HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Halloween!!!! "Trick or Treat, smell my feet (ick), give me something good to eat!!"

Very busy here today trying to get ready for a presentation at Ashley Furniture tomorrow. If you live in the Kearney area, stop by and say hello...I'll be "on" at 1:00!

Happy Creating and hope you see lots of little ghouls tonight!!
Laurie

Jackie at Fat Jak Studio and TV Interview

In our lives we meet special people with terrific talent and Jackie of Fat Jak Studio is one of those people. I am the proud owner of a new piece by Jackie called "Scaredy Cats". This little sculpture is a visual delight and Jackie's eye for detail and polished finish are something to marvel at. Below is the piece on top of the Trick or Treat box she sent me with the sculpture. The box makes a perfect sculpture base just in time for Halloween!!


The detail doesn't stop on the front of the piece, the next photograph shows that each "Cat" has a different shaped tail...what a stitch!!!


The 2 little figures each hold a "purse" or trick or treat bag made of elegant paper to coordinate with their partner's little pointed hat.

And those faces, love those faces!! Below are the close ups of Scaredy 1 and Scaredy 2. Can't you just imagine them saying BOO or making an oooohhhh sound with those little circular mouths!!! This piece is pure joy and I can't thank Jackie enough for sharing her talent with me!!!

A face anyone would love!! Thank you Jackie--thank you, thank you!!

Next, I did the TV interview this morning and mentioned SpookyTime Jingles and our artists' "blog-land". I hope I was able to get some interested collectors to come take a peek at our world. The 2 hosts were delightful and I had fun doing it so I hope it brings us some good fortune!!! Let me know if you get contacted by a Nebraska collector through this interview!!

Well, that is about it and I need to get to painting in the worse way!!
Happy creating all and have a great day! I plan on it!!

Laurie

EHAG Blog Giveaway!!!!!

* * * Halloween is almost here! ****
So to celebrate the big day and say thanks to all of our supporters, the Eclectic Halloween Artists Group {EHAG} has decided to host a giveaway on EHAG's blog! We're calling it our first ever...

~ Ghoulish Giveaway! ~

If you didn't know that EHAG had a blog, well now you do! To view this fun collection of giveaway items offered by our members, just click on the link below.

In order to play, simply leave us a comment, and your name will be entered in the

October 31st drawing!
http://www.ehagart.blogspot.com/
Now, if you do not have a blogger account & prefer to not sign up for one,
you can also email us at ehaagart@hotmail.com to enter, but your
anonymous comments are certainly welcome on our blog as well!
The giveaway contest will be going on all week, so check back on
November 1st

to see if you won! In the meantime, you will have a chance to peek at
the various art offerings and previous posts... Good luck!

... A little about EHAG...
We are a group of professional artists and enthusiasts who share a love for art
that celebrates the magic of All Hallow's Eve. Halloween painters, sculptors,
doll artists, miniaturists, fiber artists and collectors alike gather here to
share, inspire, encourage, support and discuss our latest creations! Our Halloween art
creations can be found throughout the year on eBay by searching under "EHAG."

And now EHAG's blog, http://www.ehagart.blogspot.com/ has become your resource
for Halloween inspiration, eye-candy & a treat bag full of links to your
favorite Halloween artists' blogs, websites and current eBay auctions!

* Please save us in your Favorites, visit often to say hi and see what fun tricks we are up to! *
EHAG also has a website which includes a Family Gallery of spooky-fun photos,
featuring each of our members along with many other Halloween-related links:
http://www.ehaag.com/
( note the 2 "a"s for lots of art! )
As always, THANK YOU for your interest
&
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
~ EHAG ~

I am so proud to be a member of EHAG!!!! I hope you will take a look at the wonderful offerings in this giveaway and continue to follow this very talented group of artists!!!

Have a great day and happy creating!!

Laurie

Great Show and Peek-a-Boo Finally Finished!!

In the mad dash to finish things before the show I finally got "Peek-a-Boo" assembled and his base painted so that I had him as a show piece with the other Halloween characters. He received a lot of attention and I had a ton of fun showing the little character. He wasn't adopted, so his papers are still available if anyone is interested. I was just glad to finally have him in the finished column and available for the attendees to see.

I gave him black and white striped leggings, suspenders with skull buttons and a polka dot shirt standing in front of some "Monkey-Cats' Street" Halloween houses. He is the most doll-like figure I have created to date and I am considering trying a few more pieces with similar construction to them. We will see!!

The show yesterday was amazing...many of us had a discussion before the doors opened about what the impact the current economic situation might have on overall sales. We were all trying to be optimistic, but there were some concerns expressed about whether the higher dollar items would move or not, or if we would even have the usual crowd the show normally draws. I am happy to report that the crowd was overwhelming. It took me 10 minutes to get from my booth to the ladies room (a walk you could normally do in under a minute) because I had to move with the flow, there was no getting around someone into an open space. (That was really information you didn't want to hear, but it helps explain the number of people in attendance) Sales were great as well!!! The show yesterday was the second highest show total I have ever had. I feel fortunate that my buyers didn't seem overly stressed and were buying both Halloween and Christmas items. I also found that they weren't necessarily shying away from the higher dollar items. Many of the big show pieces I thought I would have for my next show in two weeks I sold yesterday. Oops!!!! It's okay, I won't sleep for the next 10 days or so--HA!!

I have a crazy week ahead with a meeting in the morning, the local TV interview on Thursday ( I promise to mention EHAG, SpookyTime Jingles and PFATT) and the Ashley Furniture Store's presentation on Saturday. It's all good!!!!!

Have a great day and happy creating!

Laurie

Set Up for the Fall Show Tomorrow

I've got so much to do tomorrow that I thought I would do a quick post tonight. They are letting us begin setting up our booths in the afternoon and they have guards that monitor the buildings overnight to allow the artist to work into the wee hours to get things to their liking. I'll post pictures on Sunday (if I don't forget the camera!!) of my booth and probably those of a couple friends if I can get permission from them to take pictures. This show has a little bit of everything. It is in two buildings and usually there are thousands of people that attend and historically the sales are very good. I'm actually curious to see what impact the economic crisis may have on sales this Saturday...I'm going to be optimistic and wish for the best!!!

Oh, I'm doing local TV next Thursday on my papier mache and plan on promoting SpookyTime Jingles, EHAG and PFATT. If I have forgotten anything send me a note and I will add it to my list!! HA!

Happy creating everyone!
Laurie

Ewwhhh..Winter Storm Warning Now!!

Wow, is it January? We just had our storm watch upgraded to a Winter Storm Warning until tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. This is plenty early for us to have a system like this move in...I'm not loving the idea of a lot of wet snow right now. Just to our southwest they have a Blizzard Warning in effect so I guess I need to be thankful we aren't getting hit worse. All a matter of perspective isn't it!! HA! Well, I better get to work incase we lose power late tonight or tomorrow.

Happy creating and I'm off to have a hot chocolate!! It is from Barista's and is the best....YUM!!
See, this weather has it's upside.

Laurie

Quick Post...Winter Storm Watch

Just a quick post before I go to bed tonight. We have a Winter Storm Watch in place for Central Nebraska now through Thursday evening. We are suppose to start with thunderstorms tomorrow switching over to snow tomorrow night and all I can say is I'm glad I have some Christmas items for the show on Saturday--HA!!! The forecast for snow is a little early for us, but it might put the shoppers in the mood for Christmas shopping so I'm hoping for the best.

I remember the year shortly after my husband and I moved into our house we had a sudden snowstorm move in the day before Halloween and the City called off Trick or Treating because of safety. The trees still had their leaves on them and the snow was wet and clingy so we had branches cracking and falling all over town from the weight of the snow. Now how do you suppose Kelly and I disposed of our already purchased Halloween candy that year? It was cold and we needed energy so we had to do the right thing. Good thing we are chocolate lovers!!!! HA!

Here is hoping the rest of you are dry and warm somewhere!!! (See Janelle, I'm getting paybacks for the 70 degree temperatures of a week ago I was bragging about!)

Happy Creating!
Laurie

Whew!!

Did you miss me? I have been doing a number of things this past week trying to get ready for the upcoming show on Saturday, and of course I haven't accomplished near what my expectations had been!! Isn't that just typical. I had planned on only doing florals for 2 days this past week...well, I did 6. I had planned on getting two pieces painted...well, I got one painted and need to finish assembling it, and the other piece is untouched by paint. I was able to sculpt one new Santa figure and three snowmen, but I still have little odds and ends to finish on the snowmen and a base that will need to be painted for the larger one. Does anyone have elves available they could send my way for 4 days?!!!!!!!!!!

Here are closer looks at the snowmen faces and bodies.







...and here is a look at the little Santa


My fingertips are getting these weird little peeling spots on them so I guess I better get out of the clay for a few days to let the hand lotion work. This fastmache clay seems to dry my hands out worse than the celluclay or paperclay, but I sure like how fast it dries. Hmmm, correlation there?

Have a great day and happy creating.
Laurie

Floral Weekend--SpookyTime Jingles

Where did September go and how can we already almost be at the mid-point of October?!!! Because of the time factor I am working on synthetic floral arrangments on weekends for an upcoming show and for the family tree farm. I have quite a few done, but will continue on some smaller arrangements for those wanting a new "something-something", but need to watch the pennies.

Below is a fall floral to show you what I've been up to besides papier mache, and I just realized you can also see a Roger Broer monoprint hanging on the wall to the left, a Tom Hubbell pit-fired ceramic vase below it on the sculpture stand, a Martha Pettigrew bronze "Hopi Girl with a Basket", a carved gourd and a small Acoma pot by L. Vallo.


And here is another quick shot of a second floral with a partial look at Marilyn Belschner's "Winter Katsina". Sorry for the quality of the photos today but I waited too late to take photographs in the room where I shot these this morning.

Thank you to those of you that purchased from me on SpookyTime Jingles last night and early this morning!!! I will be mailing out tomorrow so spooky items should arrive in plenty of time for Halloween, and the Christmas items should actually be plenty early for you!! (Unless you are like me and have both holidays out year round. They're originals, so why not!!!)

Have a great day and happy creating to you all!!

Laurie

SpookyTime Jingles Halloween Peek

Just thought I would show you the Halloween offerings I'll have for SpookyTime Jingles on the 13th. This months offerings include Poindexter D. Pumpkin, Lumina Uno ornament and Monkey-Cats' Street Halloween ornament with their black glass display stands. Poindexter is one of my favorite pieces I have made to date and the ornaments are new to the studio this fall.


All three will be available for your Halloween decor starting in a little over a day and a half!!! Thank you for your consideration!!
Laurie

SpookyTime Jingles Preview, 100th Post!!

Wow, I can't believe it is that time already!!! Today is our final day to update our SpookyTime Jingles pages that will be unveiled at 12:01 a.m., October 13. I start getting excited as I'm working on my pages and start seeing other STJ artists post images, or partial images of their new work coming up for the unveiling. I'm not so subtle!!! I don't produce fast enough to surprise too many of you with what I'm working on, plus I like to share the process of my figures as they are developing so you get to see them in various states during the month.

Below are the "boys" being offered for the month of October on the Christmas page. I will have 2 small squatty Santa figures, one holding a bag of Christmas gifts and the other carrying a small tree and two candy canes. I.M. Sebastian Snowman, is the third offering and the only change made to him since Wednesday, is that I added small white lines on his hat ribbon that weren't in the earlier photo. I think it improved the look.


FYI, I also painted a peppermint disk and taped it over the moon on his base and it looked like a swirling comet so I nixed that idea I had mentioned in the Wednesday post. Kelly came home and looked at it and said, "oh, so you decided to paint the moon like a starlight mint." His tone indicated to me he wasn't loving the look, and I had already decided I didn't, so I walked over, peeled off the disk and unveiled the original base. I felt like a pretty cleaver girl in that moment thinking I was pretty smart for testing the idea before committing to it. That was actually a trick I learned over 30 years ago, and I hate to admit how many times I wish I would have used it instead of doing what I had done. Not always such a cleaver girl. Live and learn!

Hope you like the Jingle Boys!! I just realized this is my 100th Post...does that mean I post too often?!!!!

Have a great day and weekend!!

Laurie

No pictures today

No new pictures today...I have one small Santa painted and another going this morning so will post one of them tomorrow. Have a ton of studio work to get done so I will sit in the sunshine and paint today. Ahhhh, sunshine and 70 degree temps, a perfect fall day!!

Happy Creating!
Laurie

eBay listing

Just a little over 2 days left on Sneak's listing on ebay. Give him a look if you are interested in this lovely little face...well, sort of lovely. All bids are greatly appreciated!!!

Sebastian Snowman

I had a late night of painting yesterday...uh, this morning, while I waited for hubby to get home from teaching so I made good strides on finishing the paint on Sebastian. Sebastian Snowman is the first snowman on one of the wooden bases I found earlier this fall. Rather than using a dowel and glue to affix him to the base, he is just sitting on the base and can be repositioned and stored separately. I like the idea of being able to give him a slight tilt to the right or left, or to tip his head down or up depending on where he is placed on a cupboard or tabletop. There is a slight indentation on the top of the base for the ball to nicely sit in place.



Below, is the full figure of Sebastian with a tilt off to his right. If you remember, Sebastian is rubbing his belly with pride at the size of the ball the children rolled when making him, but because of the children's exuberance his vest is too tight and the only thing holding it closed are the peppermint buttons.



Sebastian's base is painted with a night scene of a full moon lighting the snow scene below that includes a tree and second snowman. The moon may change to a peppermint swirl. I am going to do a paper version today and tape it to the base to look at it to see if that works for me or not...hmmmm, we will see.



Close up below of the holly on Sebastian's hat and then the holly in his pocket.




Sebastian isn't like other snowmen...he has a human nose and eyes plus a toothy grin so I need to explore this type of figure further. The next figure is started, but I don't have the face sculpted so you may see another snowman similar in theme with different details.

This little guy will be available the 13th on the SpookyTime Jingles marketplace!!

Hope you like him!! Happy Creating
Laurie

Painting!!!!

This will be short today because I need to paint, paint and paint!! We have our SpookyTime Jingles updates to be completed by Friday for the unveiling on October 13, and I have paint to finish on all 3 of my "Jingles" pieces. I will give you a peek tomorrow on the Snowman if he comes along as planned today. Where does time go?!!

Well, off with my grapes to the studio! Speaking of which, I learned yesterday that cats eat grapes, at least my Jake does. He was miffed at me for taking what was left of his almost completely eaten grape on the stem away from him. GADS!!! Happy creating!

Laurie

eBay Listing and Little Poindexter

First, about my piece on ebay--thank you to all of you that have generously bid on Sneak. There are a little over 3 days left on the auction so if you haven't seen him yet click on his name above and take a look at this little papier mache piece for the EHAG creative challenge for October, "Tricky Treats and Creepy Confections." (He can also be seen below in several earlier postings.) He has funny little details and comes signed and dated by the artist.

Next, I have little Poindexter painted and had a difficult time photographing this morning because we are completely overcast and rainy so the light was bad. That is why I am posting later than normal today. Below is Poindexter, the brainy little pumpkin in his tiny polka dot sweater vest and black leggings with white stripes. He stands on a painted wood base with a papier mache circle covered in stars and dots. On the front of the wood base is a "Monkey-Cats' Street Halloween" scene with crooked rooflines and a radiating moon with stars and swirls.


Poindexter from the right.

I rotated the figure to show you Poindexter from different angles and for you to see how the figure is painted in the round.

Note the ribbing on the sweater vest is also painted with tiny little verticle lines.


I carefully painted the lines on Poindexter's leggings because he is a meticulous little devil.

Close up of the landscape painted on the base.

Yesterday, my husband brought me a surprise from the basement...the first Santa I did in papier mache just over 2 years ago!!! He had him tucked away because he knew I would toss it, but we both had a good laugh when we compared it to the newer pieces. Oh my land--never give up on something you have a passion for because I am a perfect example of works getting better with practice!!!!! It was humbling.

Happy Creating
Laurie

Sneak's ebay link is listed below!!

Sneak is now listed on ebay as of a few minutes ago. Here is the Ebay link going directly to Sneak and the crew of naughty sugary sweets!! Thank you for giving him a look!!

Have a great weekend!!!! Painting like mad tomorrow!

Laurie

EHAG (Eclectic Halloween Artists' Group) Creepy Confections Creative Challenge

Today, October 3, on ebay!!! The EHAG Tricky Treats & Creepy Confections Creative Challenge auctions begin!!! Joee from Cart Before the Horse, created the lovely banner below for the challenge. Thank you Joee...oh, and if you haven't taken a look at their blog yet you have to go look--fantastic!!!! Love, love, love their work.

Below is Christopher Klingler's piece, "BOO Jawbreaker", ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals), that will be part of the EHAG Creative Challenge. Chris's work can be found at Designs by CK, and I have given you a quick link by just clicking on his blog name.

Chris is doing some of the most unique and wonderful line work of anyone I have seen out there right now, and he is also extremely generous with his time as he is the fearless creative challenge moderator for EHAG. He inspires us all to participate in the challenges and because his works are so imaginative and of high quality he makes us want to do better on each challenge piece. Thank you Chris!!

I'm not thinking I would eat this jawbreaker!!! HA!

Below is another look at my challenge piece, "Sneak-Snatching a Scary Sucker from a Sackful of Squeamish Sugary Sweets." I will list Sneak tonight because I am still working on all of the "http:" stuff that is part of the ebay listing, but is not nearly as much fun as painting or sculpting and I am finishing up on Poindexter so I am painting today. I know, shame on me!!


Look for Sneak later tonight...I'll post a link when I have it done!!


Sneak will be looking for you!

Laurie

New WIP and WIP update

Below is the second small Santa work in progress. This little guy is 4.75" tall and is about as small as I ever sculpt a figure. He hasn't been sanded yet so he has lots of little papier mache fibers that need to be taken down before I put primer on him so I can begin painting. I always look at the pieces in this state and wonder how they will look after I get the initial paint and glazes on them. The paint greatly influences the personality of each piece so sometimes my initial concept of a figure is altered with just a few brush strokes or shadows.


This little Santa has push-down boots too, because those darn elves won't make him a new pair to match his squatty little legs. The elves think that's funny...naughty little elves!!

The next WIP, shown below, you have seen in the clay state already. Our brainy little boy, Poindexter Pumpkin, is shown here with his head almost completed in paint, and his body and leggings covered in an initial coat of black paint...that changes later this morning. He is another Lumina pumpkin and he sort of looks like he has had a "brow-lift", which is that look some children have when they open their eyes really wide and force a smile for a photograph. There is a certain innocence in that pose and that is what I was going for. He is a brainy boy, but so needing the life experiences to balance the brightness he was born with.

In the flat black paint he almost looks like an über pumpkin in tights. I have plans to change that so I better get to my studio table to work on Poindexter's attire.

Gorgeous day here so hope yours is great too!! Happy creating!
Laurie