New Nautilus Design and more jars in general!

I am really loving my jars!  Every one I make I feel like I am on the verge of keeping. I am trying to branch out from the octopus design while  avoiding doing dragons.  I know dragons are all the rage, but I learned how to do these eyes from a tutorial on "dragon eyes" and I don't want to impinge on the tutorial artist's territory.  The weirdest (and disappointing) thing is that she started doing dragon eye jars  literally days before I posted my first one unbeknownst to me. Imagine my chagrin when I proudly thought I had a totally original idea and I see that I was "beat".  She is a lovely artist and has talents that I am terribly jealous of.  The least I can do is defer to her in this and not sell dragon eyes!

So now I am working on other creatures.  I have a crow version which I am not happy enough with to post pictures.  But I am quite happy with this Nautilus!:

There will be more to come with these guys.  I am excited to see where the design ends up from this one, which is my first attempt.


I did actually make a dragon version which went to family member:

And a sea dragon version that went to another family member:

I do have two ready-made jars already up on my etsy site, too!:

I love that I get to play around with different techniques and ideas on the body of the jars.  I really never had room to do that when making jewelry, mostly because I don't like the way polymer jewelry that is just a cabochon look, so I just never really bothered to branch out.

Octopus Stash Jars

I have been in such a slump for months but I finally found something that I am having a blast making!  I just spent this whole 4-day weekend immersed in clay creating stash jars.  I have been thinking about making these for a while, but the stars must have aligned just right because I went on a tear and made enough of them to get a listing for custom jars up on Etsy.

So far I have made 4, two of them by request for a couple of frents, and two of them for me because I can't part with them.  There are more shots at different angles on my Flickr gallery.

I have so many ideas for other creatures besides Octopi too... guess we will see how those turn out :)

I'm a Terrible Blogger

I never really set out for this site to be a blog, really.  It was just the easiest way to get a quick website up that linked to my galleries and Etsy shop.

I just finished up day two of the Spring Craft Sale that I have been running for the last 5 years out of my office building here.  I made lots of beautiful jewelry (yeah... just ignore my protestations in my last blog entry about not making jewelry anymore.  I'm such a silly pants).

It is time for me to bid a fond farewell to my bi-annual office craft fair, sadly.  It is a LOT of work (I run the show as well as vend at it) but the foot traffic is quite poor, and the clientele I don't think really match up to my funky and whimsical jewelry tastes.

Here is a little preview of the jewelry I made for the show:

I am hoping to get these up on Etsy in the next few weeks since I didn't sell anything at the sale. 

All of the beads are made from molds I created.  I went to the beach by my house and picked random leaves and flowers one afternoon and made beads out of my favorites.  I will likely be making more.  I think they are so beautiful!

I am also seriously considering doing "real" craft shows now.  Since I am not going to be doing the ones here at my office and I still need an outlet, it might be high time I move forward with this!  We will see if I can motivate :)

So here's the thing. And a dragon

I am not making jewelry anymore.  At least, that is where my thoughts are currently at.

I made jewelry in high school as a hobby and stopped for many years while in college and grad school.  I picked it back up again about 10 years ago, and a year after that I discovered polymer.  It made sense at the time to combine the two, especially since I am not a fan of  knick knacks, aka dust collectors.

It has been a good run, but the stuff I make tends to run on the sculptural side, which more often than not become big, bold statement pieces when you are talking jewelry.  As it turns out this is a very limited audience. But, year after year, come craft fair season, I tend to make multiples of items ... and don't sell them.  I have drawers filled with previous series of things that just don't go out the door.

With the exception of my octopi which I will keep available in necklace form, I feel pretty confident - and really good - about the decision that I am done.

Done with jewelry that is.

I have done a few commissions on non-jewelry items and I am so pleased with how they came out. Behold my latest:

I just love it.  And yes, it is a dust collector, but at least it is also a working box, so it is useful art (not that art needs to be useful!  I just prefer my art to have a purpose.)

I have been collecting bottles and tins for years.  The time has come to make use of them :)

Jellies!

I have been hard at work getting ready for the 2014 craft fair season.  I have new labels and tags, a new display that I'd like to find time to post a tutorial on since it is easy and cheap!  Most importantly, I have a new jellyfish design!  I have been working on trying to get to a happy place with a jelly for over 2 years, and I think I am pretty satisfied with these.  All of these are headed to the craft sales.  If any are left, I'll toss them up on Etsy in a couple weeks.

All are between 4-6 inches long and are hung from choker length silk ribbon.  They are kind of bolo style in the way they hang.  Whatcha think?

The group shot!

This is the one I am keeping all to myself!

Not all fish are pretty...

I decided to try my hand at making art dolls and have spent months teaching myself (thank you internet!) how to make faces, and hands and feet and eyeballs.  My first attempt went ... ok.  I am not happy with it. I like the head.  I feel like every other part of it was total fail.  I will go back and redo the body and turn it into something I can live with and will post her once I am satisfied.

In the interim though, I really wanted to create a mermaid.  I think my fail-feet and body of the first one led to that desire.  And so, that is what this post is about - my very first art doll - hooray!

I sort of have a love affair with pretty-ugly things : bats, insects, octopi, those hairless dogs that you see winning the Ugliest Dog Contests all the time to name a few.  Enter my love for the ugliest fish I have ever seen: the angler fish.  Have you ever seen one of these bad-girls?

They are super fugs and I think they are on of the coolest fish in the sea.  I mean, really, just hideous.  They live in the deepest part of the ocean, attract prey into their gaping maws by dangling pretty lights in front of them, and the males basically turn into parasitic sperm donors once they latch on.

That little nub in the middle of this one's back is the male.  So weird!

With all that said, behold!  My Angler Fish Mermaid! My first completed art doll.

She is about10 inches tall.  Polymer clay for the most part, the tailfin is organza sandwiching some angelina film which I then embroidered over. She has mercasite beads for eyes, and beaded necklaces.  I made the flowers in her hair from ribbon and glass beads.  The hair is Tibetan lambs wool.

I am going to enter her into the latest Christie Friesen Swellegent "contest".  I was not sure what I was going to do with the tail until I saw that she had announced it and then I was like - well, duh! That's a perfect application.  I used the Bronze metal coat, then the Gold-Green Verdigris patina, and finished up with purple and cerulean dye.  I might have used black and white too... I think.

Loads of detail shots follow.  Click to embiggen.

 

A Tree Man for Father's Day

My pops has been bugging me to make a tree face for his new house.  I got off my butt in time for Father's Day to make it happen.

I was able to get quite a bit of depth in it.  I hope it looks right on his tree of choice

One of my favorite things about it is the inclusion of eyebrows.  My dad will be able to give him whatever expression he wants.  I went for angry tree man for an example:

My other favorite bit is the mustache.  I wasn't sure I was going to include it, but I think it makes this face unique.  Thumb included for size :)