The Pumpkin Man

 Had so much fun making the paintbrush people that I thought I would try something different.

Had the idea in my head but wasn't quite sure how to execute it. My mind was seeing a lanky pumpkin man figurine. I knew I didn't want to make the body out of polymer clay so I had to create a wire body. I first sculpted the head, hands and feet and almost forgot to add holes for the wire to go in. Turns out I made the hands a bit large. Perspective is not my strong point. Created some clothes for the body with trial and error and painted the clay parts. Gluing all of the parts on the wire body was challenging. All and all it didn't turn out too bad even though I got a bit of a hazy look from the clearcoat because it was so humid. I think it kind of adds character.

Altered Paintbrushes

 My son sent me an idea for altered paintbrushes which happened to be and idea I myself had saved on Pinterest. I then went and bought paint brushes made of wood and natural fibers as I knew I was going to use polymer clay to decorate them and they had to be oven safe. I tested them in the oven anyway so I wouldn't create something and then have it go up in smoke. Those paint brushes sat for quite awhile because I really have to be in the right mood for crafting and it has been a bit warm for turning on the oven. This past Saturday was cooler so I decided to go for it. Sculpting is hard for me because I don't really understand how to get the depth and perspective. I watched a Youtube video to get some help. I sculpted three faces on three different size brushes and then put them in the oven to bake. They came out pretty good and I put them aside to wait for the mood to paint them. Turned out that evening the mood came upon me. I kind of enjoyed it and sort of like the result. I may try this again.

Trying out natural dying

 My boredom has led me to trying my hand at creating natural dyes. I am not a patient person so I am not really doing it the correct way. I have achieved yellow and pink and an orange like color. I have definitely achieved a tea dye color without tea. I am trying to get green but no go so far. I feel very witch of the woods when I am doing this kind of stuff but it is just a distraction. The worst part is  that I will probably accumulate bits of fabric with ideas attached to them that I may never get around executing. I did make a little treasure bag with some bits.

Allowing myself the title of artist

 I never used to say I was an artist. I liked to make art but since I wasn't great I never felt like an "artist". Yet aren't we all artists in our own way? Why do we resist owning the word? I constantly am seeing things as being made into something else. Some people would call that a person who repurposes things. That is a form of art. Allowing myself the ability to not be good at art has freed me to create some things that are pretty good in my own eyes. I do not take loads of time on what ever piece of art I am creating because my attention will wane quickly. I like painting pictures using other pictures as a reference because sometimes they come out quite good but I like the stuff that just comes out of my own head the best. Things that appear from random marks on the paper. I have just recently learned that this is called intuitive art and I got so excited to realize that it is still art to not have a plan. This kind of art is about letting go of the plan and just feeling it. Sometimes something great happens and sometimes maybe not but it is about the feeling. 

Random Art I Have Done

Creating Things In Retirement