Monday & Miniatures

Well it is Monday again. For us in the working world that means back to work and the grind for another 5 days.



I spent the weekend working on the dog intended for a birthday present for a coworker and as you can see I completed it. I was happy with the finished project although I learned I need to make things a little on the skinny side so when they are furred they look natural and not to chunky. In the picture is also a picture of my model Miss Pippen who is a gorgeous long haired German Shepard with a wonderful temperament. She doesn't seem to have a mean bone in her body.










I also got pictures taken of my parrot. I was also pleased with the way it came out. Compared to the one pictured in the previous post I have a long way to go for perfection, but for my first try I am happy. It is amazing what we can learn to do in a small scale. The only problem I have is trying to make everything I see rather than focusing on one medium. I quickly get bored and do not like to mass produce things so I could never make enough to satisfy the demand it would take to do a show.

TGIF everyone!!!

This week seems to have been so long with the cold weather we have been having. I have been working on my parrot and finished it late last night. I will take pictures of it this weekend and get it posted. I can tell you that it is not as spectacular as the one pictured in a previous post this week, but for my first try I am excited with the results. This weekend I am going to try for a German Shepard using the same techniques that Kerri Pajutee uses on her website. I have done needle felted dogs which turn out well, but want to try this method to see how it works. Will also post the resulting critter no matter what it looks like. Only by laughing at my own creations will I work to improve the pieces as I go along.

This week was meeting week for my miniature group on Wed night. We are working on gardens like the one previously posted. It is amazing how 4 people can come up with totally different ideas to fill a 6 inch cardboard circle. I so enjoy teaching others to challenge themselves in new ways they never thought of. I love learning new things, but more than that I love watching people who say they can not do something, blossom as they learn new things. I would rather do an intense project with many different techniques than to do simple things that only take an hour or two to finish, but have no place to go when they are done. Starting with the garden base we could add fish ponds, fountains, plants of all kinds, benches, little critters hiding in the corners or any number of things and still not make it to crowded on the small base.

My mother always tried to instill in us that we could do anything if we wanted to badly enough. I, in turn, tried to teach the same thing to my children. Having the desire to strive for more in our lives is what makes us grow as life goes on. I hope never to have a day I do not learn something new. My mom passed away a year ago and I miss her still. I still want to pick up the phone and call her on occasion when I need someone to talk to or some advice on some issue or other. She lived to be 83 so I was lucky to have her with a healthy mind, even though her body was failing her for as long as I did. One day I will write about her life, but I am not ready to do that just yet.

That is it for today. Have a great weekend.

Debs

Way to go Patriots!!!

Happy Monday everyone! I am not a huge fan of football unless my grandson is on the field, but how can anyone live in New England and not be proud of our sports teams. I watched sporadically throughout the games yesterday and was happy to see the Patriots win. I had hoped to see Green Bay win as one of my brothers is a huge fan of that team. It would have been so great to see them on the field with the Patriots, but was not meant to be. Just two more weeks and the season will be over for another year.

I did spend some time over the weekend working on my little parrot and I have the body ready for painting. Want to try to get that done tonight and then feather him tomorrow evening. Sculpting him was not the easiest thing I have done, nor was it the hardest. I think he is presentable and will be able to tell how well I did once he is feathered.

I had rather a quiet weekend as I tend to hole up at home when the temp. goes down. A hold over from childhood and being poor. I HATE TO BE COLD!! I spent the weekend doing the usual weekend chores, laundry, etc. All those things we are to tired to do when we get home from work during the week.

I am one of the millions of people who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis so I conserve my energy for the important things during the week. Fatigue is the one thing I hate about having this disease. I have always taken care of things around the house and now I have to ask for help and it is driving me crazy. I am not one who likes to wait for a time that is convenient. I want to do it then and there or as soon as possible so I find it hard to wait.

I read a story of how someone explained RA to a friend and it really made a lot of sense to me. When you have the disease you only have so much energy to get you through the day. Using a dozen spoons as your allotment for the day you take away one or two spoons for each activity you need or want to do. The more strenuous the activity the more spoons it uses. When the spoons are used up then the energy is also gone and you are done for the day.

One ironic thing about having RA is you do not need a weather man to tell you a storm is coming. When the barometer starts changing then the joints tell really quick that there is a storm or weather pattern of some kind on it's way. The joy of getting old.

You gotta see this!

There is a wonderful group on the web called Custom Dolls, Houses & Miniatures that I have been a member of for a couple of years or more. They have online classes most every weekend and this past two weeks one of the members, who is an IGMA Fellow, Kerri Pajutee taught a class on sculpting and feathering a parrot. It is two hard for me to follow along with a class on my slow dial up at home so I wait until it is over and check it out. Well let me tell you I will be doing it this weekend or at least attempting to do it. My sculpting skills are not professional at all, but I really want to try this one. The picture is one completed by Kerri. Notice the comparison of her finger to the size of the parrot. It is just over 1 inch in length and about 3/8 inch wide. I was totally amazed at the realism she achieves. You can see other things she has created on her website: http://kerripajutee.com/ . After my attempts at making one of my own I will post a picture of the results. Anyone who is interested in miniatures needs to check out the CDHM site: http://www.cdhm.org/ . There are amazing artists there creating some of the best in miniatures I have seen.