Mermaid Ornaments

A while ago I made a bunch of Art Dolls, and one of them was a mermaid. So this year, I decided to make some mermaid ornaments. They are much smaller than the doll mermaid, so details are harder to do, but I think they turned out pretty cute.

I made some standing ones, as well as modified sitting ones. I used my original pattern I used for the doll, but shrunk it down to 40 percent. With the dolls and mermaids, they are made from muslin I sewed and stuffed, then painted. The arms are sculpted from polymer clay.

New Ornaments

Finally after a few long crazy months of having a baby, packing up our house and moving back to my home town of Boise, I am back working on my art. I am making some new ornaments for my booth at the Holiday Market this year.

So I saw these great mushroom ornaments on Martha Stewart and I decided to make my own out of paperclay. First you need an armature so the clay has something to mold to, and that way its not a solid clay lump which would take a long time to dry, and also use more clay. I used a Styrofoam ball that I cut in half and cut into the desired dome shape. I also used a wooden dowel for the base part that I cut to the desired length and inserted it into the Styrofoam and then covered the whole thing with paperclay.

I love using paperclay, you can apply it piece by piece in a thin layer, then when it dries I sand it smooth and apply more clay where needed. Before it dries I put in a small ring on top to hang the string by. After the ornament is dried and sanded smooth I can paint it. I love this part, it is where the ornament comes to life. I did several styles for these mushrooms, some all painted and some with glitter.

This one is a lot more sparkly in person than in this photo.

The white glitter on the bottom of this mushroom is a velvet glitter. It is more of a mat type glitter, so not as sparkly.

Of course I had to make some more birds. I used a Styrofoam egg shape then carved out the tail part. After the ornaments are all done I glaze them with a protective UV varnish which will help preserve them.

Summertime: Wedding Season

It is summertime, and that means weddings. Here are a few cakes I have made for weddings in the past.

For this cake, I used real flowers for the cake topper.

This bride wanted a miniature wedding cake, with a bunch of cupcakes.

All of these roses were handmade, both on all the cupcakes, and on the cake below.

All fresh flowers on this pink cake.

My sister's wedding cake, my first "real" wedding cake I ever made. I learned a lot from this one cake.

I was thinking I could make some paperclay painted birds for wedding cake toppers. Instead of hanging by a hook at the top, I could add little wire feet that would sit on the cake.

Spring Time!

In honor of spring, I thought I would post some pictures of things I have made that remind me of spring.

Things I've Made with Sculpey

Since I haven't made anything new since my 6 week old son was born, I decided to post some pictures of things that I made using Sculpey, or polymer clay. These clocks were a series I called "Clock Babies". I made all the figures from Sculpey, which is a clay you sculpt then bake in the oven. You can then sand, paint and varnish, and even drill holes in the clay. I decided to make clocks. I used a clock bought from the craft store, and a ready made frame. At the time I worked in a frame store, and found a bunch of neat frames I liked. As I got into it, I got more creative with each one, adding things for them to hold, like hearts or animals.

With the faces and hands, I used "Super Sculpey" which is a lot like regular Sculpey, but is a lot more firmer and can hold its shape better. I wanted the faces to be more 3d and so I sculpted them to have more dimension.

These little guys I made into ornaments. I used the Sculpey for their faces, arms, and legs. The bodies I sewed out of fabric and stuffed. On some of them I attached hearts that I made from Sculpey as well.

This art installation was from an art class when I was at BSU. It was a series of boxes I made, that each had a peep hole to look into, finding a different "view". I wanted to create something unexpected and play with the idea of voyeurism. Everything inside is made by hand, using Sculpey, fabric, and a few other things.

Since the boxes were completely closed off, each one was lit inside using a small night light bulb. When turned on, and you looked through the peep hole, you were able to see inside.

This is what it looked like when you looked through the peep hole. The installation was a big success and I even sold it to Robert Kantor, a sculptor from Sun Valley, Idaho.