The Pixie and the Bee

Sorrel the Pixie always loves moving the acorns the squirrels bury every autumn!

 Autumn has begun to command a presence in southern NH. Apple picking is phenomenal right now (thank goodness I never tire of apple crisp!) and the sugar maples are just starting to turn red in the wetlands - a harbinger of the changing foliage for all the rest of the forest. It's been slightly chillier, and I started thinking about a faery to represent Halloween for The Silver Branch. Last year was Ti'ree and her Venus Flytrap antics. Before that was Ebony the Witch and her frog prince in the cauldron. This year? I wanted to go steampunk but I'm not completely inspired on a story for one yet. So, I went for honey bee.

Mellifera the Queen Bee

Meet Mellifera. I feel a little egotistical having a faery so close to my own name, but when I looked up the scientific name for the Western Honeybee (the honey bee that is found throughout the USA and Europe) I discovered it was Apis mellifera. It's out of my hands! :)

This was before I painted the base black.

Mellifera's dress is almost entirely sculpted of polymer clay (need I say - no molds were used on her or her dress or staff or crown? That should be a given by now). I added a bit of gold tulle underneath her honeycomb underskirt and a little antique black lace to the sides of her dress to give her a little more bustle action.

My other creation, almost done on the same day, was Sorrel the Pixie. I came across his facial style while I was making Goblin King Pocket watches (yes, they tell horrible time, but no one seems to mind). The one thing I love about sculpting goblin faces is that there are no rules. You can play and color outside the lines, so it gives me lots of leeway to try out new faces and techniques with my old tools. You might notice which goblin inspired my little Sorrel. I'm probably going to make a whole line on Pixies now. They're too cute to sculpt just one.

One of my Goblin King Pocket Watches - the one that inspired me to try one of the faces on Sorrel.

Sorrel in the garden.

Sorrel in the forest

The Masquerade Faery

Brand new as of 10 minutes ago! Meet my newest one of a kind creation. And like all my creations, the name usually doesn't happen for at least 24 to 48 hours after I'm done with the sculpture. Until that time, let's just call her the Masquerade Faery. She's all set for any goblin king hosted ball!

Like most of my faeries and mermaids, she was created around an idea from a found object. In this case, a clearance priced bunch of feathers from the craft store. I flipped them upside down and immediately thought up this dress! Despite the grand garb, I took special pains to sculpt her figure. I timed myself. With the distraction of occasional snacking, she took 9 and a half hours to sculpt. That was just her figure. It took me about 7 hours to get her costume, hair, coloring, mask and wings done today. That was record timing for me.

I'm hoping to figure out a way to put her up on etsy, but like all my faeries, I'm terrified of shipping her.She's pretty strong, but the thought of her tumbling about in a box across country or the ocean, no matter how tightly packed, scares the jitterbugs outta me! I wonder how other art doll creators do it....

When Pigs Fly

"When Pigs Fly"

I was going to post about a new 'scene' I made with gnomes and a chalkboard and glowing clay, but in light of the unlikely things happening around here lately, I've decided to unveil my latest faery sculpture to the blog instead. If someone had suggested that NH might fall prey to a blizzard that dumps 20 inches of snow and knocks out power to thousands and thousands - all before Halloween - they might reply with the title of this sculpture. I certainly would have! :)

This sculpture is seriously much more impressive in person. There's just no decent way to show the perspective of the piece with my amateur camera know-how. But, be that as it may, I've done my best. A rather adorable pig with wings is being coaxed to fly by a flying fae boy. He is in mid-air with no apparently visible support. And the miracle is he's rather quite sturdy up there! Whew!


This all came about when I found some brass rods at the little country hardware store down the street. I've been dying to work on a more difficult armature, something that would wow people. I'm pretty happy with the result. Why the theme? I was working with the television on and there was a commercial involving a dog on a roof with some flying pigs... and some canned baked beans too. Not sure where that came into it, but the flying pigs stuck in my mind. I thought, wouldn't it be nice to show just how you could get one to fly? Hence the faery and a way to try out an out-of-the-ordinary armature design.

The pig completely supports the faery. To make this design, I started with a basic (and I mean stick figure) sketch in full scale of the piece I wanted to create. Then I bent the brass rod along the center of gravity for both the pig and the faery, and then I prayed to the sculpting gods that I guessed correctly on the angle of the faery. Too far forward and he would have tipped. I got it just right! The bar runs through the piggy, up his wing, up the faery's arm and down through his torso. From there, I constructed the armature of the pig and sculpted the basic body of the pig before finally tackling the faery. This took a long while. I was so worried about the balance and center of gravity, that I put the finished pig with the brass rod sticking out on my "to do" shelf at the mill and didn't touch it for at least a few weeks. >.<

Aerial shot

When I mustered up the courage and repeated my little "nothing to it but to do it" mantra a few hundred times, I started working on the armature of the faery itself and then the clay. I was relieved that the finished piece not only didn't tip, but it was highly sturdy. You could actually push on the faery's legs (within reason, of course) and it wouldn't tip.

So I will definitely try more interesting armatures after show season has slowed down a bit.

New Faery - Jasmine's Green Tea

Everyone knows that tea - especially green tea - is good for you. Full of antioxidants, rich in that lovely anxiety combating L-theanine, slimming, and quite yummy if you brew it correctly. However, have you bathed in it? No - nor have I. Jasmine certainly has. She swears by it! Look at her flawless comlexion. Perhaps there is something to it after all?

This is Jasmine - a bit of a narcissist?

Okay, all that aside, it's kind of been a personal goal of mine to make a new faery or mermaid for each venue I go to. My next show is at The Cozy Tea Cart in Brookline, NH, on November 5th and 6th. This is an event for NH Made's "Open Doors" event in which NH artisans of all kinds hold open studios, shows and tours.

the "green tea" is a special clear resin with hand mixed coloring

The Cozy Tea Cart is a lovely little shop connected to the home of it's proprietor (Danielle Beaudette). It's jam-packed with every sort of loose leaf tea imaginable and a few special herbal tisanes. It's enough to make your head spin, but Danielle is such a friendly, wonderfully patient and knowledgeable person that you'll soon fall in love with at least a dozen special teas in no time.

"Green Girl Box" Hand Sculpted face

I was lucky enough to be invited to this lovely place for the Open Doors event because of the faeries really. TCTC has a lovely little faery garden and Danielle likes to promote local artists when possible. What a perfect match! ^_^ So back to Jasmine! She is, as usual, hand sculpted without the use of any molds. Her tea cup and saucer are not, however - I got those from my own cupboard. The spoon she holds to admire her visage is an antique spoon I bought from Here Today Emporium in downtown Wilton, NH. Her hair is hand 'rooted' and her wings are hand made.

The tea, if you've read the caption above, you'll know the secret behind that. It was a special resin indeed. Some resins will just eat food coloring, so I was lucky this worked out. The bubbles are made of glass. For a finishing touch, I sewed little faery sized clothes and slung them around the saucer (with a stocking slung over the cup handle). Her shoes and belt are made of polymer clay.

Glass bubbles really give her tea a bath time look.

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!****

"Shaelin's New Nest" - OOAK Faery

 Warning: photos really don't do this sculpture justice. Honestly, her face, clothing and the bird look much better in person. That being said...

Yay! I was actually able to complete a concept I had locked in my otherwise scatterbrained head for over a month now. I started with the concept of a faery trying to hoist a bird out of the nest, much to the bird's annoyance. That was followed a few weeks later by a trip to the art store to buy the nest. I mean, have you actually sat down and tried to make a bird's nest for yourself? No really. Have you? Not. Fun. Aside the nest, the rest of this art doll sculpture is completely hand made. As usual - no molds.

I started with the bird's armature and then completed the bird before moving onto Shaelin's armature. In my original thought, I had pictured a much smaller faery, but realized her arm span would have to be grotesquely ... lengthy. lol So there you have it. Shaelin was created to be about 7 inches tall if she were standing upright. Her face is about the size of an American nickel.

Penny is actually touching her hair - it's not in the foreground.

I think she's related to Tara from "Tara and the Toad", as she's rather impish and loves causing mischief for small critters.

Her wings are hand made just like all my other faeries. This time, I added brass filigree (hard to see in the photos, sorry) and brown jewels. I decided to go wild with some swirls at the "ribbing" and I think they turned out awesome.

Gotta love faery wings!

On another note, if you're in the Southern NH area, google map 29 Howard Street in Wilton NH and make a large red permanent marker note on your calender to be there between 10am to 4pm on Mother's Day weekend!! It's the Riverview Artists' Mill's open studios. Lampworking, bead supplies, pottery, silver and gold smithing, water color painters, energy workers, soap makers, dresses.... oh... and my sculptures! Will all be there. ^_^

Lastly, I'd like to thank Lori Ferguson  for featuring me in her awesome art blog, Madd Dogg of Tomorrow. Be sure to check out, comment and subscribe! Later in the week, I'll be featuring her work here on my blog (been meaning to do that with a lot of my favorite artists, jewelers, and otherwise totally cool people).