Closing Down a Lifetime of Work

How do you know when it is time to move on or declare you are ready to retire?

For most of us, what we do has been a big part of who we are for most of our adult life.  

I think I'm at a big transition point in my life.

For years, I considered life and its demands secondary to my art work.  Although making money was nice, it was not the driving force behind the many hours I spent creating animal head sculptures. One of my favorite remarks was "I only sell them so the house doesn't fill up!"  Every sale made room for a new creation.  Yes, I'm also a wife and mother, but in my heart I'm an artist, and making the animal heads is my identity.

I'm sure many people struggle with similar feelings when they retire from their professions. Happy because they will now have time and energy for other things, like RVing.  But also a little sad and uncertain about leaving behind a world with which they were quite comfortable.

I've let my business die a slow death over the last several years. I have not done any shows, nor promoted my web site in any way, nor pursued retail opportunities, nor restocked as my inventory of available work has slowly sold.  

Instead of life being an interruption of the flow of my art work production, lately new orders have become an interruption to my life.  Instead of being excited about a new creative opportunity, I feel like I've "been there, done that" when asked to make one of the animals on my web site.

After forty-some years, I'm ready to close the door for good.

In the last few weeks I've gotten rid of all of the fabrics I have used to make dragons.  Many were scraps or remnants. I have made several hundred dragons, large and small over the years, and so the fabrics were paid for many times over.  I have culled my fur fabrics and will hang onto them until the house sells.  But I won't be buying any more.

Today I cleared out a large cabinet in the studio where I had many bags and boxes of "pretty shiny things": decorative gold and silver buttons, acrylic gem stones, glass marbles and beads, plus bags of old or broken jewelry that had either been given to me or that I had bought at Goodwill. I used such jewelry to make bases for my "Hoard Dragons" to roost on.  

I am waiting for a return call from the local elementary school to see if I can drop them off for art projects. I figure this close to Christmas, some teacher might be able to use them. Our school no longer has an art teacher :-(  I would like to see the stuff be used rather than tossed.

As I sat here today on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, wrestling with my feelings about slowly closing down my studio, the telephone rang.  It was a New York decorator who wants to know more about me.  Seems he had just found my web site and "loved" my work.  He said he is doing a Manhattan hotel and my work would be perfect for one of the areas.  He asked what I had that could go out immediately because the project was almost done and he had a deadline. I told him what I tell anyone who inquires.  I am still making animal heads, but on a custom order basis only.  No inventory, and  that it takes several weeks from order to ship. This was too long for him, but he did say he would keep me in mind in the future. I told him I could do some things for him if he gave me advance notice and we left it there.

Why today?

If he had called several weeks ago I would have been able to do the job.  Except for a couple of international orders, I have not had any business for weeks. In  years when I did shows, this would have been a very busy time with Christmas sales. Not this year.

The truth is I will be somewhat glad to have it end. I was not at all unhappy about not being able to take his order. I got more satisfaction out of making that blanket for the Alfa than I would have gotten from making yet another $500 moose.

I may be able to take some aspect of my work forward, or perhaps I will come up with another wonderful line that will be compatible with full time RVing.  

To quote an old expression: "When one door closes, another opens."  

I just have to have the creative courage to pass thru.

I think I'm ready.

Good-by Mr. Moose

Craig is busily caulking the wood siding on the walls of the tandem garage in preparation for painting.  The new door will be installed next week, and then I can paint both it, the interior wall and the new exterior wall. We have never used this space for much.  It has been a place to put kindling wood and garden tools.


Hopefully after it has been cleaned out and painted it will be a plus to the property. 


After we gut the studio room, and convert it back to a bedroom, if I want a place to work, this might be it.  


One of the things I stored in there was the "master sculpture" for my "Huge Elephant" design. I created it as a special custom order some years back, and kept the master (as I have done for most special projects) so that if I ever got an order for another one it would be easier to make.  I have had two somewhat serious inquires over the years, but no new orders.


I am at a point that even if someone did want such a large piece, I'm not sure I would want to make it.  


So, as we worked in that garage yesterday, I took down the elephant master and loaded him into the van for a trip to the dump.  The large Moose has been sitting on a table, covered with a drop cloth since February of 2011. I have made a few feeble attempts to find him a new home, but have had no luck. 


I made the "executive decision" and loaded him in with the elephant form.  I felt a bit sad, but knew this had to be done.  I put a blanket over him so I wouldn't have to see him among the trash in the back of the van, or at the dump.  It was already 3:00 in the afternoon and I knew the dump closed at 4:00, so I didn't have time to change my mind. It felt a bit like taking a pet for that "last drive." 


Good-by Mr. Moose. 

Answers in the night ...

Sometimes I get the best ideas when I am at the edge of sleep, either just as I'm falling asleep or just waking up.  I once read that you should have a pad of paper on the nightstand and jot things down so you don't lose them. I don't do that, but it wouldn't hurt.  One thing I have noticed about "middle of the night ideas" is that they are often not as good as they seemed when reexamined the next day.


One problem that I often mull over is what to do about animalhead.com  when we go full time.  What to take, where to store it all, where to work, etc., etc.  Sales have been so up and down this last two years I often think it would be best to just close it down.  Then I get a couple of orders, and I see that a few sales each month would make a nice dent in our campground fees. 


My mind was very productive last night.  The following ideas may fail in the light of day, but I think I came up with a couple of solutions for problems that have been nagging me.  


First, there are times when I need to hang a sculpture on a "wall" while working on it.  Such as when I'm shaping the antlers or checking the overall piece from a little distance.  
 Last night I came up with the idea that I could attach a piece of peg board to the back ladder, and hang work there.  With a few cable ties, it could go up and down quickly.  A small piece of peg board would not take up much room and be easy to store when not in use. 


Another problem is storage of "in process" paper mache sculptures.  They sometimes need to dry for 24-48 hours.  I can leave them outside on my work table next to the rig during the day, but need to protect them from wind, dew, or rain overnight. 


   We will be living inside the Alfa and there just is no place to put them.  


When I did art and craft fairs  I had a custom fitted table cloth that that covered my table to the ground. I used the space under it to keep bags and boxes. 


I am going to make a fitted, water proof cover for my folding table.  With a plastic sheet on the ground under it, it should be OK as an overnight storage place. 


It might not be great in a downpour, and I would have to keep track of weather forecasts! I can use water bottles for weights so it doesn't blow over in the wind.


I know it can be very important to keep you space neat and clean out of consideration for other campers.  What is OK to one person, can be an eyesore to someone else!


Things would be so much simpler if I made miniatures!


When do you do your best thinking? 

We looked at a Toyota Yaris  and at a Scion yesterday, and are probably going to see a Hyundai Accent today.... 

Art Work and Parking

First off welcome Jackie, my latest follower.  Seems like a gal after my own heart, wants to travel but has a art/craft that involves lots of materials!  WE will figure it out!


I'm feeling pretty good today. I was able to put in a solid morning of work on several animal head sculptures. I had an order for a Polar Bear before Christmas that I promised for February shipment, and got orders for a Moose and a Deer while we were gone.  January is often a slow month, so these were an unexpected bonus.


Thoughts about our trip continued:


I'm learning that each couple, or individual, has to find their own way of doing things.  Some say there are "pink" jobs and "blue" jobs, or if solo "all" jobs.  But as I read about other couples, I have learned that some men do most of the cooking, and some women do most of the driving.  There is no "only" way.


It seems for most couples, the man is the driver and the woman is the ground crew giving directions.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you know we have an unusually difficult home parking situation, and although we did manage to get the Alfa parked four times before Christmas it was not without mishap, nor great strain on our relationship.  


So this time we tried reversing our roles.  Craig drove down the short but curvy part of our road, and got the Alfa backed into the first 37 feet or so of the driveway.  It took a couple of tries, but he did it.  However, but the time we got it that far I was getting frazzled.  So we stopped, and changed places.  It turns out Craig is much better at giving directions, and I am much better at taking them.  The result was we got her parked and were not upset with each other.  


Still not an easy job, but a neighbor who had watched us before happened to be walking his dogs on the road and declared we were getting to be "experts!"


Last fall one of our friends, who is a retired Navy pilot, told us that in parking a large plane a pilot must do only what the ground crew signals him to do.  He must not try to drive the plane himself.  That's what I did and it worked.


I don't mind this role reversal, but Craig can keep doing the dumping and power connections!  


Who does what in your rig?

One more Christmas Order

This has been a pretty busy month for me.  I've had several animal head orders to work on.  I shipped the mandrill this morning and a large cow this afternoon.  I thought I was done for Christmas, but when the email was checked one more time I discovered an order for a large buffalo.  It will be going to Halifax, Nova Scotia.


If I get any more Christmas orders I will let the customer know I can't deliver by Christmas and give them the option of canceling.   But, It seems that every year I  get one or two orders from people who find my web site while browsing for Christmas gifts, and then end up ordering an animal head for themselves.  They usually don't mind waiting until January. 


This year has been very slow, so maybe I won't get any more work.  Since we will be RVing most of January, that's OK by me! I'm not ready to try to take work along with me yet.


I've been doing all of my own Christmas shopping online.  It is so much easier that facing the mall.


Since we won't be here, I'm not putting up any decorations.  I haven't for several years.  I like to see the lights on other people's houses and on the town trees however.

Not My Largest Elephant

Several of you commented on the size of the elephant sculpture I am just completing. When I built the first of any animal, I made it what I felt was the "right" size.  Not the real size.  Then if it was a popular animal I added other sizes.  Some I do in only one size, some in small, medium and large. For each animal I do, I create and keep a master sculpture so if someone orders one from a picture on my web site, they get one that is very much like the one in the picture.


For the elephants, the one in my previous post is a Large.  But he is not the largest elephant I have ever done.  I once did one I called my Huge elephant!


Several years ago a client contacted me and wanted a "life size" elephant head.  I did a little research and told him just how big that would be, and after some discussion and room measurements, I agreed to do an elephant that was about four feet wide from ear to ear.
Definitely not life size.
He wanted it to  hang it in his Palm Springs, Florida townhouse dining room.  He never sent me a picture of the room, but he did say he was very pleased with it.  


It took me about six weeks to make, and most of the work was done outside.

Shipping The elephant from California to Florida was a challenge. His ears and tusks were made so they could be boxed separately and installed by the client.  He went in two boxes.  But they were still too large for FedEx or UPS.  He ended up going by Greyhound Bus.  You can send fairly large boxes that way, but someone has to pick them up at the station. I used to ship moose that way until I developed a way to make the antlers removable.

I still have the master sculpture for the elephant hanging in the garage.  Over the years I have had two serious inquiries about making another.  One client ended up ordering a set of four other African animals for the space, and the other balked at the "pay in full before I start, no refund" condition I put on the job.  I don't do that for any others, but I didn't want to get stuck with it if the client changed her mind.

And then there was the whole Zebu ...  But that's another story.

I was not exaggerating!

My life has been zooming by at high speed lately.  So fast that I actually lost track of the days this week!


This will often happen to me when Monday is a holiday.  Well, this week, we drove home from the Pinnacles and Monday was an unpacking and getting resettled day, so it felt like a weekend day.  When I was making a date to meet fellow bloggers Russ and Donna I thought it was Tuesday when it was actually Wednesday!


Have you ever done that?  I'm not loosing my mind, but sometimes I check the day and date on the top of the computer screen or newspaper because I'm not sure what day it really is!


I had a short but delightful visit with Russ and Donna.  I wish I had more time, but because we went camping last weekend, I had to keep working so the elephant and warthog will be ready for shipping as promised.


Donna has written a very nice post today about our visit.  Craig thinks I was exaggerate the difficulty of parking here. 


This is their description of our road and driveway:


And what a road that is!!  It has more curves than Kim Kardasian, and more twists than a John Grishom mystery.  Not only is it curvy and twisty, it is skinnier than a than a marriage manual written by your maiden aunt Mildred.  On one side is a steep drop-off and on the other is mountain side with a deep ditch running alongside.  We were terrified driving our little Fit up there!  NO WAY would we ever drive a motor home on that road.


So, I was not crazy in being worried.  Craig is doing a great job getting it in and out, but it will always be hard and I will always fret the night before.

I'm stealing this picture that Donna took of me and the Elephant I'm currently working on.  It's hard to take pictures of yourself, and it shows the scale of my work.


Most of my pieces are a little smaller, but this is an Elephant after all!


**************************************************


I want to thank all of you who left great comments on my post about surge protectors.  We have ordered one that will be hardwired into the Alfa.  I feel a bit like we have tempted the wrath of the RV Gods by having dared to go out a couple of times without one! 


 But Craig says to remember the Alfa is almost six years old and has not been damaged.  I have a feeling that the only power the Alfa has slurped has been in high end resorts and not at sometimes iffy rustic parks.  Why? Because she feels so very "unused."  Just a feeling.


Do you get more reliable power in expensive private resorts?

If the Government is Buying Elephants ...

I got a call from Craig this afternoon. 
 He said "If the government is buying Elephants ... it must be a sign of a Republican takeover."

He can check our primary email from anywhere and was able to see and read an incoming order for a Large Elephant placed by someone in Washington DC with a .gov email address.  


I cannot tell you who the order was from, but I can tell you it was not from Barack Obama!

They also ordered a Warthog.














My animal sales have been very slow this fall. 


 Heck, slow is not the word, nonexistent is more like it. I had a very good summer, but this is my first order in six weeks. 


 If I considered myself a "real" business, I would have to close up shop.   A few years ago I would be booked solid with Christmas orders by now.  


Maybe it is part of a job stimulus package. 


 My job.


This is a repeat customer.  Last year they bought a Tiger and a Rhino. 


Actually, I don't think it is "the government."  I think my customer is someone who lives in DC and works for the government, hence the .gov email.  


But selling an elephant to the Obama administration  makes a fun story.


And it's good to have some work to do.  


It makes me feel loved.

New Bear

Not everything is about the Alfa.

I have continued working on my animal sculptures, and last week finished a new design.  I have always made bears, but was never quite satisfied with the design.

I think on this one I'm coming closer to what I want.


I still see a couple of modifications I will make in the next one, but for now I think of him as my "Better Bear."


I think he looks just a little bit worried and not as happy as I would like him to be.


My goal is to create a trophy head that will satisfy an adult, but also say "I'm not real and I'm not dead."


Tree trimming news: Craig has been playing telephone tag with our contact at the county.  We are now getting the message that he will be out of the office until next week.  Craig has emailed our Supervisor.  I can see how tree trimming can be a low priority these days with money being so tight, but the process has been frustrating.  I wish Craig would consider an off-site parking location.  


Have a good weekend everyone!  We will be working around the house.

Not A Match

I am back home from my test drive and have a headache!  I never get headaches.  I guess it was from the stress and excitement.


As you can guess from my title, the National Tropi-Cal was not a match.  Actually it almost was for me, but Craig wants to look further and I think he is a little leery of the "orphan" status of the Manufacturer.  I did do a lot of research last night, and got some good comments on the RV Dreamers forum "Buying and RV" thread.


The coach I test drove is 33' 10".  A good size for a first coach, and a good size for two people who are "any-timing."  It has a good amount of Cargo Carrying Capacity, and a reasonable  amount of basement storage.  The kitchen counter was larger than many that I've seen, and there was a good amount of cupboard and pantry space.


One minus was it had only a two door refrigerator freezer.  I would like a four door.  


A plus was there was no carpeting on the floors except for in the bedroom.  A minus, the vinyl tile looked a bit tired.


I know most people like the tables, but I have no objection to a booth and it had additional storage in the booth seats.


The driver's and passenger seats looked good, but the upholstery on the couch was a less than pleasant brownish green and looked worn.  I could live with that.  Reupholstering would be easy for me.


It drove wonderfully!  The turn radius was unbelievable.  It has a 55* wheel cut, and I felt like I could turn a complete circle without much more radius than it's length.  No long overhanging tail.


Craig says we need to see  more, and drive more before buying.  I guess I agree.  This one was very close, but last week the Itasca was #1.  Will I fall for every one I see?  


It's so scary.  It's so much money! 


One good thing that came out of the day is I have established a relationship with two salesmen at La Mesa.  One that I talked to on the telephone, and one that I had talked to at an RV show last year, and remembered me.  They work as a team, the second one took me for the test drive.  They are both named "Bob."  I asked how it would work if I did buy the coach, and Bob said they split commissions.  They both treated me with sufficient respect and I  feel they took me seriously even if I was a female.


I have been honest with all salesmen, if I'm looking alone I tell them that if I like it, my husband has to see it as well, but if I don't he doesn't need to.  


In other words, I have found a dealership that I'm comfortable with and that I think will look for a coach to fit our needs.  At least I hope they do.


Another small "happy."  When I checked email when I got home I have another order.  A Large Buffalo for Park City Utah.  Shipped an armadillo yesterday!  Had him done already and just put him in a box and mailed him off.

Change of plans, busy week ahead

My trip down to San Diego to visit my daughter and grandsons has been postponed for a couple of weeks.  I'm very flexible, and it seems it will be more helpful for me to be there during a week when she will have no child care.


But, this is fine with me because the customer who bought a giraffe last month, liked it so much they ordered four more to go with it!  So next week I will be working on a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and an elephant.


Sounds like a safari theme to me!


There is another RV I'm interested in and will be doing some homework on it in my spare time.  It is a private seller and I want to have more information before I contact them.

Catching Up and some nice emails

Although the creation of the Six animals that went to Canada went smoothly, the shipping did not.  I have used Fedex Ground for Canadian orders before without any problems or SNAFUs.  This time, a few days after they were sent, they showed up back on my doorstep.  Seems that my invoice didn't have a statement of "country or origin" on it.  I had indicated the "country of origin" on the form, but because I used my own invoice instead of the one generated by Fedex (They said I could use my own in the information on their web site) the shipment bounced.  This error cost me, but not the full amount of shipping.  I don't mind paying for my own mistakes.


So after I redid the invoice and shipped them again, I went on to other things.  When enough days had passed that I thought they should have either arrived, or were about to, I checked the tracking number.  I discovered they were being held in Customs because they needed yet another special paper.  A notarized power of attourney  giving Fedex the authority to deliver them.  What?  I have never needed this before!  I called Fedex again and was told it was required because of the value of the shipment.  A few years back I looked into all of this, and at the time I thought I had read that this wasn't required on shipments valued at less than $1800.  So when I made out the invoice I made it for $1700 instead of the full value.  Wrong again!  The cut off point is $1600. So off to the Notary to get the POA, and fax it to them.


Lesson learned.  If I ever get another order that big, I will ship it in two separate shipments.  They were in two boxes anyway.


It still took two more days to clear customs.  I kept in touch with my customer, and all the while felt very embarrassed that I didn't know these things. He seemed OK with what was happening as long as I kept him informed.


I have to say I was delighted when I got his email after they were delivered.


He said:

"OMG we got them yesterday and they are freakin amazing. You do such great work. We love them. We have not taken the horns/antlers out yet bc we won't be putting them up for a few months but the actual animal heads are again, amazing....good work sista thank you D..."

When I did shows, and sold things directly to people, I was able to see them being carried off by a happy buyer, or if they were ordered,  it was usually by someone local and they came and picked it up or I delivered it in person.


Some days when I ship an order it feels like I am putting an unaccompanied minor onto a bus or plane, and I'm not really sure they will be loved and cared for when they arrive!


The week after finishing the Canadian Six, I also had two other orders go out.  One was a leopard to someone in California, and the other was a giraffe that went to Wisconsin.  I got this email from the person in California:

"We received our leopard head today and it's great!  Thank you so much!!"


But heard nothing from the giraffe person.  I don't ask the customers to let me know when things arrive, or if they like them.  But it's nice when they do.  I checked the tracking number and I know it was delivered, but that was all.


On the RV shopping front.  The salesman called me today about the Itasca that we almost offered on.  The other buyer did get his financing approved, so it is now off the list. But he is going to watch for similar rigs for us to consider.  This week I went on line and read reviews of dealers that we might find ourselves working with.  One had almost all bad reviews, one had a mixture of good and not so good, a couple had no reviews, and See Grins had all good reviews.  I know each persons experience is different and most of the time people only write complaints.  But it is comforting to read the place you might be doing business isn't a bunch of complete scum-bags and crooks.


We are working on the house this weekend, and I am leaving for San Diego next Sunday for a week, so we probably won't do anymore looking until after I get back.  I might look at some rigs down in San Diego however.  

Art Work In Process Post 9 (last One)

This will be a long post, and only about the animal heads.

During the last two weeks  I have been working on what I have come to think of as "The Canadian Six."

 Much of the work is a repeat of what I have already shown you, so I just snapped pictures of what was different.

First off several people have asked me "Why dos your Exacto knife have a long red tail?"
The answer is because I go tired of loosing it among the fur and scraps on the work benches.  I can usually spot the red,  and save myself a great deal of looking-for-it time.

Moose Ears:

I use the same fur on the inside and the outside of the moose ears.  To create an "inner ear" I shave the fur with a WAHL clipper.

I also use it to shape parts of the faces and muzzles.

Impala horns:

I use rope to create the ridges on the impala's horns.  I do a layer of plaster cloth, then a layer of Hydrocal and finally black paint and sealer.

The Impala's nose is a little different too.

The white fur is his lower jaw.  The black is a piece of fabric that  I put as the inside of the mouth.  You usually can see it in the end.

I hot glue a "V" of wash-line to define the nose.  This is  covered with black fabric.

Next, I glue the fur to the bridge of the nose and forehead.  The edges of the fur are folded and shaved before being attached.

The upper lip is a bit of a challenge.  I have to fold and shave both sides of the split lip and get it in the center.  The top "rusty colored" part of the muzzle is cut and glued at the same time.  This is easier when the muzzle is all one color!

Getting this step done can sometimes take a couple of hours. I often have to remake the upper lips several times before I am satisfied.

The final step on many of the animals is to give the fur a little extra color or shading.  Large color markings are done with different furs, But here I am adding some sienna overtones to the Impala's forehead by carefully dry brushing acrylic paint onto it.  I also do some black markings around the eyes.  Sometimes if feels like being a makeup artist.

I did learn to use an air brush at one point, but find I have a little more control with a stiff brush and don't need a separate work area. So I sold the air brush at the last flea market!

Not every animal I make is to my liking on the first go.

As I looked at the Cheetah hanging on the studio wall I decided I did not like the way his muzzle and cheeks looked.

The solution was to rip them off and re do them.

The final step for the Cheetah is to give him some whiskers:

I use fish line for the whiskers and just Super Glue them in place.

The last stop before being boxed up and shipped is to get their pictures taken for the Web Site pictures.

We do not sleep in our Master Bedroom.  We keep a studio light set up, camera and computer there.

 It would be a hassle to put it together every time I do a new version of an animal or a new design.

Craig does the photography.  He shoots each animal from several different heights and angles.  Then I get to choose which one goes on the website.

He does all the website maintenance for me.





So, there you have it.  They have been boxed and taken off to FedEx.  Their pictures have been put on the website and my customer has been told they are on the way.

I will have a nagging worry for the next five or six days wondering if they will be lost, or damaged.

Hope he likes them!

What's next?  Last week I got an order for one of my favorite creatures.

 The Giraffe.  Better get back to work.

Art Work In Process Post 8

I'm trying to limit the things I picture in each of these posts to what is new or different for each of the animal sculptures I am doing.

In the last two days I finished the moose horns with a wash of paint and sealer, and he is ready for his fur coat.

I wrapped the deer antlers with another layer of plaster cloth yesterday, and today I did  a wrap of fiberglass tape and a coat of resin.

I did the same for the Impala, but his horns also got a wrap of wash-line rope to give his horns a ridged surface.

I put some extra resin over the rope, and will be doing a layer of plaster cloth over that tomorrow.

Most of today was spent working on the warthog.

I think of the warthog as having a squishy piggy nose, so I start it with a cut out piece of foam rubber.

I wrap this in a piece of thinner cloth, make the whole thing wet, and stain it with black India ink.

Making the fabric wet causes the ink to feather out and not be as black.

Once it dries I glue it onto the sculpture.

A warthog is not "furry" so instead of using fake fur for his skin I use a coarse wool.  When he is finished I will spend al least an hour brushing him with a hard bristle brush to bring up the little "hairs" from the wool.

I did not buy the fabric in a "fabric store."  It is in fact a woolen  blanket I bought at the local Army Surplus store.  I sure would hate to sleep under one, they are terribly scratchy.

This is the finished warthog, before brushing.










Three down, and three to go!

Art Work In Process Post 7

Another day ... another step.

The good thing is it is very hot here and my studio room, being downstairs is very cool!

Over the years I have tried a number of different ways of surfacing the horns and antlers.  I want them to look  boney like real horns or antlers.  Plaster of Paris is not good because it shrinks as it dries and this cracks.  Plastic wood is very hard to work with, but Durham's water putty works pretty well, but it to will crack if the underlying structure is not perfectly rigid.  Some years back I learned about a product called Hydrocal that ceramic artists use to make molds.  It is very strong and does not shrink very much.

I use two coats of Hydrocal to finish the surface of the horns or antlers.

The first coat fills in the smallest texture of the plaster cloth.  The second will cover the larger wrinkles.

After the second coat on the moose antlers I set them aside for a day or more of drying time.  The warthog was put out in the heat of the day and his tusks dried nicely by late afternoon.  I then painted them with a white primer, let it dry, gave them a golden brown wash, let it dry and sealed them with a water base sealer.  He will be ready for his skin tomorrow.

This picture show you the things I assemble to create deer antlers.

I have a deer skull with the antlers attached.  There's a story as to where it came from, but I won't go into to that now.

I also have a very good set of pictures of antlers that I look at.

I start with a PVC assembly that goes into the head.  I cut pieces of plastic that separate the head from the antlers so they do not get fused in the creation process.

I use 12 and 14 gage wires and masking tape for the first part of the structure.

Each wire loop is anchored in the PC and taped together.

Then I bend them into shape.  They don't have to be perfect.

I work a layer of plaster cloth over the wires.   Tomorrow I will work on the shape a bit more and add another layer of plaster cloth.

I did the same for the impala.



Even though the studio was relatively cool, I'm reading a very good book right now and decided to call it a day at about 3:00.



More tomorrow.

Art Work In Process Post 6

Cheetah:

Sunday and Monday were rather busy days for me, doing things other than art work, but I did manage to get in about six hours and got the fur done on the cheetah.

For the zebra, the key stripe on his face was the white under each of the eyes.  For the cheetah it is the black "tear line" from the eye to the muzzle.

I make a new pattern piece with waxed paper for the nose and forehead.

Every section gets a new pattern to fit this sculpture.

It took more than an hour to get the chin and cheeks the right size and shape.

I will be going back and trimming the white fur overlapping the black tear line.

After getting the ears in place, there was only one more piece on each side to do!

The cheetah is missing something, and he doesn't look to happy about it.

His Spots!


I draw his spots on with a black Sharpie pen.  I will be doing a few more here and there over the next few days.  I will also be brushing out the spots with a toothbrush and making them a little bit darker so they look more like part of his fur.

He will also get whiskers made out of fishing line and glued into place with super glue.

His ears are adjustable, and I will play with them a bit to make him look somewhat happier.



Post 7 will include more about antlers, horns, and tusks.

Art Work In Process Post 5

Is anyone still with me?

 I may save these blogs and put them on a CDR for my youngest grandson who aspires to be an artist, or a chef, or a baseball player.  He might enjoy looking at it someday and see how his Grandma Merikay made things.

But for now, I write for you.

Today I did a few "odds and ends."   Steps that only take a short time each, but must be done.

I use PVC pipe couplings to make the horns and antlers removable.

  I make them removable so they can be packed along  side the heads for shipping.  This makes it possible to use a  smaller box size and thus save on shipping costs.  Economical International shipping is  restricted by box size. 


I marked where I wanted the PVC couplings to be, cut thru the paper mache shell with a knife, and used a large drill to bore holes in the foam. I used glue and paper mache to set the couplings in place.

Yesterday I applied a layer of plaster cloth to the moose antlers.  The next material coating is a layer of Hydrocal, a white gypsum cement.

But because it is the same white as the plaster cloth it is difficult to see what I am doing.  To solve this, I paint the plaster cloth layer.  That way I will know that when I can no longer see any paint I have put on a thick enough layer of Hydrocal and have not missed any little places.

Everybody got some attention today! I started building the warthogs tusks.

I inserted a piece of 16 gage wire into the sides of his muzzle.  The "stick" in the center is a bamboo BBQ skewer, and it is keeping the wire in place.

Then I shaped the tusk with aluminum foil and masking tape.

I added a few layers of plaster cloth.

I also made the cheetah's nose today.

I use Sculpty III Clay for his nose.  It was shaped and then baked in a 265* oven to harden.
 I wrapped foil around the muzzle before adding the clay so the nose would be easy to remove after shaping.

I just lift the foil and transfer the nose to a baking sheet.

Later in the day I painted the black clay nose with black paint black.  I also painted the deer's nose which I had made on Tuesday.

I didn't help Craig today, maybe tomorrow.

I think Post 6 will cover furring the cheetah.

Art Work In Process Post 4

I finished the Zebra by early afternoon. Doing the mouth and nose is always a struggle, but  is impossible to illustrate with  pictures.  I just make it work.

This is a terrible picture of him.  Craig will take a better one for the web!

The next task I undertook was to prepare some of the "Plaster Cloth" for the moose antlers.

I buy it in twenty pound boxes from an art supply house in Wisconsin.  It is the same material that used to be used for casts for broken arms and such.
The boxes I buy now are neatly wrapped rolls.  When I started using it I was able to get the "waste ends" and it was much less expensive.

  I used a single edge razor blade to cut it into manageable size pieces.

I worked a layer of the Plaster Cloth over the resin coated moose antlers.

Each piece was dipped into water first, and then smoothed into place. This took less than an hour.




The final project for the day was to install eyes in the other sculptures.

I drew around a paper template to  mark where to put them. This is the deer. I did the same for the other three.

Next I cut thru the paper mache shell to expose the foam underneath.

This is another step I can't really illustrate!  But by cutting, propping with bit of used foam, and crafty hot gluing I get the eyes in place and then paper mache around them.

Sometimes after the paper mache dries, I cut them out again and reposition them as I did with the zebra.

This is as far as I got today.








I'm not sure how much I will get done over the weekend.  I expect to be helping Craig with some drywall work.

Come on back for Post 5 and see whats next!

Art Work In Process Post 3

I feel like I'm going into too much detail, but I don't know what to leave out.

My work day started at about 9:30 AM.  The first project was to do what I call the eye-liner on the zebra.  I do this same treatment for all of the animals.

I have several large steel washers that I use as patterns to cut these shapes out of black felt.  I buy the eyelashes a gross at a time and cut them to length.

 The zebra, deer,moose and impala have eyelashes, the cheetah and the wart hog do not.

I glued the larger circles around the under eye first. The  eyelashes were glued to the inside of the top felt, and then it was glued over the eye.

When I cut out the stripes for the neck, I also cut out the pieces of white fur that go around the bottom of the eyes. This is the last "pre set" pattern piece I  used.  From here on, each stripe was figured out and cut in pairs, making tiny adjustments from one side to the other.

I continued to use waxed paper to make the pattern for each stripe, but since it was not  kept for future use, I traced the shapes onto the furs without making poster board cut outs.

By 2:00 o'clock I had gotten this far, and was tired of working on the zebra.

So, I switched over to my other work bench and trimmed the extra foam from the other head base sculptures.

I had cut out the hardboard backs for them on Monday.

I cut the foam even with the edge of the shell, and cut the removed piece into chunks that will be saved for the next pour.

I then attached to backs to each sculpture with masking tape and made any adjustments to them so that they would agree in shape.

I then applied several layers of paper mache over the back and edges and put them out to dry.

I finished that by 3:30 PM, so I did a little bit more on the zebra before calling it a day.

Come back tomorrow and see what's next.