Niamh and Cameron - the last faeries of 2012

"Niamh" (pronounced Neev)

For those who know me in the human realm, November and December has become a frenzied time of year. I can feel the water gaining momentum in October just after the Pumpkin Festival. I try to ignore the upcoming eddy as I enjoy the falling leaves and earthy feel of the month. Then WHOOSH! November! Show season mayhem! Over the edge of the rapids I go. This past year, I had a show every single weekend and no time to breathe, sculpt and enjoy my art as much as I set out to do in the start of this whole sculpting adventure. In late december, I reached the bottom of the falls and was a little worse for the wear with a chest inflammation due to stress and a minor injury that actually prevented me from sculpting and working in the studio. Even now, I'm still recovering - which anyone who has come to visit me at the studio only to find a note on the door will attest to. I'm taking that as a lesson to never book myself so tightly again. Sculpting and my health became secondary to the business side of the equation. What a difficult balancing game this is and it's so easy to tip the scales!

Okay - you can put the tiny violins away now. I am quite happy with how 2012 went otherwise. I moved into a new studio and opened it as a shop as well, taught some fun classes, made some awesome new creations and met some genuinely great people I would have never met if not for this magical path. In late October, I even squeaked out some new faeries and mermaids before the waterfall got me. They never got a blog shout out as far as I remember, so here they are! I can't wait to get back to sculpting again!

Niamh, like Mabon, is another wetland faery. Niamh is a bright faery of the edge of the wetlands where the trees meet the water and reeds. Her best friends are the dragonflies and damselflies that taught her how to fly when she was young. Sculptural-wise, she is in my top 3 favorite creations (Finn and Truffles of "When Pigs Fly" come in #1 in case you're wondering. That was such a tough but rewarding armature!) Niamh's armature is only held up by a thick steel wire in her left leg. Her right foot does not touch the clay oak leaf below her. I wanted to give the impression that she was running across falling leaves while flying her her dragonfly friend. I also tried something new with Niamh - her mouth is very small, so it's hard to see, but she actually has teeth!

you may have to enlarge this to see her 2 front teeth in her mouth.

The colors of the oak leaf contrast with her wings, giving her a more vibrant appearance.

"Cameron's Cake" was another faery based around a found object. In this case, a cute little cake cloche. The story goes: Cameron spied as I baked this cake. He stealthily watched as I cut a slice. He crept closer as I put the slice on the stand. But before he could take the cake, I snapped on the cloche! He tried for hours to lift the glass. Looks like poor Cameron has fallen asleep trying! The only thing not hand sculpted is the glass stand and cloche. Even the cake and doily underneath is clay.

"Cameron's Cake"

Poor Cameron has fallen asleep.

Good enough to eat. This cake is about the length of the palm of your hand.

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.

Ebony's Prince

Ok, I know we have ... 1, 2... 43 days until Halloween, but a gal getting ready for a pumpkin festival craft fair has to be prepared early. So, with that in mind, I went to work on another faery sculpture to entertain the tiny masses that stalk my work and those who just happen to pass my booth at the festival.

Her name is Ebony and the piece is called "Ebony's Prince". Now, this sculpture has told me a lot about those around me. Almost like a glimpse into a small portion of a person's psyche. For, you see, there is a story in this sculpture. And how you see it can really show your demeanor in that moment of time. Take a look. Ebony is obviously going to kiss the frog prince.... What story do you see behind it?

The bubbles are glass!

If you said "Well she's kissing him as he comes out of the cauldron" or "she wants to turn him into a human/faery prince", then you're probably a perfectly balanced individual and I envy you that in those moments when customers stare at me a little too long. (Am I the only one that happens to?) That sort of thinking makes it a cute, faerytale, picture book sort of sculpture, doesn't it? Only one other person saw what I saw after I finished making it. "She's kissing the frog goodbye?" they suggested. Wow! Dark and twisted mind I think! But, I'm abashed to say, I thought that too when all was said and done. It wasn't my starting intention, I assure you. So maybe I'm not all bad. lol

Ebony's wings are made from twisting antique brass colored copper wire into a bat wing shape. I made a candy corn of polymer clay and tiny skulls out of ceramic to adorn the back of her belt line instead of a bow.

Her nails are black with orange polkadots. The lace on her left sleeve is vintage lace off a really old valentines day chocolate box.

"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).

Ash's Treasure - #1 from my OOAK Faery Collection

"Ash's Treasure"

#1 of The Silver Branch's "OOAK Faery Collection"

Created in January 2011
Not For Sale

Ok, I've seen far better. That self-depreciation out of the way early on, I will go on to say that while not nearly perfect, Ash is my first figure since I started claying again, and I'm rather fond of him. Sitting height: about 4 inches tall.

EVERYTHING was a learning experience! I learned a lot through Ash. First off, it should be noted that I'm not a fan of molds - so no molds here - all the clay is hand sculpted. I created him at the Riverview Mill, a place where free internet access is nothing more than a beautiful dream unless you sit in the parking lot, so I had no tutorials or images to help guide my figure forming. But aside that, the wings, the clothes, the hair - all a learning experience from scratch.

What everyone seems to like about him the most is his wings... probably the easiest part  to make in all honesty. Ah well. I have to admit, when I saw the amazing creations of my fellow artists in cyberspace, I was dazzled and enchanted by their wings too. It's one of those magics, that once you know what they are and how to make them, they significantly lose their luster. I won't jade you here - you want to know more about them? Shoot me an email. But, trust me, it's best to live with magic than without it. I will say that they are made with open flame - how can you not have fun with that? I make faery wing earrings too - check my etsy shop if you're curious.

His clothing taught me something else - ribbons are probably easier to work with instead of full swaths of fabric, and that I am easily frustrated when creating tiny clothes. How do all you art doll, barbie, miniature and figurine seamsters do it?! I loathe the idea of smearing glue all over the figure and sticking cloth to it. Ash's clothing is all painfully and clumsily hand stitched. His pants were the worst to make because of the way I positioned him. Heather from "My Sister's Closet" was a huge help and I eventually managed to create something presentable after a few hours - a few hours! Yikes! Anyone know any good doll clothing makers I could team up with? lol

Oh where, oh where is my hair?

His hair, while rather a fright in the end, was the product of impatience. I should have tried putting hair on a practice head first, but Ash was sitting finished and waiting for his hair for over 2 weeks. I just had to cover him up. I tried llama fiber on a practice head weeks before. It was a mercy that I did too because it didn't work. I needed llama wool straight from the fleece. I needed Tibetan Llama wool. It's tiny ringlets and fibers feels so real to how I imagined a tiny person's hair to feel, that it's well worth the wait for it to ship in from New Zealand. I order from Dollworld. So friendly and fast despite the distance. For some reason, that lovely country of LOTR was the only place selling TIBETAN llama wool. O.o Funny world, ain't it? Well, it's so fine that the special glue I use to attach the layers of hair to his scalp has a habit of leaking through the layers. Hence the girly headband. Now I had pipettes and precision syringes, so I'm hoping that is a flaw of the past.

But there you have it. Ash! And his treasures? That's an old bracelet I beaded for myself (to match one I made for my lovely friend Libby) and is now safely under Ash's guard. I also made for him a tiny leather pouch hanging from his belt. The pouch is adorned with a brass bell and a tiny head feather from my father's parakeet, Fleur. Inside? 4 raw garnets I mined from Wilton, NH. :)

How I started making Faeries

"Ash" - What a learning experience he was!

My focus at present seems to be on practicing polymer clay faeries. Yeah, I do spell 'fairy' in that geeky 'epic, fantasy' like way. Truth be told, this was the old english spelling and dates from texts at least as far back as the 16th century, so it's not as new age as many make it out to be.

Now where'd I get this desire? I do love my 'green girl' faces and faery doors and haven't abandoned them, I promise. But I've always had 'a thing' for faeries. It was about 2 years ago that I took a little ball of clay and tried to follow an online tutorial on how to shape it into a baby's face. I still have that rather scary baby. As you can see from the picture of it below, I was inspired from that point on to give polymer clay a long vacation: no pay and no guarantee that there will be work for it again once it returns.

About 6 months ago (maybe less) I picked up a pack of Sculpy again... mostly out of boredom I think. I was battling the worst kind of writers block. It was the kind where you have an amazing plot, and even characters to boot, but no idea where to start the whole darn thing! I needed some sort of release. I made a dragon. Note about Sculpy III - it breaks at the very thought of tapping it. Brittle, powdery bits of a young dragon all over my car! Well, I moved onto Super Sculpy. I made faces with leaves around them and painted them to look like antiqued copper and sunlight speckled forest canopies. My 'Green Girls' (so called because they look like the Green Man, but I always saw them as too feminine) I flatter myself that I grew better at making faces. Still, I remembered my little baby faery and put full figures on the back burner. I made faery doors, started a flower nymph collection (working on flower #3! Wooo!), gnomes, jewelry. Finally, I decided to try it out. I took some wire and created an armature.

Watch out for my upcoming blog post all about my first somewhat decent OOAK (one of a kind) polymer faery - Ash.