iseecerulean

He's so embarrassed...he won't come out from behind the glue bottle.

Imelda ended up with green hair, instead of gray...because gluing a couple pieces of wool on was tons easier than gluing on dozens and dozens of pieces of embroidery thread.

I'm getting concerned about the purple...every time I add a coat of paint it gets darker and darker...pretty soon it's going to be black.  I may have to mix a lighter shade...I should stand her in the box to see what she looks like inside the black hole.

On a side note...recent studies show that one out of one studio cleaners prefer the taste of a white russian to paint water.

"Ichabod's hands were easy, so Imelda's should be too...."

HA!  Sure they were.

They're on...finally...I won't tell you how many hands I had to make.  It's a good thing she's a stationary figure that doesn't have to hold anything, because they're not on very well.

What a huge pain in the ass that was...though I will admit that she does look better now.  Hands are much better than stumps.

I've got to clean tonight, I'm down to a little postage stamp sized workspace again. I should probably take a break from Imelda anyway...she really pissed me off.

I took the witch to work with me yesterday for second opinions...I was looking at her yesterday morning and it dawned on me that I'm making Imelda (used to work with me, remember?)...my co-workers agree that she's the spitting image.  I wonder what that says about subconscious passive aggression?

I added more clay to her hat and hair last night...she looks much better.  I also added a little fishing sinker to the ends of her toes...I had hopes that I wouldn't have to lean her torso so far forward to balance her by adding a little weight to her toes...but it didn't make a bit of difference.  I painted her legs orange in preparation for striped stockings...I really wanted to paint her hat too, but the clay hasn't cured for 24 hours yet so I gave the tables a second coat of purple instead.

I've decided Imelda's neck is too skinny, but I'm not going to do anything to build it up...I think by the time I add necklaces her neck will look just fine.

I added hands to Ichabod (the second new figure), and made a trial pumpkin head for him out of clay.  I built it up around a nylon with sand it in, so that after it dries I can let the sand out, pull out the stocking, and whallah, hollow pumpkin.  I want to see if I can carve a face in it after the clay is dry, so will try that tonight...I'm not expecting to be successful, but figured I'd give it a try.  I made it too big, so it's okay if I ruin it in a carving attempt, since I'm going to have to make another one anyway.

I used the leftover clay I had out to make some teeny dishes (I was just too lazy to unbag and unwrap the block of clay to add the leftover to it and then wrap it and bag it back up again).  I'm not sure if I'll actually use them for anything or not.

As I was attaching Ichabod's hands I thought of a better way to make and attach them...but I'd have to totally redo the hands and arms, so I'll have to save the idea for next time I make a figure...hopefully I  won't forget.  I'm not sure if I'm going to give Imelda hands yet or not...although Ichabod's were easier than I anticipated, so I probably will.

I want a white long sleeve dress shirt with a collar and cuffs for one of my new figures.  I figured I'd just buy a Ken outfit for a couple of bucks and modify it, but I can't find Barbie clothes anywhere!  I checked KMart first, because they're closest, and when they didn't have any Barbie clothes at all I just figured it was because I can never find anything I want there anymore...they're really going down the crapper, I couldn't find a two quart pitcher or small fishing sinkers either.

Today I checked WalMart and Toys R Us...no Barbie clothes there either.  Are they not being made anymore?  What are little girls supposed to do when Barbie needs to change clothes, get an entire new Barbie doll?  I even checked the thrift store, they had Barbie clothes, but no Ken clothes...but I did find a two quart pitcher.

I give up, I'm just going to make my own collar and cuffs out of bias tape or something.

And...have you seen Barbie lately?  She looks like a doll now instead of a person...some plastic surgeon (get it?  tee hee) did a hack job on her.

Lookie what I did...I impress myself. 

Uh-oh...I probably shouldn't have said that, now I'll screw up the next step.

Witch's head is turning out good so far.

I had Matt drill two holes on each side of the witch's face, in the hairline, then glued the face to the wire and tape stump on the armature...next I used the same embroidery floss that I'm going to use for her hair to tie the head on the stump...then I smeared glue all over the floss on the back of the stump.  I don't think it's going to move ;)  Last night I used air dry clay to sculpt the back of the head and hat.  It has to dry for at least 24 hours before I can paint it.

What I decided to do with her neck was to wrap gray embroidery thread around the top half and paint the bottom half purple...I'll make a separate collar out of floral tape and paint it purple.

I'm wondering now if I shouldn't have put a super thin layer of clay over the front of the hat...in case the resin and clay take paint differently.  Hmm...I'll have to ponder that today.

I bought an different brand of air dry clay (Activ-Clay) yesterday instead of Crayola this time...I like it a lot better.

• trim for outside of box
• purple wool
• wide green striped ribbon?
• wide purple striped ribbon?
• sinkers?
• white shirt w/collar and cuffs (Ken doll clothes?)
• belt buckle (scavenge from same Ken outfit?)
• grass
• more air dry clay?
• gray paper (check stash first)
• enlarged bat
• washers (check Matt's stash first)
• orange paint

I played all day yesterday...what fun!  I had a ball :)  I wish I could stay home all day every day.

I constructed two tables from balsa, then primed them with gesso.

I made armatures for two new figures out of wire, built them up with floral tape and foam tape, and put a witch face on one.  The witch face is a little Halloween ornament that Susan gave me last year. 

I think the witch's body looks a little too big for the head...but the length of the head is only 1/6th the length of the body, and it should be 1/7th to be properly proportioned...so my perception must be due to the body's girth, not length.   Hopefully once I get the back of the head constructed and hair put on then it will look right.  I wanted the witch to be shorter and plumper than the rest of the figures...for variety...it would look weird if they were all skinny and the same height.

I was going to paint the body before I glued the head on...but dorky me glued it on first.  I don't get it...it's not that I don't think things through, I do, I have all the steps planned out in my head...but then my fingers start flying and I'll stop and realize "oh no, that's not how I was going to do that".

So here's the dilemma I have to solve before I can paint her body...do I want to try to blend paint to match her skin tone, which will be extremely difficult for me, but not impossible...or does she want to wear a purple turtleneck and a lot of jewelry?

• I need to replace Mz. Crow with someone more colorful
• I don't like Frankie's green pants
• I won't have room for the tables and chairs I painted
• If I make all the stuff that goes into the box orange, green and purple then the black hole of a box will work out fine
• I need a focal point centered on the back wall
• The trim I was going to use on the outside of the box is too narrow, I need to get wider trim
• Blogging is not fun without Susan, she needs to come back from her trip

I had to drive Kate downstate to her Dad's house yesterday.  I figured as long as I had to make the long drive downstate that I'd stop in to visit Matt's best friend Ted, who lives one town over, and do a little shopping.  I googled for miniature shops, and found three...one with an address in two different towns, one of which was right down the street from Ted's house and is a residential address, a second with an address downtown, which I found a website with store hours for, and a third which I found on a list of miniature stores that was who knows how old and couldn't find a website for...so...one definite shop, two iffies.

My visit with Ted was nice, we went out to breakfast with another of his friends, who is very nice.  I told him where I wanted to shop after breakfast and he gave me good directions to the miniature shop...I'm glad I had him look at my directions with me...lots of one way streets that I couldn't tell on my map were one way, and he told me what lane I needed to be in to make a "second left" at a five way intersection.

I found the miniature shop, and it was a very nice shop...but I was really disappointed.  They had a very nice selection of the inexpensive lines of miniatures, they just didn't have anything that was my style.  I wanted to get an oriental rug and a clock for the studio miniature, specifically, and then perhaps get anything else that struck my fancy.  They had oriental rugs, but they were just screen printed on nylon material...seven bucks for a room sized one...they looked really cheap and cheesy.  There wasn't one little clock in the store.   I was bummed...I was prepared to splurge on a good quality rug...I've been afraid to order one off the internet because I want to see and feel the texture so I know what I'm paying for.

There were a few other little things I liked...a pitcher and two glasses of orange juice that would have looked awesome in the Hallo mini, that I didn't buy because it was between 15 and 20 dollars...teeny foodstuffs...breads and meats, vegetable trays and yummy desserts...from anywhere between five and twenty bucks each, which I could make myself out of polymer clay for pennies.   I liked the hanging plants, but again, I could make them myself for a lot less money (and to look a lot nicer).  The little books were neat...I got one to put face up in the miniature, but I can make some to put spine out on the bookcase myself out of scraps of paper.

I bought a little tea set too...just because the lady working at the shop was really nice and struck up a conversation with me...and her young daughter was there, who told me all about the spider she saw that morning and interrupted her coloring to point out the stuff she liked to me.  Honestly, if there had been a store clerk working who didn't speak to me...was on the phone or had her nose stuck in a book...I would have walked out of there without spending anything.  As it was I really looked for something that I thought was worth its price tag and would actually work in the room so that I wouldn't feel guilty not buying anything after they were so nice to me.  I spent just under ten dollars for the book and the tea set, which is okay.

I had been considering (on my drive down) looking for the other two stores, to see if they even existed or not, but I decided after I got done at the first shop that it probably wouldn't be worth my effort, so I just headed home.  I left the mini shop at 1:30, which should have put me home by 4:30 at the latest...but I didn't get home until 6:00. 

I witnessed a car accident...I was stopped at a traffic light and the car in the lane next to me whizzed right through the red light and hit a motorcycle...the cyclist had abrasions, no major injuries...by the time I gave my witness statement and whatnot it was almost 45 minutes after I saw the accident.  (I feel bad for the guy on the motorcycle, but am glad the driver of the car was in the lane next to me and not in my lane...or he'd have rear ended me going 55 or 60 mph).

Then I ran into a traffic jam on the interstate in a construction zone...though the cute young Latin guy in the tricked out custom muscle car next to me was flirting with me...he really liked my music (I had Porcupine Tree playing and the windows down)...I complimented him on his wheels...so the wait wasn't all bad.   I finally got going again and drove into a thunderstorm...there's nothing like hydroplaning at 75 miles an hour to scare the pants off you...and couldn't go faster than between 50 and 60 (mostly 50) mph for about 40 miles or so.

Then...I almost hit a dog running across the road.  The music I was listening to had a couple of seconds of siren in it (I HATE when they put sirens into songs), and I started slowing down and pulling to the shoulder of the road for just a second before I realized it wasn't a real ambulance...and a dog ran out right in front of me.  If it hadn't been for the siren I'd have been a few feet further along and would have creamed the dog.

I was so glad to be home when I finally got here!

Shiny silver cage beads and horsemen without heads
Witches with nose warts and green stripe-ped thigh socks
Maybe wood beads with the ends sanded down
These are a few of my brilliant ideas

Green jello glowing and orange pumpkin spice cakes
Gold candelabra and washers as platters
Big paper lanterns hung up with jump rings
These are a few of my brilliant ideas

Purple wool trousers and shinier neck bolts
Bright fabric banners and boa constrictors
Little orange letters all folded in half
These are a few of my brilliant ideas

Big orange pumpkins
Purple spiders
Bats hung upside down
I simply remember my favorite things
And then the ideas aaaa..bound