Final sanding on Birdie's Head

Birdie's head, with styrofoam pate inserted, is ready for her fabric covering;  one of the most delicate and difficult parts of this process. The fabric must be just the right texture, all humidity conditions need to be favorable, and I need to able to work with no interruptions. The adhesive must not clump but be sticky enough and worked into every crevice, and the fabric needs to go on without a wrinkle or the whole thing has to be pulled off and hope that the residue doesn't cause problems as I ease on another piece of fabric.

I will handle the adhesive difficulties with tiny disposable paintbrushes and the fabric eccentricities by making sure that I have at least two large squares of the proper texture and color waiting at my right hand, but the no interruptions is one that I haven't figured out yet. Someone will bang on the door and the phone will ring, but I'm getting better at ignoring both!

More soon!

Grapefruit Baby's Grapefruit half

The messy project that I've been putting off has finally begun.
This is the first layer of the grapefruit half for my "Grapefruit Baby" that's been on hold for months. I can only handle one project at a time when they're not going the way I want them to. Having conquered what I think is the final sculpting obstacle for Birdie's head, I set her aside for the afternoon and tackled this mess. It's the first time I've tried Durham's Rock Hard Putty, and it's kind of fun! This layer has to dry for about 12 hours and I'll give it another coat. Much easier than papier mache, especially since I can't find wallpaper paste in a powder form anymore. Flour is like gold these days, and it's hard to keep the resulting paste from getting moldy if we have too much humidity in the air.
So more on this as I add layers, and also photos of Birdie's head after final sanding, and newly "born" Grapefruit Baby head sculpt as it progresses.

My invitation to you this afternoon is to go find some goo to get your hands in, it's very enlightening!

Behind Schedule

The best laid plans can get sidetracked; unless we lock ourselves in a room and cut off contact with all of the outside world, sometimes things like family illness and freak snowstorms in October can throw us off track. Fortunately I always find my way back, look at the time I've lost, shrug it off and keep going. As long as I keep taking photos along the way to help me record my progress and don't get so carried away with making up for lost time, all is well.

At this stage all fat layers are finished, waiting for first layer of  nylon skinning.

I'm approaching this one a bit differently; I will  completely finish and attach the head before  building up neck muscles and matching the nylon.

The head sculpt, though the main elements are built, needs many hours yet of sanding and tweaking to get the expression I want.

This is only my second experience with a mixture of LaDoll and paperclay.

My old standby, the heavy wet gray waterbased stuff that is so easy to work with, has just proven impossible to finish into anything light enough to be practical. The same with Sculpey, it just dries too heavy even when hollowed out.

So onward and upward, and though I have chosen to spotlight Birdie's process, I am still working on my Grapefruit Baby and the African American nine year old that will go to Convention next Spring. A weakness of mine is to focus so completely on one project at a time that I lose sight of the others, but I'm getting better at multitasking.

Of course I need a bigger Studio, more storage space, endless supplies...

Happy Creating friends, see you next time!