re-thinking the black sheep-creature
I think maybe I figured out the new shape of the black sheep-creature. But I still need to change the shape of the face, too...and now it is not looking like such a young creature anymore...so it will just be a creature that is camel-like. I think.
I discovered tonight that those metallic vent pieces can be cut with scissors. No need to saw them or use tin snips...yay! I would be plaster cloth-ing the hump tonight, but I need to figure out how to fill in the space/gap underneath the newly cut curvy metallic shape.
I am also not even going to try to fight with the blogger form to put the text next to the photos...I will just load the photos.
I am fairly pleased with the overall shapes of the back and muzzle. The tuck underneath the creature by his hind legs is not quite right for a camel, but he didn't start out as one. Also, his legs don't have anywhere near the right shape and joints...no biggie. My main goal was to make a new creature using the form of the original black sheep as a sort of armature.
photos from late, late last night (which was actually today)...
Today I had knee physical rehab session number two -- on both knees...owww...a little more range of motion, a lot of stretching and stuff I can keep doing at home...but I don't think it would be good to do a whole lot of standing/working on plaster cloth tonight again.
SO --
Here are photos taken after yesterday's blog entry...the work was chronologically done today but I personally don't count it as today because it was still "last night" to me because I hadn't gone to bed and gotten up again yet...but this is today's blog entry.
Session Number One: approximately 12:15 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Attaching the wooden balls with the flat bottoms to the legs.
This is one of the back legs...this is the one that had the biggest gap(s) to fill in.
pre-taped and ready to go
starting to fill in the big gap(s) one
I worked on all of them at once...I usually do things individually...but I wanted to try it this way...plus, I needed to keep them evenly drying.
the one that needed the most filling in -- all filled in
the one that needed the least amount of filling in -- all filled in
letting the wooden balls dry (for a little while) in place
Session Number Two: approximately 3:30 a.m. to 5:15 a.m.
Attaching the head to the salt container and then attaching the head/neck to the body.
getting ready to tape the head to the salt container in just a couple of spots...but also taping the whole salt container
taped container and protecting the original glass eyes with tape
the first plaster cloth triangle to hold the head to the salt container...I didn't want to pre-tape too much here so that the plaster cloth would make the connection instead of the tape...just in case
quickly adding the first couple of plaster cloth triangles to steady the still-wet head/neck assembly to the body...kinda tricky to take photos at the same time and work one-handed holding the head/neck in place...I need an unpaid intern studio assistant
yay -- it is staying on -- and he isn't thrown too off-balance with the addition of the head/neck! (something I hadn't thought about)
another view
I poked the original ears into a new position -- totally temporary
another ears view -- kinda cute but a little too deer-y maybe
the ears may be in a decent location, I am just not so sure about the shape of the ears yet
I can't truly express how happy I am to be working with plaster cloth again. I am sorry the cats (mainly Bootsy) busted this guy up so much, but I am kind of glad to have temporarily kicked them out of the cat room and set up this little plaster cloth station. I need to do something about the lighting, though.
And really, these two cats don't used the catwalks and loft very much. Twink walks across the main board and looks out the skylight sometimes...Bootsy occasionally follows Twink up there but doesn't venture out very far. They DO use the cat furniture and comfy chair in that room a lot. They have another cat tower in the dining room and several chairs in the first room by the front entrance -- it's not like they are deprived or anything.
(Okay, I feel a bit better now...LOL)
a bunch of stuff
Chugga chugga, chugga chugga, screeeeeee -- crash! That's the sound of the Tookies production train falling off the tracks. I came into the studio this afternoon to gather the boxes together and start printing labels, etc. only to find that I had forgotten about all of those Penciled In artpacks I sent in last time and I am incredibly low on my supply of boxes. I have to order more -- so that puts the Tookies on hold for now.
In the meantime -- This morning Joan, Leann and I finally got a chance to meet up for Wednesday Morning at Joan's (only not at Joan's house). It has been SO long since we have met for our little group -- it was so great to talk and catch up! Leann also suggested a sort of field trip for next week -- I can't wait!
Leann and Joan at Tuscan Cafe this morning.
And Leann had this fabulous art quilt for me (Joan got one of Leann's voodoo boxes). This piece was in a fiber arts challenge by the Running With Scissors group called "Above & Below". After it's initial exhibit at Two Twelve Arts Center in Saline, MI the show moved to the library out there. This is the first chance Leann has had to get our pieces to us.
Here is a detail of one of the flowers in the "above" portion of the piece.
I LOVE the roots and skeleton in the "below" section.
THANK YOU, Leann!
Later on I had my first physical therapy session for my bum knee. After that I made a very quick trip to Michael's to pick up a couple of wooden balls with flat bottoms for the black sheep-creature.
I think these will work well as feet/bases for the legs of the creature. The tubes are a bit uneven and I need to adjust the heights and gaps between the balls and edges of the legs.
This is how it looked when I tried it out.
Tonight I also needed to remove the head of the creature so that I can make the neck longer.
Again, I felt pretty bad about doing this to someone else's artwork.
It was not easy cutting through the neck. It turned out there was chicken wire inside, as well as thicker wire inside of that.
That was a lot of work sawing the pieces apart.
I think I found the element I will use as the base of the new construction -- an empty salt container I had in my stash. It is just about the right thickness, it won't take too much building up to match the head and body.
It is also a pretty good length for the extension.
After finding the salt container I moved on to doing the prep work of adding the wooden balls to the legs. I used that tacky stuff and then masking tape.
This is the one that has the biggest gap between the leg and ball. I only filled in two sections with the tacky stuff. I want to really work some plaster cloth into this one.
This was another time consuming (and upside down) step. I was pretty physically worn out after this so I took a break and watched some television.
Apparently I dozed off in front of the tv because I startled myself awake and found that it was 11 p.m. already! I have been fairly limited with this stupid knee injury and I have been taking it pretty easy for the last month and a half or so. I guess all of today's activities wore me out more than I realized -- LOL. I am going to attach the balls to the legs tonight but I wanted to come in and get this blog entry posted before my midnight deadline. What a great day!
this batch of Tookies is done!
Yay -- 100 (actually, 102) Tookies are completed! Okay...the finger puppets are done, now I need to do the label printing, packaging, insert printing, figure out what I will weight the box with this time, stuff the boxes, wrap the cellophane around the boxes, pack them for shipping...and ship them. Heh...yeah, still quite a bit to do before I am ready to send them on to Artists in Cellophane (Art-o-mat HQ). But...100 (+2) are done!!!
The Tookies finger puppets -- done!
65 in the jar and 37 in the small bin.
All of the Tookies finger puppets together.
And...I have been fooling around with reference pictures and sketches for possibilities for the black sheep-creature.
I could extend his neck and nose and face shape and try to turn him into a llama-creature.
Or maybe a camel-creature.
(The sketch is still a llama-ish guy.)
Or maybe a young solid-color camel-ish guy.
I don't know yet.
my birthday presents to myself
Today is my birthday and the presents I gave myself are a guilt-free day off from Tookies production and a new no-deadline plaster cloth project.
I got this papier mache black sheep at a 2nd hand shop several years ago. It was kind of banged up when I got it, but I loved it -- it was made by the same artist who made other papier mache animal sculptures in my collection. Twink never once bothered any of the art pieces. Bootsy left them alone as well -- until a couple of weeks ago. Bootsy is not exactly clumsy, but he is less aware of himself than Twink is. Twink can leap and land on a dime. Bootsy hurls himself into the air and lands wherever...that sort of thing. I don't know if it has been this stupid weather or what, but the last few weeks the cats have really been tearing around the house. And while Twink can take corners at full speed and then slide on the hardwood floor and act like he meant to, Bootsy looks like a cartoon when he does it. And that is how the black sheep got knocked over a few times...Bootsy spinning out and barreling into it.
Last week one of the sheep's ears was snapped off. A couple of days ago I found the sheep on its side and the other ear was totally cracked and barely attached. Today I couldn't bear to look at the broken sheep anymore and I really didn't want to throw it out.
My sister graciously stopped by and helped me move a table into the cat room so I could set up a plaster cloth area to work in. (The studio is still too cluttered and un-cleared to work in.) Ha -- they break my sheep and I commandeer their room to work on it.
At first I was going to try to just repair the sheep.
The first broken off ear.
The other wrecked ear.
Some of those marks were there when I bought the sheep from the second hand shop.
The more I sat and looked at the sheep the more I realized I wouldn't be able to repair it. I needed to alter it and make it into one of my guys.
I felt really weird/bad about it, but I don't have a problem with repurposing paintings from yard sales and Salvation Army -- and that is how I acquired the sheep...so what is the problem? I am not sure, but I am still kind of conflicted about it.
Finally I got a grip and got to work...
I was sketching it this morning and I knew I wanted to extend the legs and make it taller.
This afternoon I thought I would just be adding hard cardboard tubes to the legs...but no. It required sawing the feeties off.
THAT was tough!
But oh well...then I needed to saw up the tubes.
I measured off 18 inches on the tubes and then tried them on for height. I was fairly happy with that, but when I cut the second set of tubes for the hind legs, the legs were angled too much for the tubes...more cutting was required higher up. Gah!
I got the hind tubes on.
Then I put him on the floor and kept walking around him to see how I felt about the beginnings of his new look.
His legs are a bit gangly at the moment but I wanted to give it a go.
I imagine I will end up altering most of him...but I will keep these eyes.
Ha ha -- he is about Irish wolfhound height right now.
This is the surface of his body. It looks really cool and I can only imagine how long it must have taken to achieve. But it was really dirty when I bought it and it is just about impossible to clean those low sections.
I rolled up my sleeves and got to work -- it seems like it has been so long since I have worked with plaster cloth and I have really missed it!
There are small gaps between the tops of the tubes and the sheep's legs. They needed to have the plaster cloth really worked into them. This is the first layer...just to attach the legs to see if I like how it is going so far.
Getting more of a "feel" for it...working the plaster cloth into the grooves. And while that is happening (slowly), it is also wetting that dust and wetting the old newspaper where the cuts have been made. Cough, cough.
I will need to even up the bottoms of the legs eventually. Maybe I will make hoofy feet, maybe some other kind of feet, maybe just attach it to a base...I don't know...that is a long, long way off yet.
This was taken after he'd been left to dry for a few hours. The plaster cloth is still a bit damp, but I think it just might hold together. It will take many more layers and lots of attention to filling in gaps.
I like him so far. I am starting to think of some back story for him.
I know for sure he isn't going to look much like his old self once I am done.
