Stop-Dana time!

Okay okay okay wait just a damn minute! My friend Dana previously discovered my blog, thus I found her blog and have been letting her regale me with tales of her travels and life via her delightful writing, which you too can treat yourself to here:
(Just a couple of tidbits of kernels of Dana's wisdom, I highly recomend)

http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-tiny-slice-of-this-place-fits-into.html

http://dana-dee.blogspot.com/2009/09/one-crazy-ass-type-mommy-blogger.html

A few choice words about Dana Nagel. First off she is the weirdest girl I've ever met, and that right there should tell you something. She's a kindred spirit for sure, in just the weirdest way. I met her in gym class in 11th grade; sadly, she was in 12th grade so I just had the one year to enjoy with her in school. We immediately began skipping gym to go to a lunch period that obviously was not ours. Our coach was kind of a perv, and we objected to the class in general. The two of us together could scarcely take anything seriously anyhow.
I was amazed and delighted to learn that she did not use any recreational drugs; she was like that naturally! What's she like? She is like a far out weird-a-roo who makes everything very fun and funny, and you laugh your pants off over the most unremarkable things together.
One time she found a note some kid had posted on a telephone pole in her neighborhood for his friend to read, this of course was in the 90's, preceding Facebook and cell phones. I wish I was in possession of the note; it said things like "by the way, your parents have a nice f#@!&*g liquor cabinet" and other choice bits of poetic genius that only a 14 year old boy can write.
She had all manner of friends who were all unusual characters themselves, as someone like Dana does not attract only one "type" of person, even in high school.
Also we could be very serious together about things, and we went to the mountains to do naked sweat lodges with my spiritual mentor Ayal, who I had met earlier at the age of 14. She is very genuine and sincere and in no way conforms to anything at all. She is an excellent friend and a seriously fabulous writer.
Don't believe me? See for yourself...(please see links to her blog above)

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!

Here's the listing for my newest Halloween clock on eBay!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250567777899&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
It's Halloween time again! Isn't it festive? I just love the vintage Beistle look. It's not an exact copy, the original has a cat head! I'm partial to skulls myself.

stuck inside

Today is rainy and cold, quite a switch since yesterday. I resolved to stay in and get some projects done. I got so jacked up on art last night, and this morning I woke up feeling the same way!
I went out to the junk stores for some art supplies and got some really good stuff. And this afternoon I've been looking up things online, checking out people's etsy shops and rushing back and forth between ideas. Slow down! Mayhaps I got a vitamin B overdose yesterday? Bran, do ya think?
I sat down for a snack and it was so pretty I had to get a picture first. I think stuff tastes better when it's a visual delight in addition to being yum.
And how much do I love anything with pom pom trim? A whole bunch, that's how much! The silver plate tray is going to be cut up to make jewelry components. I did that when I was taking jewelry making (the real kind, with tools and solder!) and it's a wonderful way to use inexpensive materials. You can't solder silver plate because it burns the silver right off the copper. Too bad...I could make some deadly cool things that way. But I can cut out parts, file the edges and bend and shape pieces into all sorts of fabulous things.

Okay, don't laugh...
...isn't this creepy and delish?
This is a Scarlet O'Hara style boudoir doll from the 10960s I believe. My Granny had some I just barely remember. I think maybe some were the kind with the croched dress. I thought it was cool that she was a grown up who had dolls. She also made dolls for me, and other great grandchildren. They were so enchanting. I still have the ones she made for me and my sister. She even sewed satin panties on them and slips, fancy!
So, this weird little girl will eventually be sold at my Etsy shop. I want to alter her, make her a shepherd's crook and a creepy black sheep or something. She already has a semi trashy "goth" look. Wish I could get a better shot but check out the major blue eyeshadow! That combined with the black lace over red satin get-up, she's pretty of racy. And scary.



I'm tempted to give her horns, and sculpt Pan in her size so she has a boyfriend... so many ideas! But I have to return to my tombstones which have their first coat of gray.
More space, more space, my Queendom for more space!

How can I get out of this bed? Actually I got up early, this picture is from Roxi crawling back to bed after breakfast! What a slacker; she takes after me I guess...


I went back to Bran's and spent, then we came back to Charlotte to get my truck and cleaned out some of her work area. We had to make room for all our successful activities to take place this year! We loaded up the back of the truck with Mom's dining room table and mimicked the theme song to Sanford & Sons back to her house. I always do that when my Dodge is packed to the gills with stuff, which happens frequently. I really should have gotten a picture of it during all my comings and goings between here and Charleston. Alas that was before I had a digital camera and I used my film camera for more "significant" photo opportunities like the cemeteries and Angel Oak.
But I digress! After a long day we made it back to Charlotte before the rain, which we haven't gotten so far. Here Roxi is being a cute passenger stuffing her nose in a bag of art supplies. I love driving my truck with my dog by my side, it's one of the best little pleasures in life.
Here are some little tombstones after texture and gesso waiting to be painted. I am really looking forward to that part! I'll get to it tomorrow for sure.
But I got sidetracked making a 10th birthday present for Zoe. I wanted to cobble together a super cool Halloween necklace for her. I have a few pieces made waiting to be put together like some glass circles with pictures of skulls or black cats decoupaged on. Wait, this can be like a Richard Scary book...can you find one near the scissors and the other near the needle nose pliers?
It's really getting past my bedtime but I let my creative mind wander and now it will take some doing to get my mind ready for sleep.
Tomorrow is a new day! I can stay home and get back to my projects after spending yesterday on my house and today on Bran's. Got to get things in order so I will be free to create all day!
Life is really very good.

This morning I awoke to cloudy skies and wintry light glowing into my bedroom...

I was so sleepy and cozy I didn't want to get up yet, so I turned the light on and got back in bed. I had been dreaming, I don't remember what, nothing remarkable. Better to just stay in bed a little longer...
.The great thing about having a dog is, she won't let me lay around too long. She's well mannered about it, when she thinks we've layed around long enough she sits up in bed like this. She doesn't pester me, but she looms over me until I give in.

It's been one of those days where you never shake that sleepiness. I guess that's okay for a January Sunday. But sooner or later even I will myself to get up off my lazy butt and get something made.
These are little tombstone ornaments to go on the feather tree I'm making. My sister and I are collaborating on this little Halloween art tree and it will be auctioned off on eBay later.

I'm using dry florist foam, it's so easy to cut into and shape, I just have to keep my shopvac at the ready to suck up all the little "dust" it creates. I cut, then vacuum, cut then vacuum; a friend of mine would pick on me about this saying I am being OCD! But I can't deal with all those gritty green little particles everywhere, it's unsettling!

I made a urethane mold last year of some skulls and now I can pour plaster casts of them to my heart's content! These are the perfect size to adorn the tops of some of my tombstones. I have a few different styles, inspired by Charleston's oldest graveyards.
I also plan to make some Victorian style paper ornaments of some bats, skulls and owls...it's going to be so cute! I love having a project in the works.

Beaver dam inspection at The Farm.

Ah, I spent the afternoon at The Farm today and once again my soul is restored.
Roxi followed Dad & I through the woods around behind the Big Pond to see the new beaver dam. It was around 50 degrees and everything looked beautiful and wintry but it felt wonderful.
This is at a little creek that feeds the pond where we used to-no still do-go netting for crawfish and salamanders in the warmer months. We saw this big deer sign. He must be a monster, especially for this area, our white tail don't usually get too big.

We grew up riding horses through these woods and everywhere else. It's a kid's, and a dog's paradise! It's also a grown-up's paradise. I can't imagine life without this little piece of Heaven, don't want to anyway.
Here is Miss Roxi checking out the newest beaver dam. She loves going in and out of the water, it must be the Lab in her! She's growing up just like me; weekdays in town, weekends at The Farm, and she loves it just as much!
Where you see the horizon in this shot used to be woods, until very recently. It's still hard for me to "compute" the new landscape, the old familiar landmarks are all changed. Well, not all of them. We all decided to be happy about it when "The Old Butt Hole" who owned the dam side of the pond died and it was sold off to a farmer who cut his trees for crops. He was nice about it; he could have cut every last tree on his property where it meets ours but he didn't. No use crying over spilt milk. Besides, last summer while floating around out there I thought how it somehow makes the whole pond look bigger, and cleaner having some trees cut.

Here is a beaver lodge; Dad stomps on it to see if he can scare the beaver out but they don't fall for it today. They are nocturnal and very crafty. Dad hunts them at night all winter until they're usually all gone. It's simply a matter of keeping the pond intact; oddly, all their efforts to dam up the pond to make it bigger would wind up causing the "real" dam to break and all the water would come rushing and gushing out.

The "real" dam is right here where this beaver lodge is located. We used to ride the horses across the dam to where the beaver dam is and take the horses swimming. Then muskrats moved in and started honeycombing the dam with these holes. They're so numerous now it would be impossible to ride a horse along here without the likelihood of him breaking a leg in one of these.
Now, you would think the beaver would concern themselves with the business of patching up all those muskrat holes wouldn't you? But they don't, they stuff sticks down in some but not all of them. Now that would be a neat symbiotic relationship, well not in the strictest sense, but it would be cool if the beaver would at least make themselves useful while they're busy cutting down trees!
Here are some of their "works in progress":

This picture is taken from the dam, the flat land you see here used to be woods until recently. Do you see Roxi out in the cold dead duckweed? She's sleeping in bed with me tonight, and I'm too tired to bathe her...that's the beauty of short haired dogs, they're self cleaning.

She was tuckered out the whole ride home. Doesn't she look perfectly clean? My little sugar toed princess! Here it is, 10:30 on a Saturday night and we are both ready to hit the hay. I can go to sleep with visions of woods, deer, beaver and muskrats dancing in my head...
She has the good smell of the farm & the pond. You know how smells take you back in an instant? When I put my nose in her fur it's like I'm 5 years old, in Dad's old Smokejumper's dark green down filled sleeping bag camped out in the springhouse, listening to a deafening chorus of robust bullfrogs and tree frogs, the smell of pond muck still on my hands...
I'm going to pull Roxi close to me tonight so I can dream of Farm things.