Frogs coming alive, giant gecko drying, and other UFOs

Even though I was sick last week and didn't spend much time on-line, I did work in the studio at least a couple of hours a day. A few months ago, in an attempt to be more disciplined with my work time, I made it a rule that every day I would go into the studio at 1 p.m. and work for a minimum of two hours. Of course once I get in there, I usually end up working between 4 to sometimes 10 hours a day- with breaks to take the dogs out. This schedule has worked out very well for me. Before, I often got caught up doing things around the house or outside, and too many days I wouldn't make it into the studio at all.


For me, working with airdry clay is much different than working with polymer clay. With the air dry clay, there is so much waiting for areas to dry before I can go on to the next layer. With polymer, I can stick in the oven for a few minutes and it is soon ready to add more clay. But the airdry clay take a good day for each layer to dry. Yes, I could put it in the oven on very low heat and speed it up, but I use styrofoam as my armature and it should not be heated due to toxic fumes. So I have to have several airdry clay projects going at once, that way I can work on one sculpt while another has a layer of clay drying. Right now I have going the giant gecko, a gourd woman, and now three little frogs. I started out with 2 little frogs, but decided tonight there should be three and started a new, even smaller frog. And here are my UFOs in various stages-

Here is the third new little frog I just started, sitting in the middle of the two from the photo above. As you can see, the two older guys now have their eyes and feet.

Here is the giant gecko- waiting to be taken outside for his first sanding. And this picture reminds me I still need to paint the bottom of my dining room table-LOL! Also, I can't wait to get that ugly tile tore up and the new hard wood floors laid.





I also finished two new fridge magnets last week.

Sadly, I realized tonight that I have been spending too much time working on the house and in the studio, and have not been to the pool or the beach yet this spring. Usually by this time of year I have a nice tan to start the summer. (Yes, I know tanning is not good for you- I don't care! I love being in the sun and having a tan. I do use sunscreen and avoid burning- so no lectures, please). The tannest parts of my body this spring are my feet-LOL! I noticed tonight that my feet have white marks from my flip flops. Evidently, when I take the dogs out, my feet get the most sun exposure- weird, huh? Now I need to figure out how to steal an hour each day to go up to the pool for some exercise and sun.


And so...this is the how I have spent my last couple of weeks. And what have you all been up to?
Peace-
Linda

Orphan Art Work Bill-

If you you visit art blogs or are a member of any on-line art groups, you've probably already read about this bill that is before Congress. This is a big issue for all of us that create art, and especially if you post photos of your work on the web. Hopefully, you have already contacted your congress person to voice your opposition to this bill, whether by e-mail or phone. If you haven't, what are you waiting for? Even if you are not politically active, this is an issue that will have a big impact on all of us in the art world. So come on! Speak up and make your representative aware of the impact this bill could have on you and all artists. Don't be lazy and assume others will protest this bill and protect you. It is time for each of us to step up and speak out. Not sure what this bill is all about? Read what Mark Simon has to say about this:

"An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.

With the tens of millions of photos and pieces of artwork created each year, the bounty for forcing everyone to pay a registration fee would be enormous. We lose our rights and our creations, and someone else makes money at our expense.

This includes every sketch, painting, photo, sculpture, drawing, video, song and every other type of creative endeavor. All of it is at risk!
If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we've created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won't successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free.
In short, if Congress passes this law, YOU WILL LOSE THE RIGHT TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR OWN CREATIONS!"

Read more of what Mark Simon has to say about this.

Peace-
Linda

Days flying past too quickly-

I am a bit behind on blogging, and everything else, for that matter! I had a cold/virus thingie all last week and spent very little time on the computer. But I am feeling fine now and trying to catch up with blogs, e-mails, etc. I'll have to make several separate posts just to get all the photos up. I will start with some of the photos we took at the Sarasota Farmer's Market a couple of weekends ago.


It was a beautiful day for a farmers market- warm and sunny. The market was several city blocks of booths with yummy veggies, arts and crafts, flowers- both potted and fresh cut, different kind of food and drink booths, and there was even live entertainment.

Look at these gorgeous orchids! No, I didn't buy any, since my luck with orchids hasn't been the best. I did buy a bougainvillea plant to put in a pot in my front yard.

This little trio seemed to be really enjoying themselves, and were feeling quite patriotic judging from their clothes. They were singing country music.






This guy wasn't quite as cheerful as the country trio above. He sat there playing his guitar with his eyes shut ... until I snapped this photo. Suddenly one creepy eye was staring at me, and it was as if he was saying "Move on old woman or I will rip your heart out and eat it." Perhaps my imagination got away from me and I am now over dramatizing, but I did move on- quickly. I do think Sarasota could do a bit better when it comes to entertainment. Maybe something a bit more middle of the road- somewhere between aging country music trios and aging, psycho, homeless street performers?

I took this picture in one of the antique/vintage stores. On one side were the antiques, and on the other side was a knitting shop with all colors of gorgeous yarn hanging everywhere. There was a knitting class going on when we were there- several women sitting on a couch just chatting and knitting away.

And that was our day at the Sarasota Farmers Market...

Peace-

Linda

This and that-

It's Friday and time to get ready for the weekend! Our cold spell is over, the sun has returned and the weekend weather is going to be perfect. I had planned to finish painting the plant stands and then the patio floor, but we have decided to take Sat. off. We will get up early, go out for breakfast, and then shopping in Sarasota. There are some great resale shops which we are going to wander through and look for treasures. Maybe we will even live it up, say to hell with the diet and have a late lunch at one of the outdoor cafes on St. Armand's Circle, too.

I had a productive week working on the giant gecko and finishing a couple of beaded wire critters. I finished this gecko last night. He was done with copper and turquoise beads, and some red glass beads and copper jewelry findings. I glued magnets on the back of him so he can be used as a fridge magnet. Here is a photo of him on my fridge- all the photos should enlarge to full size when you click them.




I also took a closeup photo of him on the window sill of the dining room window in better light.













As you can see, the giant gecko is coming along slowly. I am still fleshing him out with the first layer of DAS airdry clay. I put a layer of Aves Apoxie over his tail to make it sturdier and prevent cracking, and next I will put a layer of DAS over the apoxied tail and over his backbone. His spine is a thick wire held in place with silver plumbing tape. I love that tape but don't know the proper name of the stuff. Mike picks it up for me at the hardware store. It is great for making the lids for their eyes and foot pads, too.

I also finished this dragonfly earlier in the week. I love how all these critters sparkle in the sunlight hanging in the studio window. But I am getting quite a collection of them so I might start selling them on E-Bay or maybe open an Etsy shop.

Have you been following the news about the 416 children taken from a Texas FLDS polygamous sect? I am not sure how I feel about all these children being ripped from their families. If it is true that minor girls are being forced into marriages to old men and impregnated, then yes, the kids should be removed. I don't have a problem with competent adults choosing to follow any religion (or no religion), even polygamous sects. Of course their children will probably grow up to be polygamists, as most people tend to stay with the religion of their parents (not a lot free thinkers, huh? But that is whole other topic). From what I see all around me, mainstream society isn't doing such a great job of raising children, so I am not going to say that being a polygamist automatically makes anyone an unfit parent. But I will say, allowing a minor daughter to be married off to an old geezer and used as a brood mare to produce more children does make one an unfit parent. My hearts break for these kids, as it seems they can't win which ever way this case goes- I am not sure which is worse- being in the state foster care system, or living in a polygamist society that forces minors into marriage.

I will bring along my camera tomorrow and take you on a virtual shopping trip with me.

Peace-

Linda

P.S.- I wanted to thank you all for your kind comments about Big Frog. You sure know how to make a gal's spirit soar! I am so glad you all liked him, and your feedback means a lot to me.

Big Frog is finished!

Hopefully all the photos will enlarge to full size when you click them so that you can see the texture and different colors. I have taken photos both inside with artificial light and outside in natural. The outdoor photos turned out the best, but the different colors didn't show up well in any of the photos. Anyway, he is done! Mike seems to like him, and he's working on a base for him right now. He will be mounted on a round piece of oak wood with wheels attached underneath, which will make it easy to move him from in front of the door when he isn't needed as a doorstop.

Now to get back to work on my giant gecko-
Peace-
Linda

Beading mania-

See the gecko in the middle? That's the guy that got me started creating these beaded wire critters. It's no secret that I love geckos, so when Jacque saw this guy in one of her local antique shops she sent me pictures. Of course I had to try making one, but I made mine flat, beaded on both sides and bent into a shape to look like it was climbing. When Jacque sent me my xmas gifts, imagine my surprise and delight to find the original wire gecko was one of my gifts. She has asked me to make one in the form of the original one and I finally got around to it in the past couple of weeks. Here are two of mine with the original:

After I took the pictures, I realized that the guy above needed the toes on his feet right bent closer together and have fixed that boo boo.

I think I prefer the geckos I was previously making that can be hung in windows and look like they are climbing. I have several around the house- hanging in windows, climbing on curtain rods, and I have one hanging from the rear view mirror in my Tracker. Mike has a seahorse hanging from his truck mirror. But wouldn't the ones shaped like the one Jacque sent me be cute with magnets on the feet and used as a fridge magnet?



All the vintage copper jewelry and findings I bought recently on E-Bay have arrived, and I am having so much fun using them to make new seahorses. I also bought some real turquoise beads, and lots of copper beads so I am in heaven. The first seahorse is all copper and turquoise beads. The second one has copper beads, irregular shaped turquoise colored glass beads, a copper finding, and an oval abalone shell disk.

Another copper and turquoise glass seed beaded seahorse.

And a great blue heron.

All this beading gives me something to do with my hands besides stuffing food in my mouth-LOL! I'm still dieting but this damn old winter fat doesn't want to leave as quickly as I would like it to go. After three weeks of strict dieting I have only lost 7 1/2 lbs. ( 13 more to go- damn it!) and am getting real tired of eating only veggies and lean meats. I told Mike the other night that we hadn't really given chubbiness a fair chance. Maybe we would have come to love the extra pounds- and the extra pounds do help fill out all the wrinkles. Instead of walking the dogs, we could get a golf cart, tie the dogs to the back of it and exercise them that way. I could get one of those cute swim suits with the ruffle around the bottom (do you think those really help disguise the extra pounds?) and wear mumus every day. So many people here ride around the neighborhood on golf carts, cheerfully waving at the neighbors as they go by, and probably going home to enjoy a yummy bowl of ice cream. And here I am walking the dogs, cursing the leg cramps, scowling at anyone that looks like they recently enjoyed a good meal, and coming home to eat broccoli and celery. Wearing mumus and riding in a golf cart is sounding better and better...
Peace-
Linda

I never dreamed I would do this to a man...

After being married for almost 24 years, plus the fact I am 57 years old, (which included some pretty wild times in my younger years), I thought I had pretty much done and seen it all. I was wrong...

It all started with Mike's head. When we moved to Florida, he began shaving his head every spring. I think I dared him to do it the first time- you see I have this habit of dreaming up strange things to do, never dreaming of doing them, but others sometimes get caught up in my wild ideas and end up doing things that I myself would never do. Oh the stories I could tell-LOL! But back to Mike's head. Each spring when he first starts shaving his head, he ends up cutting himself a lot, and this year's slash and gash episodes have been the worse. He went to work last Monday with freaking band aids on his head- I am serious- actual band aids on his head- it was hilarious to see!


By this weekend his wounds had healed and he was getting better at shaving his head without drawing blood. But Sat. afternoon I saw something even funnier than the little bandages he had been sporting earlier in the week. Last week he had gotten a bit too much sun on his newly shaved head, and as we were sitting on the patio yesterday, the light hit him just right and I suddenly noticed all these flakes sticking up all over his head. I got to laughing so hard, I couldn't even tell him what I was laughing at- he kept asking me what was so funny, and I couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him. After finally running out of breath and weak from laughter, I told him that his head was peeling and he looked like a gecko shedding it's skin. Of course I had to rub it in and point out to him that when he was out shopping at Lowe's and the grocery store earlier in the day, the people standing in line behind him were probably wondering what kind of horrible affliction he had that would cause his head to have all these big flakes peeling off. The only thing that could have been funnier would have been if he was still wearing band aids in addition to the peeling.



And this leads me to do what I never dreamed I would do to a man. I exfoliated his head- ROFLMAO! I still happened to have some exfoliating scrub Jacque had sent me, so I took him into the bathroom and scrubbed his head with it. His head is now flake free and properly moisturized. The things we women have to do for our men!

I finished painting another plant stand today, two more small ones and one tall one to go. While painting the stand today it occurred to me that the furniture cushions didn't go with the colors I was using on the plant stands. You know that means- yes, now I need new cushions-LOL!

This evening the storms moved in again from the Gulf. We got so much rain last night, and have gotten so much this evening, we have had to run the sump pump under the house. We have gone from being a dust bowl to being swamped with rain. The weather lady just said the rain should taper off about 2 a.m.

And how was your weekend? You didn't by chance exfoliate any one's head, did you?

Peace-

Linda

Saturday of color, flowers blooming, and a storm-

The day started out beautifully- warm temps, sunny skies, and a strong breeze. Perfect day to be outside painting the patio plant stands with the paints I picked up yesterday when I was out shopping. I brought home a beautiful array of bright tropical island colors and wanted to use them all- so I did! Here is the first stand before I started painting- just plain wooden stands that the protective surface had worn away while sitting in the bright Florida sun over several long sultry summers.



And here it is after I started painting it. It is now done and just needs a bit sanding to give it a worn look and then several coats of polyurethane. I have three more to do- two short ones like the first and one tall one. After these stands are painted, all we have left to do on the outside is to paint the patio floor, which is stained ugly and pitted concrete.


While wandering around the yard I noticed that the lei plants were blooming. I just love the delicate flowers and they have a such a subtle sweet scent.









And here is a photo of our current radar. Yes, Bella is medicated and laying under the desk-LOL! Poor old girl. It is so odd to be getting so much rain here in April. This month and May are supposed to be our driest months. We have already gotten much more rain than we usually see in the entire month. Perhaps this means our drought is over and we are going to get above average rain this summer. I just hope this new weather trend doesn't include any hurricanes for us this year.

Since it has started to rain quite hard, and the lightning will probably be arriving soon, I am going to post this and shut my computer down.

I hope you are all having a colorful weekend!

Peace-

Linda

Big Frog awaits...

...me to decide what the hell I am going to do with him. In a previous post I mentioned I had painted him several different colors and combination of colors, but wasn't happy with any of them. I even rubbed him down with Jacquard copper powder. And I am still not happy.





I did decide what I was going to use for his eyes- these gorgeous vintage copper jewelry findings. I have them stuck on with tape so I could take this photo. They won't be permanently affixed until I have solved the color problem. I am just stuck on the color thing... I know it will come to me eventually, but right now it is so frustrating. But I do love his eyes! ;)




Big Frog is a glaring symbol of how I feel about my life right now- stuck. I seem to have slid into a rut and I am growing impatient with standing still. But I am stuck when it comes to actually doing something that would jump start my life and get me moving again. I have fallen into such a comfortable routine, but I have found that comfortable always leads to boredom, at least for me. Perhaps once I get out of my personal rut, Big Frog will come alive for me and I will know what to do with him.
Peace-
Linda

April showers and Isabella on drugs...

April snuck up on me and I almost forgot about making this month's calender.I used another photo I took at the Selby Botanical Gardens. It should enlarge to full size when you click it so that you can save it to print out or use on your computer desktop.

Unlike the midwest where "April showers bring May flowers", this is usually our driest month in Florida. But this week has been unusually warm and humid with late afternoon storms developing, which is more typical in our summer months. Since we are still way behind on rainfall, the storms are welcome and we will gladly take every drop of rain we can get.

Unfortunately, poor Isabella isn't near as pleased with the storms as we are. She has severe storm anxiety which seems to get worse each year. Florida is a hell of a place to live for a dog that has storm phobia because we usually have afternoon storms every day during the summer months. We have tried conditioning and de-sensitizing her through behavioral modification but it had no effect on her. Some how she senses when a storm is coming, even before it shows up on radar. The vet placed her on xanax last year and that has really helped. As soon as she starts acting freaky and I see a storm headed our way on the radar, I give her a pill and hope it kicks in before the storm arrives. She is still anxious and hides under the desk, but she doesn't shake and drool uncontrollably like she does without the meds. I fear she is on her way to becoming a little Amy Winehouse, though. She seems to like the pills just a wee bit too much- when she hears or sees me pick up her pill bottle she comes and sits in front of me waiting for her pill-LOL! If she begins singing " Rehab", I will know we have a problem. Now that the storms have passed, she is now sleeping peacefully on her bed as I write this entry.


No new photos of Big Frog - after applying a sand texture I began painting him- and painting- and painting...LOL! I just can't seem to find a color that I like on him. I have painted him several different colors, and even sponge painted him with a combination of several different colors, but nothing has satisfied me yet. Maybe I should have stuck with the mulberry tissue paper finish that I like so well. Now he sits in the studio staring at me (he is probably afraid he will become just another unfinished project like so many others sitting around my studio) as I worked on wire beaded critters this week. I've been using some of the new beads and copper jewelry I bought recently on E-Bay. I have finished two new geckos done in a new style and a seahorse. I'll get photos taken of them soon and post them later this week.

I hope April has brought warm springlike weather to those of you that have endured a harsh snowbound winter.
Peace-
Linda