Ok, I Was Wrong

Carl has been sitting in the studio for maybe 7 months, waiting for me to get brave enough to give him eyes and legs. After my success with Tiki's eyes (which will have to wait for another post) I decided it was time for a gator.

Here he is in all his glory.

Here I am, thrilled as all get out that the eyes worked even better than I'd thought (I was planning on pancake eyes lying on his face, but they wanted to stand up, which is what I'd originally intended and which I didn't think I'd be able to pull off).

And look at the delicious little alligator piggies. I had no idea how to do these until after I'd finished his eyes. Of course having made an elinor peace bailey pattern about seven years ago did help (the chicken shaman has two part legs and I used that concept). They are so cute. They are so gargoyle-y and ogre-y and I think I may need a bigger box (of stuffing).

And finally, a view from above, to show off the lovely soft sculptured nose. His face is made from the most yummy dupioni silk I bought from Becky at St Theresa Textile Trove, and many of the fabrics that make up his body also came from there. His legs are my hand-dyed twill.

I am so happy. Now I think the dragon can be finished! :)

Down to the Wire

Still madly working on Donkey prep and an article on milagro/lotteria themed pins. This piece is Tiki Toad, and will be the last fiber piece I complete for the Donkey show (hanging Friday evening). Lots of stash fabrics, he is based on a lino-cut I made during my tenure as not quite art student here at OU. I am going to give him a realistic eye, thanks to my VanDyke taxidermy catalog. (machine stitched, not enough time to order a real eye set). You just never know what will come in handy during the making of a piece. :)

Miss Nancy's Midnight Parlor

In process, I finally got up the guts to actually put the back on and start quilting. The white lines are actually very pale sage and are the base for Miss Nancy's web. I am unused to wrestling something so large on my sewing machine, several items in the vacinity went for an unplanned trip. I am still pondering how to create her visitor. Flies used to come in all kinds of colors when I was a kid; I remember bronze ones and green ones and deep blue-violet ones. I want to pay tribute to that memory, and working out the best way to represent the colorful fly. I already have the most wonderful "fly eye" buttons..... :) I'd best hurry, Miss Nancy is going to Donkey in a week.

Picture Pages

While trying to upload images for an upcoming journal book, I became frustrated and uploaded to my flickr instead. I am still going to try the email, it just may end up being 12-14 individual emails instead of two batch emails. This page is from 3-4 years ago, I was planning my big birthday list. :)

Upcoming Books I'm In

I designed two projects for this one, both beadwork and both very cool:



And I am not sure who will be in this one, Chauncey the alligator, Plurtle the turtle, or Swanson the fish.

They both look really cool, I can't wait to see them!

Free Comic Book Day

Because we were uptown to vend yesterday, I was able to get a copy of this at the Free Comic Book Day event at Universe of Superheroes. I just grabbed it for the cover, not realizing it would be so cool inside as well. It's an excerpt from Lynda Barry's upcoming book "What It Is" and has tons of exercises and cool drawings and collagey words in it. I am just very very grateful I was there in time to get a copy, as they were all gone about an hour later when I went by with Aisha (she got Gumby and I was picking up Spiderman and Mickey Mouse for Ben).

The best part of vending was when Izzy had his first sale at around 2:30. He had worked so hard making stuff and pricing it and had plans for the money he'd get when the items sold. He was getting so discouraged because we were in an odd part of town (there are two streets that sort of converge with a pie-shaped piece of land in the center where Domino's and a law office live; it is the next to last cross street off Court and everyone was just walking past without even looking down our block) and had worked so hard. But he ended up selling 3 pieces by the time the show was over at 4pm. One more than me!