What a World

I shouldn't act on an impulse at eight o'clock in the evening. It's after 1am and this witch is in the oven cooling off and the photo doesn't look very good. We'll see in the morning.
On a brighter note- This week saw two of my favorite movies again-"Unbreakable" and,"About a Boy". Even better this time around.
I just noticed that someone actually wrote on my blog. That hardly ever happens. Sherlock Holmes looks easy to make, you say. Well, maybe he didn't seem so hard because he is such a major part of me. I first read him when I was 12.Reread him when I was 19. I usually bake a piece 3 0r 4 times before it's done. A few hours passed between each step and of course i don't think I did him justice.

More Passenger Pigeons

Yesterday Jim and I went to the Bell museum in Minneapolis. It was like a dark, old mausoleum. It was mostly dioramas of animals native to Minnesota. With all of the marvelous wildlife films made recently the concept of using taxidermy in dioramas is just about obsolete. The reason I went, though, was for the Passenger Pigeon diorama.It's a good thing Victorians were keen on taxidermy. You can't film something that doesn't exist anymore. I was thrilled.
Gave a lot of thought to my flying monkey. It's just about done. I'm not sure what I'll make next.

Holmes and Toto

The Game's Afoot!



Score: 100% (8 out of 8)

I have a failure here. I can't seem to recreate Toto and a flying monkey.I need to make something else and rethink what I'll do.
I cheered myself up by taking a Sherlock Holmes quiz. It's been years since I've read him, but I love him so much that I got 100%.

No Monkeys

Someone wanted me to make a flying monkey. I've made a couple before, but I don't have them so I made another and so far I hate it. It's annoying to have problems with something I've done before.
I set it aside and made a Pierrot.
I'm happy that the glass globe can make it through the baking.
Tonight is Watson's second obedience class. We did homework and he will lay down on command. Whether he'll obey with a lot of other dogs around remains to be seen.

W

Jim bought this walrus picture for me at the same show done by Marc Johnson that I got the Hitchcock picture. It's an original and I think it's marvelous.
I'm having another go at big eyed girls. Pictures and dolls of them seem to be really popular. They were popular when I was young, too .When I was researching them on the computer I came across a copy of a picture of a big eyed ballerina that used to hang in my bedroom.
I experimented and found that I can bake these glass globes in the oven with clay. I'm thinking about what I can make with them.

Watson & Sushi

Rather than remake this piece, I cut his little head off and replaced it with one I liked better. That's the advantage of polymer clay over organic clay.
Watson did OK at school. It was a rather large class and the teacher did a lot of talking so Watson got bored and sometimes barked but he wasn't the only one.
The robin is still beating on the downstairs window.
Weird.
The weather is beautiful and our yard needs attention so we will work on that today, although I'd rather sculpt.

The Grasshopper and the Ant

Elephant skeleton & Ants

Watson starts school on Thursday. I think he'll do well. He needs to channel his energy into something besides shoes.
The weather is chilly and drizzly. It makes the clay sticky even though I have the heat on. The ants are for a statue of the Grasshopper and the Ants.I'll have to finish it tomorrow because we are going to Bill's tonight.
That is all.

Sculpting vs. Sewing

Why, yes, I have been working.I'll have to wait for the natural light to get better to put these online. I thought I'd make a nun because they were a big part of my life when i was in grade school.
I'm giving Alex eighty percent of my fabric for his yard sale. I love my fabric but I have waaay too much of it. Since I've become obsessed with sculpting I hardly sew. The fabric could be useful for someone else and Alex could make some money.
My new word for the day: ish.

Skeletons, Dogs n' Stuff

I received this in the mail today. It's by Claylindo. I love it and that's the way to buy things. Her work is exquisite.
I've been busy with Real Life things and haven't added to my Etsy stuff, but I did subtract. Someone from Salt Lake came to dinner and she's a big fan of Harryhausen, so I gave her my "Hydra's Teeth".
Alex is moving back here and having a big yard sale with his roommates, so I'm going to delve into my fabric stash and make tidy little bundles of my interesting fabric for crafters. I suppose I'll have to put Watson somewhere else because he's always at my elbow, wanting to take anything I have. Next week he starts school. Goody

Just Business

I made Carmen because I'll probably offer some things to a brick and mortar store. I dislike consignment, but what can you do?
This is my handy dandy postal scale. I can print my postal labels through Paypal and save myself a lot of trouble. Sometimes I can catch the mailman and I don't have to go to the Post Office. Am I a recluse or what?

Bird Dreams

Today I saw a hawk swoop down on a small bunny. The bunny got away and the hawk went hungry.
Last night I dreamed about the Passenger Pigeons. One was stuck in my screened in porch. I wanted to protect him, but I decided that the only thing to do was to scoot him out, like I do with the other birds. I figured he had family somewhere.
This is a picture I bought yesterday from Marc Johnson. He's done a great job of creating Alfred Hitchcock, one of my favorite people. It's been a birdy weekend.

Stool Pigeon

The hunters were quite inventive in their efforts to net large numbers of Passenger Pigeons. Some used a live decoy bird. They would sew its eyes shut, attach it to a circular stool at the end of a stick, raise it up in the air, and then drop it down. The "stool pigeon" would flutter its wings in an attempt to land. Gregarious by nature, the birds flying by try to land by the bird in distress only to get tangled in the hunter's nets. Rather than shoot the netted birds, the hunters would crush their head between their thumb and forefinger.

Passenger Pigeon

The Passenger Pigeon was once the most common bird in America. In the eighteenth century their numbers were estimated at five billion. Deforestation and intense hunting made them extinct by the twentieth century. Their story makes for shocking reading. The last one seen in the wild was shot by a fourteen year old boy. It was stuffed and named Buttons because the taxidermist used buttons for it's eyes. The last one to die was in captivity at the Cincinnati zoo. Her name was Martha, and she died on September first, 1914.
So sad