He is done

I finished my little sprite or elf or yule baby whatever he is but I call him Twinkle for I think he has got an impish twinkle in his eye. Don't know what mischief he is up to. Looking at the picture now I can see what mistakes I have made but I am pretty much happy with the way he turned out. I am still learning to sculpt!

smiling!

I have been working on this little fellow and at last I have made him smile I think. His eyes didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but he is much too small a figure for me to do anymore. I have been remiss in not mentioning that this is a class doll of Katheryn Walmsley who is a wonderful artist. This is an on line class Yule Baby in DollStreet by her. The face looks very grainy in close up but I have sanded him quiet a bit and still it looks like this. I am finding it hard to sand the face as I don't want to loose the details and the face is so small. He is only about 7 1/2 inches tall. I guess he needs to be just painted now.

Gymming!

If only I could do half of what this little guy is doing I would be that much more toned and fitter lol! So here is his body almost complete. I know I have to shape him a bit more but he is coming along fairly well considering I have almost no experience in sculpting with paperclay.

Dragging my muse

Today I dragged my muse screaming and kicking and started a sculpt. I have started it with paperclay and I really found it difficult to sculpt. Since it is my first full body sculpt I should really have done it with polymer clay which might have been easier to handle but what all the screaming and kicking going on I decided I had better start sculpting soon or my muse will escape yet again. So here is the begining of my sculpt. I think I will end up sand papering it a lot or it will just crack up, have to wait and see what happens. But I am determined that I will do this small figure somehow.

Early in the morning last week I caught this glorious sight of the sky.

and before I could adjust the camera a bit it turned like this!

A few pictures

I am back and slowly getting back into the groove. Seems like as though I have been away for ages. So much to catch up with so I will visit your blogs slowly. In the meantime just thought I would share with you some pictures that I took. This one below I took while sitting in a traffic jam. For once I was happy to be stuck in the traffic as I got to see the sky transform beautifully while the sun set.

A gecko sunning himself. What perfect camouflage. These geckos often change their colours to their surroundings to ward off danger. He soon disappeared before I could take a good shot of him when he heard me clicking away.

Pretty pink lilies.

Perfect for a brides bouquet

Away again

I am off on my travels again. Will post again and visit blogs in 2 weeks time. Take care all

A little find

I love old magazines and I found these when I was in Lisbon. I tried looking to see which year they were printed but I couldn't find any date or year in it. Perhaps it is there somewhere written in Portugese which I can't read. I would guess these fashions are from around late 1950s or early sixties. What do you think? 

They are typcal magazines for women with crochet, sewing and knitting patterns.

Pattern for baby cloths

I even found this pattern block for a jacket for a child I think. I don't think it is for a doll

I would like to incorporate these pages into a collage some day. Just like today there are a lot of adverts the only difference is they are more related to house hold goods and eating places rather than for beauty and health products unlike todays magazines.

Couldn't resist

I love the glorious colour of my roses and just couldn't resist showing them off to you again. Funny how one forgets how beautiful they looked last summer as well.

Strawberries and cream

I am back from CIFI in Albuquerque and rested. I had a lovely time with some very lovely creative ladies. Our teachers were exceptional and so giving. I saw some beautiful and wonderful dolls being created and was amazed at the talent that is out there. This year's challenge theme was 'Dessert' It was a real challenge for me to think up a doll in those lines. I know I am having a creative block so although there were some fabulous desserts with fabulous names I couldn't think of a doll in those lines and also I had to be mindful of the fact that I could not make a doll in big and extravagent style since I had to cart it to and fro with me. Finally I made my little Strawberries and Cream's table of desserts. The idea came to me as I thought of summer in England when, whether it be at Wimbledon or Ascot or at home we all love to have strawberries and cream YUM!  Everything on her is made with hand. Her hat was wet felted so were her bracelets and shoes which I wet felted. The strawberries were hand sewn and I found them  bit tedious to do as I am not strictly a sewer but I did it.

The little desserts on her table were made with clay. I would have liked to have sewn them but I didn't have the time and I know that since I am not a sewer I would have taken ages to do them.

However here is a doll that was made by Agnes the tall one with red hair, who won the Peoples award prize. She made the Fruit sorbet and I tell you that doll is amazing. Agnes sewed each and every fruit on that doll with hand and it was lovely. She kind of grew on me everyday although I did lovely her little Chines lady next to her. I wish I had taken a better picture of her.

These  were the dolls made in Sherry and Jean's class. The cloths and embellishments were all done with paper. Mine is the one in green looking rather stunted with a tatoo on her face. I was not satisfied with her but she was a learning curve for me.

Look at these amazing dolls all clothed with  paper.

These beautiful parade of dolls were from Arley Berryhill's class.

The youngesters who came were not to be out done. They turned out these beautiful gingerbread men. They showed us how even a very simple doll can be turned into beautiful dolls.

There were some beautiful dolls made by our teachers.

 Right now I have to go and catch my breath as I relived those wonderful moments writing this post! lol.

Packed and ready to go

Almost packed and ready to go. My angel thinks that if she sleeps on top of the suitcase then I will definitely take her with me. But I have to see first whether I have enough space to do that.

But this fella is a clever guy. He got himself a little box and jumped into it and made himself comfortable. I just can't leave him behind!

Sorry all I have not been around much lately. Just been preparing for CIFI and then life also has been getting in the way mainly. I shall have to catch up with you all when I get back from US. I know I shall be travelling again almost as soon as I touch down back home but I promise I shall try and catch up. Now just pray that I will be able to take off lol!  Take care all.