Putting the "Fun" back in "funeral"!

To be fair I can't take credit for that wonderfully morbid prose. I met a fabulous funeral home director at a Halloween party last year. He told me about going to a convention and getting two bumper stickers; one says "We put the fun back in funeral" and the other says "Always a pall bearer, never a corpse. How much do you love it?

It's okay, I won't tell anybody...
My mini tombstones are nearly done! I loved adding the dripping green stuff. I want more layers of grunge though, guess I'll make up a rusty glaze and then maybe more moss. Also I need them to be more flat, the acrylics leave an almost satin finish. Tombstones are not shiny!

I looking for something to add to my repertoire other than R.I.P. It needs to be short and sweet and easy to paint/carve tiny. I also want to make some with the lamb at the top, and of course the classic angel head with wings, skull with wings and skull over bones.
I'm so inspired by the artist Edward Gorey...

Link to the Mystery! Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4502MXkb-Dc

He did the wonderful intro to "Mystery!" on PBS. When I was a young insomniac I'd stay up until it came one just to watch the two minute cartoon. I loved how the woman lay helpless, making demure mournful little wails! I practiced along with her briefly every time. Still do!


After I got done I went to Lupie's for dinner with Mom and Ellie.

You have to really sneak to get pictures of Miss Ellie, she's that age now. The other two will ham it up as soon as they see a camera! I try to sneak a few good pictures, but the slight delay on this camera is just enough to make good portraits near impossible. That's why you've got to love a good old film SLR. But I'm spoiled by the digital revolution, only use the real camera for "special" things. And I need to get a new battery for it and blah blah blah excuse!
Isn't she such a classic beauty? She's breath taking and always stands out in a crowd. And so sweet it breaks your heart!

She paid me the highest compliment when she came in my house after dinner saying "Your house is so cool, everywhere you look there's the neatest stuff"! Thanks Elliekins! I do love my house. It's my oasis in the city and the most peaceful place other than the Farm for me; it is truly a home.
I have been bursting with creative energy this month, I'm even keeping a gyppy sketch book so I don't forget any ideas. It's really just about remembering for me, I really don't like having every detail of anything laid out before me. How I despised making maquettes in school It is such an affront; it seems like wasting time that would be better spent making the actual sculpture! I'm just not a planner, with few exceptions. I do plan big woodworking projects, the square things, but for carvings I just cut out a silhouette, screw it down to a substrate and dig in.
Don't fence me in!
In other plans, I am going back to a bit of "real jewelry making, combined with some use of found objects. I'm going to cute out some shapes from a silver plate (it's literally a silver-plate, plate) and use them along with some other recycled old jewelry and perhaps some beads. I do love my bling!
Okay one more picture, here's an example of some I started a few years ago in a jewelry class at C.P. You can see in the plate edge below how I cut out the shape from a different plate. The disk is a round mirror that I stripped and decoupaged prints underneath. I epoxied silver bails on the back to hang it. I can do lots of different things with those materials. Some of the mirrors I will strip the paint of the backs, then oxidize the silver to make super cool looking distressed silver mirror pendants.



I hate that I have to go to bed. I really try hard to keep up my good sleep hygiene and go to bed early and arise early in the morning. I have to be in charge of my sleep, otherwise I can go for long periods of time without it, which is terrible for your health. I will forever be a night owl, I always get a big creative surge towards the wee hours. Why can't I wake up at 5 feeling like I do when I stay up to 3? But I pay for it the next morning...No burning the candle at both ends!
I have to wind down now, I'll try not to dwell on thoughts of what I can do tomorrow. It's too exciting!