Fimo Mickey Mouse

I recently made an attempt at making a Mickey Mouse figurine from Fimo clay.  I am probably half way there, in terms of effort, but the results are already pretty good, I think :

You can read more about this, and other ceramics related adventures, on my new blog, Ceramics : It's Just Dirt.  I hope you can join me there.

Rattie Fursuit - First Paw and Tail

Now that my son and I have decided to build a rat fursuit, much of our "spare time" is consumed with shopping for and creating parts for his suit.  In the past couple of days, we have made good progress.  We now pretty much have the first paw :

It is built on a latex-dipped gardening glove, with foam to give it the oversized finger shape, and then effectively a pink fleece glove (hand-sewn) pulled over that.  Here is just the glove with foam, before covering with the fleece :

Yes, the two middle fingers are glued together, to achieve the rattie 4 fingered paw.

Now that we know how much work went into the first paw, it will be hard to convince ourselves to move onto the next one.  :-)

Today my son went to Grandma's house to use her sewing machine to sew the tail, and then stuffed it.  I think it turned out even better than I had expected.

Next (after the second paw, hopefully), we will tackle the feet.  Then we will likely switch over to the gray fur, and start working on the body.

The World of Furry and Other Outlets for Creativity

If anyone actually follows my blog, they might notice an absence of garden-related posts recently.  It's not for the lack of stories to tell, of the abundant Italian plum harvest  (I actually had so many I discovered the joy of drying plums), the gold raspberries which are still continuing, and other delights.  I even have some photos to post, but haven't made time for it.  My attention has been turned elsewhere, into the indoor world of the Creative.

My 14 year old and I attended BronyCAN in August.  It was a great experience, to meet a whole group of My Little Pony enthusiasts, many of them young men who relate to the story's messages of friendship and loyalty and magic.  Many of them who are otherwise quite introverted, but who, within the safety of a community of likeminded Bronies, found courage to join enthusiastically in karaoke and other activities.  It was really neat to be part of that.  I was happy to show off my Twilight Sparkle costume, and had a blast making costumes with my son (who was Fluttershy) :

While at the conference, we were exposed to the world of Furry.  I found out that some people choose to dress in fursuits, not just for some miserable (and hot!) job as a mascot at an event or character in an amusement park, but as a fun way of expressing themselves and their inner fursona, in the safety and perhaps anonymity of the suit.  There is apparently a strong fursuit community in the Vancouver area, with the VancouFur convention in the spring, and the smaller Howloween event in the Fall (this year it will be Nov 2).

My son and I were both impressed by this concept, and my son has chosen his character, a yet unnamed rat.  So we have been busily shopping for furs, and reading up on techniques for building a fursuit.  We found some really wonderful grey fur and pink fleece for the hands and feet and nose.  We started sculpting and creating one hand last night.

My fursona would be a dragon.  Probably a very shiny, sparkly green and purple one, with large wings, and which can breathe puffs of black smoke.  But I have no plans to build a dragon suit, at least not at this time.  It will be more than enough to learn and help my son build a rat suit, since we are both perfectionists, and will surely spend many hours on the project.  Then I will need to be driver and assistant for him when he goes to conventions and hopefully other events.  Not to mention, I spend much of my non-working hours thinking about and reading about ceramics, looking for inspiration and collecting up anything which I can use as stampers or shapers of clay.

But while we were shopping for fabrics, I accidentally ran into some "black snakeskin" fabric which was irresistible.  So I ended up bringing it home, and spending a number of hours creating a pattern (using a simple fleece glove as an example), and sewing my dragon gloves.  Here is the first one, partly done :

The photo doesn't do the fabric justice.  It has wonderful iridescent reflections of green and purple and other colors, in a stretchy fabric which has a pretty close feel to a smooth cool snakeskin.   Anyhow, where it is now pinned along the back of the hand and arm, I have decided to put in a row of spikes.  I plan to buy and create them from purple fimo clay.  Also matching claws.  I think it will turn out pretty cool, and I will be happy to wear them to the furry conventions, but still have my hands relatively free to assist my ratty son and take photos and other neat stuff.

Ceramics Creations - First of Many, I Hope

As my kids are now 14 and 12, and we have enough highly competent people at work that I don't need to feel responsible for everything anymore, I finally decided this summer to do something entirely for myself.  I have been wanting to learn and play with ceramics for years now, and finally signed up for a course.

It was an ideal course for me, since it was for all skill levels, not just beginners.  I find that I learn pretty quickly, so I wanted a challenge.  It was even better than my expectations.  The instructor, Sabrina, was super helpful and patient, and demonstrated and tempted us to try many different techniques.  The other students were an amazing group.  I owe so much to each of them, for their inspiration, and encouragement, and for being so open with their tips and suggestions.  I signed up for a course, but what I discovered was a community of wonderful and talented people.  I am already signed up again for another course in September, and in January also.

This is a record (probably more for me than for anyone else, and includes my glaze notes) of the many (22 !) creations which I brought home earlier this week, after my 4 week ceramics course (which was twice a week for 3 hours followed by a 4 hour workshop).  I am really pleased that I ended up with a few interesting pieces, but more importantly, each one represents a lot of learning - both of what worked and what failed.  All were made from grey stoneware.

I would love to hear from you if you enjoyed any of these.

#1 and #2 - These 2 pieces are among my favorites.  They represent some of the first vases/bowls which I successfully threw on the wheel, to which I attached lily petals.  In the smaller one, I not only attached the petals, but cut out a small section of the rim (as perhaps seen in the bottom right photo).  For both pieces, the lilies were painted with Red underglaze, Clear glaze applied to them by brush, then protected by wax resist (I forgot to add spots with overglaze before doing so, since I intended for my lilies to be freckled), while the remainder of the piece was dipped in glaze.  The large one (5" across) was first filled with Copper Red, then the entire piece dipped in Matt Green, then sprayed with Clear glaze.  I like the effect of the red showing through the green on the inside.  For the smaller one (4" across), it was dipped in Matt Green then sprayed with Clear.

#3 - This little candle holder (it is spherical, with a hole cut in the bottom so that it can sit on top of a tea light) was inspired by some beautiful spherical creations which I discovered in the Czech Republic during our trip last summer, but didn't dare buy any since I couldn't imagine them surviving the trip successfully, so I took a photo to remember them.  I didn't expect to try to create my own, but I am drawn to the spherical shape, so encouraged by Sabrina, I gave it a try.  I am pretty pleased with the result, although my next ones ( :-) ) will be much bigger, since the piece heats up too quickly with a tea light inside.  I dipped it first in Amber Celadon, then in Clear.

#4, 5, 6 and 7 - These were a few little items I made for my 14 year old.  The pony is Fluttershy from My Little Pony, except that I forgot to make her wings.  For the mane & tail, I mixed Red and White underglaze to make pink.  I had inscribed the eye detail when forming the clay, and dabbed Black underglaze into the impression.  The whole piece was sprayed in a matt clear glaze (I didn't quite catch the name, it was something like Grisly Bore), since I wanted it to look like ceramic rather than shiny plastic.  Same with the little skeleton decoration, where Black underglaze was brushed and then wiped away to reveal the etchings.  The little "rat bowls" were decorated in White and Black slip, then dipped in glaze (Bamboo for the small one, and Clear for the bigger one).

#8 - It's funny, I had expected this bowl to be my favorite, but it didn't turn out as stunning as I had expected at the time (nor did I expect to fall under the spell of the wheel so soon thereafter).  It was formed from a flat sheet of clay, cut and folded to form the bowl shape.  I painted the petal edges and outside of the bowl with Red slip.  The center was a mix of Red and Yellow and maybe Brown underglazes, I believe, and then the whole piece was dipped in Clear glaze.  The result would likely have been more vibrant if a thin coat of Clear were sprayed on, since it seems to have muted the colors, and also filled in some of the textures on the inside of the petals.

#9 - This little footed cup was just an early piece thrown on the wheel, and an experiment in glazing.  I dipped the whole piece in Shino.  Then painted Liquid Latex in the 4 card suits, and dripped Matt Green and Deep Blue while held upside down, and then the Latex removed to reveal the pattern.  This is a technique I would like to explore again.

#10 - This small footed bowl is also an early piece in my throwing experience.  As you can see, I am very fond of the spherical shapes.  The wiggly decoration is Blue slip which was applied when the stoneware was already too dry.  However, the glaze helped to secure it, otherwise it was wanting to break away.  The dots are Black underglaze.  I filled/dipped the inside with Deep Blue glaze, then sprayed the whole piece with Clear glaze.

#11 - My second sphere thrown on the wheel.  This one I didn't have time to make into another candle holder, so instead experimented again with glazes.  The inside is filled with Deep Blue.  The outside was dipped in one direction in Ash Yellow, and then in the other (overlapping) with Deep Blue.  I see in my notes that I also applied some dots of #3 overglaze.  I had forgotten, and thought they were just imperfections.  (Good reason to take notes while glazing.)

#12 and 13 - These 2 bowls were the first projects in our course, allowing us to explore a number of techniques, including paper relief (e.g. the word "Love", created by Blue slip applied to a Xerox copy of the backward word, and pressed into the moist clay), direct writing, stamping, paper relief (the little triangles, protecting Black slip while the turquoise was applied overtop).  The Love/Peace/Patience/Joy bowl is inspired by my neighbor Helen.  The other one, an ikebana vase, was textured on the inside corners (as well as rolled with a pattern on the reverse side).  But now I forgot if I applied Black slip and sponged away around it, or applied white slip on top, but the texture was smoothed by the thick coat of Clear glaze resulting from dipping the piece, and only the color left behind.  If sprayed, I suspect it would have retained some of the texture too.

#14 - This is the piece which got the most attention from my classmates.  After only a short time on the wheel, I managed to throw this large container (8" across and more than 6" high).  I seem to remember I threw the bottom 2/3 first into a curved bowl, and then learned that I could throw on top of that, so continued the curve and wide rim.  I was not quite content with the shape, which was on one hand almost too perfect, yet not perfect enough for me.  So my fellow student Darlene mentioned some technique she had seen on video, where slip / soft clay was applied randomly to create texture.  I dug into the sludge bucket and created my own colored slip/slop, which I enthusiastically slapped on, and I really like the result.  The inside was dipped/filled with Matt Green.  When some of it dripped, I sponged more Matt Green on the outside to hide the drip.  The whole piece was then sprayed in Clear.  I really like the result.

$15 - This little piece I made early in the course, from rolled sections of clay, and handmade flowers.  The flowers were colored with Red underglaze.  The blue leaves were supposed to be green, from a mixture of Blue and Yellow underglaze.  The whole piece was dipped in Clear glaze, which went on a bit too thick.  If I had known, I would have sprayed it on.  The nail hole has filled in with glaze, so I don't know if I will be able to drill that out successfully?  I think I'll need to read up on that before I attempt anything.

#16 - This footed bowl was my first bowl thrown on the wheel.  It looked too ordinary so I tried fluting the edges.  I fought with cracking several times as it dried, but managed to keep the piece intact.  The rings of pink and blue were from a failed attempt at feathering (see bowl further down).  The clay was already fairly dry, so once I added rings of Red and Blue slip, they dried too quickly to do anything with them.  So instead I added some radial lines in blue slip, but then the whole thing looked too geometric, clashing with the casual shape.  So I sponged red and blue and black slip all over the surface.  I liked the effect, which I sprayed with Clear glaze.  But during the firing, it looks like that sponge pattern disappeared.  The back was dipped and brushed with Tenmoku glaze.  Pretty funky coloration there.

#17 - I really don't have any affection for this piece, but I learned a lot from my mistakes on this one.  The main pattern was created in Black slip.  Which of course didn't look black at the time, so when I squeezed on the leaf pattern in Black underglaze, I didn't realize I had picked a color which wouldn't show up.  The black areas were covered with wax resist, and the body of the pot eroded with wet sponge, to create the 3D effect.  Except I broke through the clay (bottom left photo) and needed to patch the pot from inside.  When glazing, I covered the black areas with wax again (so they are unglazed), and dipped the outside in Matt Green then sprayed Clear.  The inside was filled/dipped in Tenmoku, which came out as a rich coffee bean color.

#18 - This cylinder turned out okay.  It started with a simple rolled slab, attached to a flat base.  I covered the whole piece in & out with Turquoise slip, added the dots in Red slip, and imprinted them with the rose pattern (from a button).  The whole piece was sprayed in Clear.  I like the result, and it was quite simple to achieve.

#19 - This was the piece which was successfully feathered, but adding rings of Turquoise, Blue and White slip on the inside while the clay was still quite moist.  Then the pattern was created by pulling a small stem from the center outward.  The inside walls were Blue slip, and the outside walls are Black slip.  The whole piece was sprayed in Clear glaze.

 

#20 - This candleholders was one of my early mistakes on the wheel, prior to receiving any instruction.  I had started to form a bowl, when the whole thing collapsed.  The effect was kind of cool, and with some additional pinching, ended up being a bit rose-like.  I added a small piece in the center to hold a candle.  The piece was dipped in Copper Red glaze twice (since I didn't dip it completely the first time, so I tried again).  I like how the glaze pulls away from the edges, giving it a weathered look.  But it's not a beautiful piece, I don't think.

#21 - This one is a bit too wide to be a goblet, but is a wonderful little footed container.  If I understand my notes correctly, the inside was filled with Matt Green.  Then I realized I wanted the inside blue, so the whole piece was dipped in Deep Blue (I love that color!).  Then I turned it upside down, and dipped just the top in Matt Green.  So a bit of the blue is showing through.

#22 - I may be listing this tiny bowl last, but this is what was left over from my earliest attempts at the wheel, before receiving instruction.  I decided to let it dry anyhow, and after shrinking during bisque and glaze firings, it is pretty tiny indeed.  But it let me play with some more glazes.  I think it was drops of Black slip or underglaze on the rim.  It was dipped in Celadon completely, then the bottom part dipped in Amber Celadon.

 

For anyone who actually read down this far, you are either very interested in ceramics, are a very good friend to me, or ??? (fill in the blanks).  But thanks for reading, and please drop me a note or comment on which, if any, of these pieces you enjoyed most.

 

P.S. 5 Oct 2013 - I have just created a new blog devoted to my ceramics journey, if you have enjoyed my photos, I hope you will join me.  It is called "Ceramics : It's Just Dirt".

Another Fursona

My son doesn't think this is him, but his fursona is a wolf, and he is an avid soccer player.

My daughter's birthday party with her friends is tomorrow night, so we'll see if the girls will try this "fursona" out for themselves.  Tonight I made some cupcakes which I'll decorate tomorrow so it will be a surprise.  I hope to share some photos once they're done.

My Fursona, or rather Scalesona

My daughter will turn 13 in another week, and she's at the wonderful age that she has all sorts of neat ideas to share with me.  So today (instead of cleaning the house, which I was also trying, but not very successful) we were exploring how to create a fursona.  She may ask her friends create them at her birthday, as a fun activity.

Fursona: A Furry Version Of Yourself


Scalesona: A Scaly Version Of Yourself

Feathersona: A Feathered Version Of Yourself

You could either pick a type of animal which you like, or associate with in personality.  Or you can take the quiz to find out what type of animal you are.  When she took the quiz, she turned out to be a small animal, such as a raccoon, or bunny or bat.  She chose the raccoon for her fursona :
 
 

 
I took the quiz, and found out that I am a winged creature, such as a dragon, owl or bat.  I chose the dragon, in this case as a scalesona :
 

I tried to personalize it as best I could - the dragon has my big belly, my green eyes, and shares my love of boots.
 
If you find this amusing, and take up the challenge, please let us know or send us a link to your fursona.  It would be fun to compare our results.

More Painted Bird Houses

I have a weakness for buying and painting wooden bird houses from Michaels Arts and Crafts Store.  Unless I am actually painting with the kids (as I have done previously), most of my painting takes place after they are in bed for the night, so between 10pm and midnight.  A little while back, I painted this little cutie (below) with the windmill.  Then about two weeks ago, I bought this bigger one, and thought I would just give it a single coat of paint that night.  But I ended up continuing to paint the flowers, a different flower on each side (click any image for a slighter larger view).

Yesterday I was shopping with the kids at Michaels, and surprised to find a whole lot of new bird houses.  I picked up two more funky shaped houses.  I promised myself I won't paint them both in one night.  I need to pace myself, and enjoy.

I use simple craft acrylic paints (in the little plastic bottles), and when done, spray it with a clear varnish.  They survive very well in the garden year round.  At least the paints do.  Look at the state of this roof, after only 1 year outside (this was not one I painted, I bought it already finished, but one day I will give it some real colour!):

And look at the thread-bare roof on this one (which my daughter painted 2 years ago):

I've learned to pick the ones with a solid wood roof, they seem to last the best.  There are even some in the store now with metal roofs.   But then that would be one less part to paint, so where's the fun in that?

Fun with Fabric Paints

My daughter's friends at school all have food nicknames this year.  My daughter's a cookie. One tough cookie.

One of her friends is a cupcake.  An evil cupcake.

Another friend is a brownie.  A super brownie.

I designed (drawing on some ideas I found on the internet - or outright borrowing the first one from David and Goliath - I hope they forgive me, in exchange for a link to their site, where they have some really cute T-shirts) and created all three shirts tonight, with puffy (dimensional) fabric paint I bought at Michaels. 

They may take a couple of days to dry, and then the threesome can wear their shirts to school.  It will be a fun surprise for her friends.  Oh, and the whites of the eyes are made with glow-in-the-dark paint, so that will be an extra surprise for them.

Insect Art - Painted Stick

On our trip to Otter Lake this summer, we found a stick which had insect tunnels all over it (under the bark, which had peeled off).  I brought it home, intending to paint it in contrasting colours to bring out the funky patterns the insects had carved.  I finally found the time this past week.  I think it turned out pretty neat.

I originally planned to paint in red (for the tunnels), and finish in contrasting black, but as I started painting the red, I came up with the idea of painting in red and yellow stripes, evocative of a poisonous snake, which the shape of the stick suggested.  So that's what I did, making sure to get deep into all the tunnels:

However, at this point, the tunnels were not very evident:

Until the black was painted on (brushing a light coat of black using the side or heel of the brush, so as to avoid filling the tunnels):

I am pleased with the final results, although I am not sure where to display it.  For now, I have it sitting beside a large wooden eagle head carving and stone salmon carving, both of which we bought from real (successful) artists.  So there is a sort of loosely west coast nature theme to it, even if it doesn't look like any of our local snakes.

If I get any compliments, I'll give most of the credit to the insects, for creating their patterns in the first place.  All I did was recognize and highlight it for them, so their artwork would be enjoyed.

Dried Flower Arrangements

A few weeks ago, I made a dried flower arrangement for our master bathroom, from lavender and dried grasses:

I think it turned out quite well. Since then, I have added some dried purple sage along the front, which filled the arrangement in nicely, and hides the green oasis.  I'll try for another photo when we have a bright day, so that the colours will show better.

Anyhow, that intial success encouraged me to try again, with some Nigella from my mother-in-law, and dried Lamb's Ear, also for our bathroom (which may now be the most decorated room in the house!):

Today, I decided to make a more ambitious arrangement for the dining room, from a variety of dried flowers in the garden, picked before it rains tonight.  I found a small basket in the garage which matches the colours of the dining room as well as the colours of the fall arrangement:

I'll try again for a better photo when it is bright enough not to need the flash, but this photo gives some idea of the result.  My daughter thought I bought the arrangement, not made it myself, so I take that as a very nice compliment.  Among the variety of dried flowers are: poppies and nigella seed pods from my mother-in-law, coneflower centers, bright red rose hips, iris seed pods (the dark ones), lavender, crocosmia, allium, and a few stars (bright green, but I suspect they will fade nicely into the arrangement) of umbrella sedge (Cyperus alternifolius).  I am also drying some more stems of purple sage, and may add a few to fill in the arrangement.  We'll see.

I am very pleased with the outcomes, and may make some attempt next year to dry even more flowers.  For example, my globe thistle should make a wonderful cut flower if I cut and dried it before it blooms.  At this point in the year, the little globes are crumbling apart.

9Oct2010: Here's perhaps a better photo of that last arrangement, with some purple sage also added in:

Fun with Mosaics and Collages

I am very excited to be playing with (free!) photo mosaic software, and creating images such as this photo of my son David, made up of 1000 tiles of little David images.  Pretty cool (click the image for a larger view, and also roll back a distance from the computer to see the overall image):

Created by AndreaMosaic.

The first time I think I saw a photo mosaic like this, was in 2006 in Disneyland.  They had some beautiful mosaics, such as this one of Walt Disney with his famous Mickey Mouse, made up of tiny Disney character drawings and images:

I remember thinking at the time that I would love to one day make a mosaic like that, and maybe there would be software available to help.

Recently, I have been inspired by many bloggers who create wonderful photo mosaics (which are really more like photo collages), many of who participate in Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.  My first attempt at such a collage was through Photoshop, but that was painful and time-consuming.  Then I was told about the Mosaic Maker at Big Huge Labs, and was able to create mosaics more easily and successfully, but the interface still left me frustrated, especially controlling which image would be placed where.

Then I heard that Google's Picasa was useful for creating mosaics.  I don't know why I hadn't tried Picasa yet, since I am a big Google fan, and my husband has been urging me for years to get some software for photo organization (I currently save them in folders named by date - usually month - and topic, but it is a painful process to go back and find anything from previous years).  Since Picasa is free (that price is right!) I decided to try it.  I was not prepared for what I would discover, and have yet to discover in the days to come.

Picasa is the most amazing software.  After I downloaded it, it proceeded to search through all my folders, including connected network folders, to find and index (it doesn't actually move the photos, just index them) all sorts of images which I didn't remember that I had (and certainly not where!).  The result is a set of thumbnails which are organized by date and folder name, and can be scrolled through very quickly to see the images.

Then it started on the face recognition.  Oh my!  It automatically locates all the faces in the photos it indexes, and allows you to name them.  Once you identify the first few people in the face images, it uses feature recognition (oh my goodness, I know this is possible, but this was very amazing for a free program!) to categorize other images of faces that are similar.  The interface is very easy to use.  As it finds faces and guesses who they are, you can click Yes or No and correct it with a different name where it goes wrong, or tell it that you don't want that face named at all (e.g. it will find each separate face in a choir).  The success rate was incredibly high, well over 95% correct.  As it learns which faces are which, it gets better and better at classifying, and automatically classifies from the remaining faces.

I left it chugging away for hours, and checked on it occasionally to correct it.  The results are presented as thumbnails in "folders", one for each person you wish to name.  For example, within hours, it had assembled 1,600 photos of my daughter April and 1,200 photos of my son David.  Each face is presented as a thumbnail image (see sample below of 9 photos from David's 1,200 photos), and from that image, you can easily click to see the whole photo, including Picasa's list of who else is in the photo (which you can update if any names are incorrect), and you can click to go to the image in the original folder.  You can select the entire "folder" or images in the "folder", and export either just the face images only, or the full images, to a specified folder on your computer.

When I saw this, I immediately saw the potential of photo mosaics made up of the little faces.  Sadly, Picasa has a mosaic feature but it is the photo collages, not photo mosaics.  Having said that, the collages were very easy to use, and allowed not only images and collage shapes to be specified, but it was easy to drag the photos around, and the software rearranged them accordingly.

But it wasn't hard to find some free (creditware) mosaic software - AndreaMosaic - which received good reviews, and for very good reason.

AndreaMosaic allows you to specify the primary image, and then a folder of other images which will be combined together in a mosaic to create the primary image.  There are a number of other parameters you can specify, such as how many tiles and in what pattern, what orientations of the images you will allow, what colour variations are allowed to make it a better fit, how many times the same image can repeat, etc (see below):

When I first clicked "Create Mosaic" I didn't believe it worked, since it took only seconds to prepare the mosaic, even the one with 1,000 tiles shown at the top of this post.  Even when I increased to 10,000 tiles, it took less than 1 minute to create the image (below):

Created by AndreaMosaic.

At this number of tiles, it takes very close examination to see that those are 10,000 tiny images of David.

Pretty cool. I think this has potential to keep me busy for many many hours. I can't wait for the next opportunity to play a bit more.

PS. Couldn't help but come back and create one mosaic of my daughter April, using this image of her in a floral wreath crown she created, back in July 2007:

Here it is, in 1,000 tiles.  Again, click for larger image, then step back from the computer to view: