What else have I been doing?

I got this yesterday. Feel free to pin it on Pintrest hehe!





The newest and final hatchling. A little phoenix. He needs some styling and a tidy up but here's a preview.



Pegasus and Dragon Hatchlings

Here they are, just newly hatched (you can still see gold paint on my hands hehe!) I'll get some better pictures when all three are done. But here's the Instagram preview for now!

WIP- Fantasy Egg Series- Pegasus

I have a little creature on my sculpting table!

Remember I had those little cages and eggs sitting around for SO long? Well, I finally got my act together with a new eye technique which I'm actually happy with. This has allowed me to make 6 excellent little eyes, ready for 3 fantasy creature hatchlings, for the eggs.

Here's the first, Pegasus. He will have little feathered wings and is so small that he can fit into a modified chicken egg!

WIP

Studio Re-Arrangement and 20 Points of Reference

I know I've done this kind of post before but I just love seeing other artist's studios and I've just re-arranged mine, so here we go again!

This time I've photoshopped a clumsy panarama up and can show you the full layout... with 20 little important bits pointed out.

1. This is the photography part. I invested in a good camera, a couple of great lenses and a light cube/lamp set (eBay for around AU$100). Best thing ever for taking nice, detailed pics of your sculpts.
2. A draw set my sister gave me. This has laminating pouches, stickers, printer papers, envelopes etc in it. Lenses and camera charger on top. Probably not the safest place for your $1000 lens!
3. Mum's old 'Singer Blue Magic' sewing machine. I make up sculpts clothing on this machine... as well as doing the household mending and other crafty projects.
4. Various bases and stuff I've picked up for sculpts. Also some stands for WIP heads.
5. Biscuit tin full of clay.
6. Glass sheet for a worspace, glass cake stand (turns), anatomy reference pics (under the glass) and a WIP or two. Glass is FANTASTIC. When it gets dirty with paint and clay and glue all over it, I just use a blade and a wipe and get rid of the muck. You can also put reference pics under it which don't require laminating because they are already under glass and always handy.
7. Various tools and brushes (most of which are found or hand made). Also Liquids I frequently use such as glues, glazes, oils and liquid clays.
8. Super wattage lighting. Since I don't have much natural light in my studio, I have lots of additional lighting.
9. Modem, printer, laptop spot. Sometimes laminator, UV lamp, glue gun. Basically where the power is!
10. Ever-full rubbish bin. Halfway there so better add another pic after this one.
11. 

 11 and 12 have gone missing so I'll talk about my two greyhounds and big cat, all rescues and behind me when taking the photos. They are lounging on a couch and armchairs in front of the TV. This studio is in a loft of my house (hence the slopy roof) and it is nice and snuggly up there. They are permanant fixtures in the studio.
13. Map of the world with little clear pins showing all of the places around the globe where my sculptures have been sold to. 
14. Washing line for drying clothes when it is raining outside... or holding various rags and fabric I want to look at for a while, before I decide to use them on sculpts.
15. Painting by a talented indigenous ex-student.
16. Shelf with finished sculptures. I really should get on eBay and sell some of these!
17. Dedicated clay convection oven with timer and thermostat! Best thing ever, I never burn a sculpt now. Note all the fibre-fill in it! Must have baked something fragile recently.
18. Pasta machine.
19. Unfinished cupboards. All of the space under the desk looks like this, behind those doors! Labelled boxes and containers containing the multitude of sculpting goodies and sparkly things I've collected over the years. The labels are essential or it would look like a rubbish bomb went off in there. Also holds some equipment which I am not using constantly (eg UV lamp, camera tripod, soldering iron etc).  
20. Temporary carpet. I'm still saving up for my 'real' carpet upstairs and I've decided to to leave the crummy 2nd hand carpet up there for as long as possible since I'm always spilling glue, leaving offcuts of fur, squishing clay into it.

So there it is in a nutshell. My little studio. One day, when I get the good carpet, have freshly painted and am really happy with the whole look of it, I'll post another update. Until then, this is how it will be for a while.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to post links to pictures of your own studios. I love seeing them all! 

Moss Pixie

Remember the pixie I started a while ago? Well, here she is all done. She's the little one in charge of poking pieces of moss into all the nooks around the forest.

Will he bring chocolate on his next visit?

Just had to get this one out of my system before I could do some more cleaning!

HAPPY AND SAFE HOLIDAYS!

New idea- Pixie Children

I've been mulling over the idea of a less realistic human type critter for a while and I feel like I need to do something a bit different to get all of my sillyness out. So I've decided to make some pixie children.

The eyes are all done and I've made the armatures, they aren't as silly as I had thought they might be but it will be interesting to see what happens. I haven't painstakingly sketched up poses and faces like I'd ordinarily do and am going to make them semi-posable anyway, so I can change them later if I feel the urge.

I've begun sculpting a head but it needs some more work... updates soon (with WIP pictures hopeflly!)

Judith and Holofernes all Finished!

Here she is! I was going to dress her more but decided that she is on the run and didn't have time to put much on before rushing off.



Judith and Holofernes WIP

I've been working on Judith again today. In fact, I HAD finished sculpting her quite early but then when she was baked, her arm was singed so I had to resculpt it.

I originally thought it was a spike in the temperature of the oven but I'd never had a problem before. Upon second baking I encountered some darkening of some areas and realised it could have been because I added some Mold Maker to my mix to help with conditioning and flexibility of the clay as it has been sitting for a few months and had dried out a little. Luckily I will be applying some dark skin tone washes. Some parts darkened in the oven on the second bake but luckily look quite natural.



Nice Surprise

I just went to the Aussie Poly Clayers forum to find that I had won the Aug/Sept Challenge. How nice!

They deserve a special shout out and a plug :)

Click here to go visit or join the forum!

It has been far too long!

Yes, it has been far too long since I have had the time or want to do any sculpting. Pretty sad. This is mostly due to my clay becoming hard and dry (through not using it quickly enough) and I didn't want to have to condition it with Mold Maker to soften it up.

Well, over the past week I've been feeling a little like doing some sculpting so today (a warm 38deg C) I thought would be perfect for softening clay. Boy, oh boy, are my hands killing me?! But I managed to get some work done on Judith.