A Rabbit in Time Necklace

Back on July 23 I posted a photo of this rabbit with the clock face and now I've finished it into a necklace.  I ran through several necklace designs in my mind before I settled on this one.  The main issue was that I wanted to incorporate a key - but what key?  I searched etsy.com for vintage keys and bought a few nice ones.  But. with the exception of this little pocket watch key, they were all too big.  Theoretically the pocket watch key should have been perfect since the watch face is from a pocket watch, but somehow the key just didn't seem to fit.

So I moved on to the necklace itself.  I picked out five colors of seed beads that I thought blended well together and picked up the colors in the rabbit, muted pinks and raw sienna.  It took a lot of time to bead all these strands but it was worth it.  I just now notice that the twisting of the bead strands picks up the cable design around and at the top of the watch face - funny how sometimes the subconscious seems to fill in the blanks while we work!

I've had a clasp for this type of twisted-strand necklace for a few years now but have never figured out how it works, so this is just my version fidged to work with a simple lobster claw clasp.  The crucial trick is that the beaded strands must be anchored at the ends so that the twist will hold.  To accomplish that, I saturated the ends of the beaded strand clusters with E6000 glue.  Then to cover the glue, I wrapped the glue blobs with strands of the sweetest little beads - cream colored Charlottes.

At that point, the little pocket watch key seemed to work just fine!  I don't know why, but why look a gift rabbit in the mouth?

The Winter Mural

Here are parts of the winter mural - the center part isn't pictured because I can't get far back enough to photograph it.

Before I started this one I anticipated that it would be the most difficult of the four seasons and it turned out that way - at least the most difficult of the three so far.  What made the difference wasn't just the challenge of the snow but also the meticulousness of painting the bare branches.

My general strategy for the snow was to make it more gray and purple in the distance to pure colors and more blue in the nearground.

It was really fun to paint.  And I'm planning to do more winter scenes when I'm done with the murals.

I will be sad to part with this one.

The foxes with the shadows finished

The Foxes

I enjoyed painting the foxes even though I was anticipating quite a struggle.  I figured that the main problem would be the transparency of the raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and dark raw umber.

I painted the white fur like I usually do, with a gray undercoat then working up slowly through grays and beiges to white.

But I tried something different for the red fur.  I worked a small section at a time, beginning with the parts farther from the viewer and working forward.  For each section, I undercoated with white then immediately came back - with a very light touch - into the wet white paint with the transaparent colors.  They mixed and blended with the white on the canvas to create a smooth light colored base.  Then when the base dried I put layers of transparent fur strokes with the colors.  This method worked pretty well.

I also tried to be more dramatic than I usually am with the values, and I need to do this more often.

A Dragonfly Alights on a Gourd

Wednesday I taught a gourd class which included a sample project using a variety of techniques.  The sample was the moth gourd that I did earlier in the summer, but I didn't want to make another one, so I demonstrated the same techniques on a new gourd instead - this one.

The techniques included, among others, a wash of paint followed by applying interference paints, attaching a branch handle, and applying metal leaf - all demonstrated on this gourd.  The circle at the upper right is a metal leaf sun.  At the left you can see the beginning of a dragonfly - its body, in fact - fashioned of turquoise cabochons.  On the class project the body of the moth was a cabochon. 

After class I got inspired by my new but not thought-out project and painted the grasses with Jacquard's beautiful Luminiere metallic paints.  Then I beaded around the cabochonc with glass seed beads.

Today, after much contemplation, I figured out how to make the wings.  I cut them from another gourd, sealed them, painted them with interference paints, then applied glass bead acrylic medium to the rough side, which will be the right side.  I'm going to glue them on with two part epoxy.  But first I plan to paint a small frog on the back.  I'm thinking of including a polymer dragonfly on the branch handle, but I'm undecided about whether or not that would be too much.  I guess I'll make one and see.

My Best Fox So Far

I think this is my best fox so far.  I made him of several separate pieces, attaching the ears, legs, back feet, and tail.  Lately I've done better at forming the fat cheeks on foxes and wolves before I get too far in the sculpting, and I think that really helps.

I've attached the tail with a half toothpick - pressing the broken, fat end into the rump then pressing the tail onto the sharp protruding end.  I like this better than strengthening joints with wire because the clay isn't so slippery on the wood.

Another thing I've been doing lately is applying the mica powders more sparingly.  It gives a more subtle look.

These tiny star-shaped brads have become my new "signature," along with my name stamp from Charm Factory.  The star goes somewhere conspicuous and the name stamp goes on the bottom or back.

The 32 gauge white wire I got from Fusion Beads is a real treasure for whiskers.

A Bear Totem

I sculpted this little bear the other night and added his beads today.  He's small - 2" tall and 1 1/2" wide - and is meant to be a totem.  The beads I chose for him symbolize, for me, joy and inspiration, as does the bear cub itself.

A few weeks ago I opened an Etsy shop, The Foxes' Garden, and now have five items listed.  As usual, I'm not that interested in selling my work, but how many things can I keep?  I've set my prices pretty high so hopefully I won't feel too bad if they sell.

I think the sculpting on this piece turned out good.  Lately I've been sculpting nearly one little piece a day, working in the evenings after my mural painting sessions, and I'm finding that the practice seems to have a positive effect on the quality.

A few people from my art group have remarked that they think sculpting these little animals is my first love, and they may indeed be correct!

The Autumn Mural

Here are a few photos from the now completed Autumn mural.  When I was painting it, the colors seemed sooooo bright!  But I guess that's autumn in Pennsylvania where the fall color is spectacular.

I feel really lucky that my portraits of Miss Lily are turning out pretty well.  And the cattle were fun to paint.

As with the Summer mural, I'm enjoying painting big which is somewhat of a surprise to me.  In fact, I may keep the big easel up in the dining room (but reduce it to 6' long instead of 12') so that I can continue to paint big when the spirit moves me.

Today I shipped the two completed murals to Sharon in Pennsylvania and I sure hope she'll be pleased.  Winter is next, and I start that one tomorrow.