around aimlessly for hours. It can be entertaining to watch, especially the calves.

They are also incredibly curious. All Lydia had to do to get this photo was to sit down in their field and wait. That light tan one is so cute.

I'm not sure how she managed to get this shot. This very noisy starling nest was built in a hollow spot inside the wall of the calf barn. Her camera is smaller than mine, but it's still quite a reach to get to the hole. I can see at least one chick, but probably two in this photo.

This last one is mine. I need to do some research on how to photograph rainbows, but in the meantime I'm just grateful it isn't raining any more! Happy Spring!

WIP - next steps completed

2009-05-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

I managed to find a little time every day this week to work on my Fairy. Her dress is finished now and her wig is on, though not styled yet. I applied this hair exactly the way Wendy Froud did it in her video, but I'm not crazy about the glue I used (stinky!)or the lack of a finished part. I want to try Linda Smith's method for my next sculpt.

I probably should have embellished her dress before gluing on her hair, but I got a little ahead of myself. (To be honest, it kind of freaks me out to be working on a bald doll.) Oh well, as long as I'm careful I shouldn't mess it up too bad.

Even though I'm not going to use them after all, I'm including this photo of the fabulous wings I got from My Wycked Ways simply because you have to see just *how* fabulous they really are. Trust me, this photo doesn't begin to do them justice, but you get the idea. I WILL make a fairy to wear them soon, but this girl is just too big.

Photo of the Week - WIP, continued

2009-05-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Even though I promised myself I wasn't going to do any more bird photos for my Photo of the Week, there was a beautiful egret out in the north field this morning posing just for me. I grabbed my camera (yes! the long lens was still on!) and ran out, snapping away happily for a few minutes. But when I tried to call up the photos for review, all I saw was a blank black screen with the words "No CF Card" in stark white letters. Arghhhhhhh!!!

At least I get to keep my promise of no more bird pictures, LOL.

Instead I set up my light box and took some more photos of my Fairy-in-Progress. Her second sleeve is on the floor by her right foot ready to add to the dress, but I wanted to show her skin and how it was attached before it all got covered up by her clothing. Oh how I love that color of blue!

I didn't make her smile on purpose, but I didn't realize I had sculpted her face so cranky! I need to give her dress a bodice yet, then add her hair, and then I can attach her wings and finish her. My favorite part!

In between stitching and gluing and letting things dry I managed to get the first layer of texture added and baked on to my dragon eggs. I'll play with them some more tonight.

I am adding one more photo of a sculpt in progress - this is the photo I took in order to check whether or not it was ready for a final smoothing.

Darn it... not quite!

And just one more... I took this one of my daughter and her boyfriend Saturday night before they left for Prom. I got others that were more formal, but I absolutely love their expressions in this one. Don't they look like they're already having a wonderful time?

Of UFO's and WIP's

2009-05-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is the first of May already! Time for another UFO challenge. This month I choose to work on a set of dragon eggs I am making using instructions designed by the incredible sculptor Julianne Sizemore. I don't even remember when I started these... it's been years.

They don't look like much now, but watch this space..

My other project, and one that has entirely captured my attention and my enthusiasm this week is a fairy figure I designed to go with a set of wings I purchased from My Wycked Ways, an absolutely fabulous web shop that carries the most wonderful supplies. She will get her skin today, and then I can begin on her costume.

I know the ears are a little "out there", but I wanted something different. It will be interesting to see how they work with her wig when I get that far.

She will be holding this fairy lantern I made at the Iowa Dollmaker's Retreat last fall - I'm so happy to have finally found a use for it.

I love getting on a roll like this. Makes it extra hard to go to work some days though. Oh well, I work to afford more art supplies,so it's all good.

Photo of the Week - April 27

2009-04-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

After a few delicious days of sunshine and balmy breezes to tease us, the weather in the Pacific Northwest has returned to dark, cold, and dreary. I took my camera out this afternoon in a rather grim frame of mind, and the best my imagination could conjure is a few flower photos. Geez, I am getting into a rut, but at least the plants know that spring really is coming, even if the sky won't cooperate!

I grew up in Southern Wisconsin where Forget-Me-Nots are a common wildflower. When a small patch volunteered to grow in my herb garden a few years ago, I couldn't bear to weed them up. Aren't they the prettiest things?

My Mother-In-Law planted these Royal Anne cherry trees years ago - looks like we are going to have a bumper crop the year.

Pretty Little Thing

2009-04-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Even though the weather has finally turned spring-like and I have been very busy getting my garden cleaned up, I still had enough time this week to make and *finish* (woo hoo!) this little embellished stone donut. I had to rearrange the charms several times to get them to my liking but I am glad I put in the extra work -- it was worth it to get it just right.

I LOVE that little fairy charm. I think I want to do a pair of earrings with that charm as well...

If you are interested in learning wire wrapping, the tutorial for this and many others can be found at Eni Oken's site. This one has a small fee, but there are lots of free lessons there as well. AND some amazing eye candy!

Photo of the Week - a Labor of Love

2009-04-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Church of the Pater Noster is built on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem on the site where tradition says that Jesus taught his disciples The Lord's Prayer. Set into the walls inside the building are tiled plaques with the prayer written out in 62 languages. This snapshot is of the plaque with the prayer in Friesian, my husband's parents' native language.

My husband's youngest sister (easily one of the coolest people I know) recently traveled to Israel where she took this photo. I volunteered to clean it up a little so she could have it printed and framed for her mother as a Mother's Day gift. This memento of the Holy Land will be very meaningful to Mom, as members of both her family and that of her husband were active in the resistance against the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II.

It took me a little while (OK, a long while, LOL!) to figure out the proper order in which to make the corrections, but both of us are pretty pleased with the results. The more I learn how to play in Photoshop, the more addictive it becomes!

I never was able to totally square up the tiles. I suspect that the tiles themselves aren't level or square on the wall.

Marilyn Monroe Can Keep Her Diamonds

2009-04-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I much prefer earthier and more colorful stones. I was tempted to use these photos as my photo of the week because they were such a challenge to set up, but I wanted to be able to talk about a Finished Object for a change instead. I wish now I had used a higher f/stop for better focus throughout the photo, but even in natural light they got too dark without a flash.

No, what I *should* have done is get my tripod, but I was too lazy. Sigh...

These are free-form wire wrapped pendants -- I have so much fun wearing them! The one on the left is an older piece, an amethyst crystal point caught in a cage of 14 gauge silver wire embellished with beads. The dangle is two more amethysts and a silver spacer.

The pendant on the right is a fluroite wand. I dropped it on the floor and broke it about half-way through wrapping it, but I couldn't bear to throw it away and waste all that silver, so it just sat there on my beading desk. I finally decided it was pointless to just let it sit there getting in the way, so I glued the stone back together and finished wrapping it as my UFO challenge for this month. I can't even see the fault in the stone any more, and it turned out so pretty. I just need to get a chain for it yet.

I purchased this piece from the artist who taught me all I know about wire. Her name is Emily, and unfortunately she doesn't have a website, so this is the only example I have of her work that I can share. Her style is very free form, but still manages to have a rhythm and flow that reminds me of Art Nouveau detailing.

Here is a detail view of the Kyanite and Aqua Aura pendant. If I could afford it, I would own much more of her work, but I am satisfied to make my own pieces.

Because I am a collector by nature, I have quite a few stones waiting in the wings to be wrapped in their turn. I've been saving the partially faceted and polished piece of citrine in the upper left -- I think I hear it calling "Me next please!"

I should probably be ashamed to have so many raw materials just lying around waiting to be used, but I just like HAVING them, so I'm not. :-)

Another Princess in the Family

2009-04-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

Please forgive a proud Mom for just a moment for using her art space to show off her daughters. Last night, Lydia's year as the Marion County Dairy Princess-Ambassador came to an end, just in time for her to hand off the tiara to her sister Alice.

That makes the fourth young lady brought up on this farm to be our county's Princess-Ambassador. It's a lot to live up to, but Alice is well capable of handling the responsibilities. Have a great year Alice!