Cuffs

I've been in love with the idea of cuffs for a year or two now, and I made some sketches about a year ago, but didn't get around to making my own version of a cuff till a few days ago. I'm hooked.
Not only are cuffs a cool thing to wear on your wrist, they're a mini canvas just waiting to be created upon.
Since I use lots of faces in my work, my take on cuffs is a long, straight body, with a head on top. I didn't expect to be so taken with making these little people, but I am. Here are the first two.
I'm sure there will be more.

Even Smaller Houses

First it was my Reincarnated Pasta Box Houses, then I made Tiny Houses out of the pasta box scraps, then someone suggested the ornaments I made out of them looked like "earrings", and I found myself making teeny tiny houses. I decided to use polyclay for the latest houses because I thought it'd be more durable for earrings than papermache.
So I made a dozen 1/2" x 1" houses, painted them, strung them--along with some glass beads--onto wire, added ear wires, and I had six pairs of Teeny Tiny House Earrings for my Etsy shop. Well, five pairs, I kept the pink and aqua pair for myself. I may never wear them, but they'll look great in my soft aqua bathroom...when I get it painted that is.
I think I've taken this house shrinking idea as far as I want to.

ULLABENULLA has done it again!

In January, the lovely and very talented Ulla, featured my "Clown" figure on her amazing blog. She recently bought a pair of my Lollie Leg Earrings, and surprise, there they are, caught under a magical fortune teller tea cup on her blog, ULLABENULLA!
I'm almost too thrilled to brag!
Almost. ( :

Thank you Ulla...again.

Little Houses

Pete Seeger sang, "Little boxes on the hillside, Little houses made of ticky tacky".
I'm making little houses, but they're not made of "ticky tacky", they're made from empty pasta boxes and cereal boxes, with a cornstarch box thrown in for good measure. I make Niche Lollie bodies from empty boxes, but these are my first houses, and I'm enjoying the process and progress, so I thought I'd share what I'm doing here on my blog, in case anyone else is interested in following my 'Little Houses'.
The first photo is of the house frameworks made from pieces cut from boxes, taped into shape.

Today I ripped newspaper into strips, got wallpaper paste all over my hands, and covered the houses in their first layer of paper. I kind of miss the way they looked before, but I doubt many other people would appreciate their masking tape look. They're drying on the mantel, so I should be able to add more paper tomorrow. The second and following layers will go faster than the first.

I think I'll add a few chimneys, and maybe a birdhouse or two. Shutters? Doors? Little people? We'll see.

I guess I'm in house building mode, because I took the bits and pieces left over from making the pasta box houses, and shaped them into some tiny houses. These are only one or two inches tall. I've got all sorts of ideas for what I could do with them, but I'll wait to share till I've tried them. Wouldn't want to show my disasters, would I?


I gave my tiny houses doors, windows and roofs this morning, but they're not quite finished, so back to work.


I thought I'd hang each little house from a loop of colored string, but when I tried it, I didn't like the look, then I remembered wire. I don't know how some people can do precise wire shaping, but I'm excellent at totally imprecise wire shaping, so once I got a length of thin wire strung down through the center of each tiny house--the most difficult part of the whole house building project--I twisted and looped till I liked the look. I thought the houses looked a little bland, so I added a colored glass bead to the bottom of each one. I like these little houses. I've got several other projects that need finishing, but when they're done, I'm going to make more tiny little houses.

Clown in the Limelight

I don't post as often as I probably should, but I had to brag just a tiny bit, so this is more of a happy dance than a post.
My "Clown" figure is enjoying some time in the spotlight on a beautiful blog called ULLABENULLA.
It's so encouraging to know that my work is appreciated.
Many thanks to Ulla for making my day.

Triangle Girls

I'm always thinking about new places to put the paperclay heads I make. Last time it was papermache bodies with little openings in front that held old photos. This time it's stuffed fabric bodies.

With Christmas coming, my Triangle Girls are on hold, but I hope to have some of them--maybe some of their papermache sisters too--finished and added to my etsy shop, LolliePatchouli, shortly after the holidays. Here's what the first two look like so far.

Trash Tags

I admire--envy might be a better word--people who make visual journals. I've tried to start my own but I never seem to get off the ground. I know it probably sounds silly, but I think it's my fear of messing up a pristine journal that keeps me from starting. I'm sure my fear of "wasting paper" goes back farther into my murky past than anyone, even me, wants to venture, so I'll just move forward.
I've discovered that I don't have the same fear of messing up "trash", because it's already sort of messed up when it becomes an art supply, so I've decided to make tags from everyday refuse that would either get recycled or go into the trash, then put the finished tags together into some sort of journal form.
I'm not going to commit to making a daily Trash Tag, but I'm going to try for at least a couple each week, and for now I think I'll string them onto one of those big, shiny keyring thingies. I may even add notes to the backs of some of them, making them into an almost real journal.

Front and Back View of Trash Tag #1


Front and Back Trash Tag #2