She needs a name - New Painter Faery!

I just finished her today!

click to enlarge

So new that she doesn't even have a name yet (nor does her little creation). I had been working on this cute little fae all week, and had created her painting last week. I was inspired by a little wooden easel I found at the dollar store made for collective plates. It's perfectly faery sized! Plates? Pshh. No thanks. The canvas and the painting are all made of clay. I started by cutting a rectangle out of white clay, then painted on the wet clay with a mixture of liquid polymer and ink. In the center of the painting is a door with stones leading up to it. And as it was the faery's creation, a little magic was in the paints. A tiny (seriously TINY) faery is coming out through the door!

I sculpted her with a needle.

The painter faery (wow... really need to get a name for her!) was really fun because I tried a couple of "new techniques" on her. For one, I had a blast blowing paint through a glass pipe at her to give her a true artist appearance. The splashes and smears are hard to see in the pictures, but she has lots of purple, blue, green, white and silver flecks.

When you stand in paint, you get a little dirty

Another thing I tried was simply dragonfly style wings. Instead of curling long "spokes" for butterfly ribbing, I made long oval loops with blue metallic coated copper and silver spirals inside. Lastly, I had sewed a little beret and created a little matching pair of overalls for her. Because she's not a jointed doll, she was extremely hard to dress (at least for me. I'm really not a seamstress in the slightest!). Making a pair of pants is easy enough, but you can't just slide them on because the legs are rigid. Same with sleeves.

New OOAK faerie! - "Oliver's Snail Mail"

"Oliver's Snail Mail"

Faeries can deliver mail at the speed of magical wings - be sure to specify "air mail" for that service. For all else, there's snail mail. This is Oliver's first job. He's already gotten rather used to the pace.

This art doll sculpture started with a large shell. I'm sure it's some sort of seashell, but it just screamed "garden snail!" to me. I thought about turning the shell into a garden gnome house with a little chimney and a lawn, but I wasn't in love with the idea. It sat on my shelf at the studio collecting dust for at least 2 months before I decided to create the snail that went with it just to see what it would be like with some clay breathing life into it. Once I formed that bizzare little critter, I was on a roll. I saw a mail bag, letters all over the place and a faery fast asleep on the mail bag as he delivered urgent letters. Hence, Oliver was born. ^_^

 

Oliver will probably go in my Etsy shop later in the week, but for now, you can also view him up close at Riverview Artist Mill if you're in the NH area.

(by the way - Charly, if you read this, I posted my letter to you this way. You should recieve it... soon? heh)

***NOTE: I'm doing a raffle for a wicked sweet handmade faery wing pendant for anyone who comments on my blog this week. See the bottom of my previous post for more details on the contest!****

Etsy Artist Features aaaaannnddd.... WING PENDANT GIVEAWAY RAFFLE!!!! Woo!

I'm raffling off this awesome faery wing pendant. The bead was handmade by Andrea Pirkey of Powers Art Glass, the wing itself is one of my own handmade faery wings. See below for details!

Over the past few months, I've really come to know and love the work of some of my fellow etsy artists. There are 4 shops in particular I really think ought to be checked out because they are really special. To help spread the word about these awesome artists, I decided to pop a little feature on each of them this evening as I wind down. I'm not a fan of copying and pasting artist descriptions, so here there are in my own words. :)

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Powers Art Glass

Their Blog!

Owned and completely run by Jason Powers and Andrea Pirkey, Powers Art Glass is jam packed (seriously, it'll take hours to peruse their shop) with their amazing, hand made lampwork creations. See that bead atop my special give-away faery wing pendant? I'm so in love with those scroll beads. That bead was created in the flame of the torch by Andrea. I am very lucky because I get special sneak peaks of their creations when I work in the studio near theirs. What I like best from each artist? Well, as Andrea well knows, I love, love LOVE those floral included transparent beads. Jason makes awesome beads too, but I have to say his vessels and marbles make me wish I had more of a day job so I could buy them out. Not being a lampworker and knowing very little about the art, I look at these two artists as wizards and think they should be closely watched

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Rowan300 (aka Madd Dogg of Tomorrow)

Her Blog!

I'm a nature girl. Albeit the green loving, faery fanatical, tree hugging, vegetarian that I am, there's something about steampunk style that I really love. Lori Ferguson is the talented artist behind some really cool steampunk and wire wrap jewelry creations. That owl pendant out of watch parts? Not only really imaginative but wicked cute! I have respect for any artist that can take something boring like machine washers and turn them into fabulous industrial style earrings that even a leafy girl like me would wear. You rock, Lori. Keep them coming!

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Mirilovelove (aka Little Bird)

Her blog!

Erin McManness - talent has to be her middle name. I met her online a few months back when I was just starting into the world of commissions and wholesale and she was a huuuuge help with advice on how to manage wholesaling art. Aside her lovely personality, I feel that she has two amazing artists in her that need to get together and create something this world has never seen. As you can see, she makes delightful polymer clay jewelry! Her cookie rings are amazingly realistic, but what I really love are her flamboyant cocktail rings. Even more than her polymer clay creations, I adore her illustrations. Serious. Talent. Nuff Said. You really need to check out her blog and bug her to put prints on her etsy shop. :3

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ElvenGem's Treasures

Well of course I save the best for last - my best friend! Janna Ramsay is a widely versatile and imaginative artist that, aside from putting up with me for over *yikes* 16 years, has really given me a driving force behind my own work. Her shop really only represents about 2.3% of her abilities as a crafty artist. Her handmade scrapbook cards are whimsical and often when she works on something, it makes me want to try it too because its -just -that -cool. I have to say that I love her faerie/nymph wands the most. Wire wrapped by hand with thought out trinkets and beads, her wands really look as if they were own by the Fae. ^_^

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BUT HOW DO I GET THAT AMAZING PENDANT?! you may have shouted at your computer screen. Including this post, I'll have 3 posts this week (I have a brand new faery sculpture to make its online debut and some pictures to share from my first open studio guest experience). Anyone who comments on any of these 3 entries will be entered into a raffle. 1 entry per person, per blog entry. That means, you have 3 chances of winning that truly unique pendant! I will be drawing the winning name on Friday, 5-13-2011 at 9am EST.