Laura's Sculptures

I went over to Laura's today to photograph her latest sculptures - they are wonderful!

This piece is titled "You're Never Too Old to Wear Pink". It all started with one pair of the shoe forms we found at the Sally Ann last week...

Last Thursday morning we worked on more sculptures. Laura is very quick at everything she makes and whipped out her sculpture in no time flat. As Janet said, the figure even looks pretty now that she is finished. We had all seen her without her clothes on and, honestly, she was quite frightening to look at! Laura wrote words on the bottom of the swing which are reflected in the mirror. Clever girl.

Laura is also very resourceful when she creates. The wing frames of this enormous bird are made out of pencils taped together with marbles at the larger joints! All was then painted and rusted and the result really looks like she welded it all together. Her bird's head is paper mache and the wings are draped with cheesecloth covered with fabric stiffener. 

A closer look.

Laura has given me a sewing machine to try out, so there will be more experimentation in my art coming up ( :

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We keep playing!

Thursday mornings have sparked some wonderful ideas which have become amazing new art pieces. We have each been doing our own thing here at the studio on Thursdays while exchanging ideas, looking at art books and mags and generally getting very inspired.

There are more ideas than we can ever try...but we are working at it!

Here is Claudette's assemblage (pronounced "Ahhhsemblahhhj"). She has used Paverpol to stiffen the fabric that is draped on the figure and real horse hair.

Ah yes - the real 'Facebook'. Laura has cleverly put together a miniature accordian style book using dominoes for the covers. Her molded clay face is given a special treatment to make it look like metal.

Heather has been very inspired! She has created all sorts of things between Thursday morning playgroups. Here is a framed face with all sorts of interesting texture and embellishments...including an old credit card cut into the shape of a flower at the bottom right.

Here she has time on her hands, I mean, hands on her time. You know what I mean ( :

Another time piece by Heather with lots of beautiful buttons glued to the top. The clock face is a toy wagon wheel. Great idea!

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'HERBOOK'

I have started on an 'Herb Book' for my new series of art. There will be paintings, sculpture, assemblages, books and anything else I can come up with - all with the theme of Herbs. Of course, the theme may not always be directly evident and there will definitely be some medieval twists to the series.

I started with a piece of ripped cotton rag, then added old book pages, tissue, printed images, vellum, paint, water soluble crayon, distress inks, found objects and interesting elements. I used matte medium, white glue and thread to attach various items.

This is the back of the above page. The same process was followed, with the addition of a tea bag embeded in a 'cocoon' of spun bound non-woven fabric (Lutradur or Stitch Witchery) distressed with inks and paint. Stitching, lettering and drawing is used to create layers and I am sticking to natural colours for an organic look.

By fusing cloth, paper and tissue the pages become strong and somewhat stiff - especially when two sided. Eventually I will decide how to bind this book. Or will it hang instead?

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Making Faces {^%

I have been having great fun playing with Super Sculpey! This is my first attempt at a head. It is formed around a styrofoam egg with extra clay added for the prominent features. I was amazed at how the face developed as I worked with it. I REALLY like playing with clay!

This is the result after forming the head and baking it in our 'dedicated' toaster oven. We didn't know if the styrofoam under the clay would melt, so we plugged the oven in outside and watched for any signs of danger!

Here is a view from above with some painting done to the face and a neck added.

This is a more straight-on view. The metal piece underneath will become a 'neck ruff' for the head, which in turn will be mounted on a wonderful object!

More photos to come as the piece progresses...

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