No place like home

We were recently gifted this painting by my mother who, after a long period of abstention, has finally lifted a paintbrush again.  Jolene and I were delighted to receive it, not least of all since it’s a painting of our (and our neighbours) house, it’s based on a photo from a couple of years back and features one of my nephews a long with our wee lad and lass.  Of course, all we need to do now is find somewhere to hang it which, given the state of disrepair our home is currently in is easier said than done!!

Typically, the photograph has washed the colours out and no amount of fiddling in the photo editor, with my limited skills, was going to fix that I’m afraid.  Still it was a lovely gesture and Jolene and I will be delighted to hang it … just as soon as we have somewhere to hang it!!

more bonnie birds … an obsession in papier mache!

It’s funny how an idea can sprout wings and take-off (dreadful pun entirely intended), such as it has been with these bonnie birds.  It’s rather refreshing to have something I can make out of papier mache that doesn’t take forever and a day and that isn’t a bowl!  Aside from this pair I’m hatching three more and they should be fully fledged in the next few days (and yes, that was a couple more of dreadful puns that were entirely intended).

This pair seem to be diametrically opposed in terms of form, one’s short and fat and the other a bit leggy with a great fan of a tail, the tail’s something I can see me repeating and refining on future versions.

Of course, like all birds that flock, it doesn’t take long for them to catch-up with more of their own kind …

… I imagine this flock will be growing as they, ahem, get to know each other better … well, it is almost Spring!!

All of these birds are available for sale in our shop.

Bonnie Birds!

I’ve been watching Jolene create her fabric finches for months now, I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up taking some inspiration from them and feeding it into what I’m doing myself … indeed, Jolene alluded to as much here.  The WIP previews she gave there though have long since been finished, and discarded on the basis that they were, well, rubbish!

I’m rather proud of the these ones though, the refined and finished product if you will.  Being me, they’re predominantly papier mache with a bit of wire and armature thrown in for good measure before being finished in acrylics and a tough high gloss varnish.

The design is based on some rather fabulous silk that Jolene bought from a seller in India for another project that she’s working on, also from discussions with Jolene about Paisley pattern – a very simplified tear drop has been adopted for the wings here – and I’ve also been listening to some Deva Premal which has no doubt fed in to the general feel of the pieces … although I’ve no idea where she’s from!?!

OK, google sorted out the latter one there … she’s from Germany and wiki says:

is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music, which puts ancient Hindu mantras into atmospheric, contemporary settings.

Am I becoming an old hippy?  Actually never-mind, people were accusing me of being an old hippy before I was even 20 … actually I think the term they used was “weirdo”!!

These Bonnie Birds are available to purchase in out Coriandr shop.

Gruber ~ Demon in a waistcoat

I had promised to have this finished by April 2009, so obviously I’m delighted to have finished it before it goes a full year past my own self-imposed ‘due date’!

Like most of his erstwhile and largely forgotten friends Gruber is keen on world domination, although it’s perhaps telling that he and his cohorts are largely forgotten given their compete ineptitude when it comes to matters of actually achieving world domination.  Indeed his most well known cousin, Gravalash, was defeated by his inability to get off a high shelf and whilst such trifling difficulties are unlikely to be of much difficulty to this fellow the complexities of reaching the door handle have limited the range of Gruber and the fulfilment of his innocuous plans.

He dreams of breaking loose and running free as he once did, although he is still haunted by the nightmare of attempting to cross a field of snow that proved to be too cold for his tippy-toes, alas what else is left for him other than to stand at the window and wave at the post lady …

Gruber stands at 18.5″ / 47cm tall, is 16.25″ / 41cm from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other, and is approx 11″ / 28cm deep.

He is available for sale, to a good (and secure) home in our Coriandr shop, here – additional images are also there.

Kezeff ~ featured artist

I’ve really been taken by the work of Kezeff, another artist I found on DeviantArt.  I’ve only been following them for a short period, but even in that time I have been fairly impressed not only by the quality of their work but by the creativity behind it and the seemingly highly effective execution of that creativity.  Kezeff uses super-sculpey in creating their sculptures, a hugely popular material (and something I’ve been itching to try myself) and I believe paints them up with acrylics for the most part. You can find more of their work here.

Face Parts Study

Aspiring artists and sculptors would do well to take a leaf out of Kezeff’s book and do some studies of whatever their preferred subject matter is. I’m sure it’s something that I would benefit from, even where your intention is to twist it in some fashion understanding the basic anatomy of your subject can be hugely beneficial.

Much of Kezeff’s work appears to consist of busts either in a more realistic fashion as with this piece here:

Battle Chasers Knolan Bust

Or something a bit more corrupted like this fellow:

Zed

Kezeff has also worked to create some the more quirky pieces such as these wee characters here:

Snoogle

Pumpkin Carl

I really enjoy viewing the sculptures that Kezeff creates, but what keeps me coming back for more (aside from the cool subject matter) is the attention to detail that he puts into the sculptures. Look back over the images above and notice the wrinkles and creases in the skin, the underlying bone structure, the attention to making moist elements appear moist and the variation in skin tone and texture. It’s each of these elements that add up to make some rather great sculptures and I can’t recommend enough that you take a look at their DeviantArt account to see more of their work.

With luck I’ll have one of my own sculptures to share with you soon, I can’t promise it’ll be as refined as these but it will be in my own particular (shouldn’t that be peculiar?! – ed.) style!!

wire bird

I spent an hour or two this week ogling at Joel Henriques’ blog and artwork.  I was particularly struck by the simplicity and beauty of these wood and wire toys:

So inspired was I, that I had a go at making my own wire bird…I think it’s ok for a first attempt.  I’m pondering a range of wire owls…

I had to take it outside for a photo opp.  It’s still so dark and dreary here despite us being south facing.

Good news though…the daffs are pocking their heads out…spring will be with us soon enough.

Papier mache wall art

It’s been commented on in the past that there are strange things going on in the dark recesses of my mind, that they seem to bleed out into the light through what I create … I think ‘they’ may have a point.

I seem to have a raft of canvasses lying around and despite repeated attempts to paint something of any worth on them I seem to fail and fail again.  The canvas here has been used so many times now that I can’t recall how many images lie beneath this final effort, perhaps it’s a furious amalgam of all that went before, a seething anger at the ineptitude slapped on the canvas below.

Whatever it is, using a canvas as a base for some wall art/sculpture is an avenue of interest to me and something I feel sure I will pursue further at some future point.  In the meantime I can think of at least two (more conventional) sculptures that deserve to be finished after well over a years worth of idling!

A new dawn, a new day … happy new year!

Just a wee post to wish our readers all the best for the new year, here’s wishing all your hopes and dreams come true.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day have a …

… HAPPY NEW YEAR …

… and have some fun!

Felt bird give-away!

Hard as it is to believe the blog here has been on the go for a year, the first post being made on 27th December 2008.  I think we’ve both come a long way since then both in terms of style and approach!

The blog was initially conceived as a venue for sharing our arts and crafts, Jolene with her varied needlework projects and me with my rather tribal carvings and papier mache projects, and whilst it certainly has provided that it has also provided something of a focus to make sure that particular projects get done … of course I have projects which will be entering their second year quite soon!

One thing that the blog has shown us is that there is definitely an appetite for what we’re doing, the growth of the blog if nothing else has shown us that and the hundreds of followers and tens of thousands of views confirm it!  So I think we owe a great big “thank-you” to everyone who has visited, commented and is currently following.  It means a lot to us, so:

THANK – YOU!

In light of the support we’ve been shown in the blogoshpere I think it’s only fair that we give something back, or maybe more specifically we give something away, or perhaps even more specifically we give this away:

Fantastic fabric finch flapping far and away for a fabulous fan of flappy fabric finches!?

All you need to do to become the lucky owner of this little fellow is have a look through the posts from the past year and tell us which post is your favourite and why … leave your comment below.  We’ll then choose a comment at random to whom this gorgeous fabric finch will be sent!  The draw will be made on Saturday, 2nd January 2009 and announced the same day.

According to the software we use for the blog  these are this year’s top ten posts (by views):

1. Matroyshka Dottee Doll;
2. Felt Bird Sculpture;
3. Character from Dickens Novels … ;
4. Handmade Christmas tree decorations;
5. Book binding … (coptic binding);
6. Cartoon Dinosaur … ;
7. The devil’s monkey … ;
8. The world’s best christmas cake … ;
9. “Stained glass” birthday cake;
10. Little felt owl and a few plant … .

Although I’m not sure that this makes them the best, here are my own favourites for the last 12 months:

January:  What to do with all those vintage buttons?

February: Papier mache spring flower bowl

March:  Papier Mache works in progress

April:  Vintage fashion ATC’s

May:  Lion dottee doll

June:  Ernest Eric – wood carving

July:  Houndstooth scotty dog

August:  Traditional scottish macaroon

September:  Commissions – mobile phone cosy

October:  More hand carved plant pokery plant pot decoration fun

November:  Sock creatures

December:  Handmade Christmas wreath

The next year for the blog, and the new year, will see a load more posts and projects featuring our preferred mediums as well as some more experimental and varied stuff, we both have our hopes and plans for our crafts and the site although I think we’ll keep them under-wraps right now!

Again thanks to everyone who has been following, those who have commented and those who have lurked, we look forward to taking you all with us as our crafting adventure continues … slainte!

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.  THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN TWO TICKS.

A winter’s tale …

It all began yesterday, I had been chatting to the kids about our Christmas wreath …

… when they decided it needed something, extra, “a drop of the snow spray”,
they had pleaded and, well, it seemed like such a harmless idea. 
A bit of entertainment for the kids …

… but they just didn’t know when to stop …

… and then disaster!  The button stuck on and into the night the ’snow’ continued to spray it’s white fluffiness all over …

… by morning it had finally stopped but not before it had layered the land in it’s permanent homage to winters bygone.

You’ve got to love winter and we might have a white Christmas this year … if only it wasn’t so blinkin’ cold!