mounted pug head

Thought I'd share a little project I've had sitting around for a while now.  This is Pugsly. A mounted pug head.

The best kind of mounted pug head: a fake one.

This little guy is made from old newspapers, diluted PVA glue, air dry clay, old comics and an old cheese board as a mount.

Talk about recycling.

Doesn't everyone need a wall mounted pug head? Especially one as cute as this little guy!

I've listed him for sale on a Facebook selling page but no nibbles so far. I'm keeping it a secret from him so he doesn't feel rejected and unloved. You have no idea how much a depressed pug head can bring down the mood around the house.

z

Shared at:

doll remake - the walking dead bratz dolls!

I'm a big Walking Dead fan. Huge fan.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking... zombies, brains, blood, gore...??? Well, I'd have said the same thing before I got hooked on the series. A friend gave me Season 1 and I had nothing better to watch one day...

That was the end of it. I'm addicted. I share this addiction with a few close friends and I do my best to spread the contagion around. My brother said no way to watching it. He's now hanging out for each new episode of Season 7.

What can I say?

Anyway, this post isn't about my TV habits. Its about my newest hobby. Passion if you like... Bratz dolls. 

REMADE Bratz dolls.

There's a lady here in Tasmania who's gotten famous worldwide with her Bratz remakes. She takes the extreme dolls and makes them into 'normal' kids.

As much as I admire the motivation behind her remakes, I think the dolls are boring. Plain. 

From an art perspective of course! :)

When I got my first Barbie a few months ago I began a downhill slide... I now have 5 Barbies. All early 60's versions. One of them had missing hair plugs and another has a green face. I bought them thinking I would have a go at restoring them after seeing the amazing work some people do on dolls. More on the Barbies in the future.

Meanwhile I became obsessed with doll remakes and repair. I watched videos. I read blogs. I itched to make my own dolls. I found some Bratz in a local 2nd hand store and brought them home. One had her hair cropped off and that inspired me to make Carol from the Walking Dead. Another was a black girl so it was obvious she was Michonne. I chose these characters because I love them and find them inspiring.

My Carol doll already had cut off hair so after washing her and removing her face, I gave her a better haircut first up. Dolls who aren't meant to have short hair aren't rooted evenly all over their heads, so she had bald spots. I used tacky glue and tufts of hair to fill these in. 

When her face was dry I did my first ever face repaint using a photo of Carol for reference. I gave her stud earrings and then began to dress her.

I made all Carol's clothes myself. Imperfectly. I'm not the best sewer when working on human sized clothing, imagine making stuff under 3 inches big!

When Wayne saw me ironing Carol's shirt he about flipped. I don't iron HIS shirts! :) In my defense, I only had to plog the iron on top of the shirt as it lay flat...

Anyway, moving right along, I made Carol a singlet out of an old jumper, a shirt with seed beads for buttons, and cargo pants out of scraps of fabric. At this point I'm glad I keep all kinds of crap. I made my own patterns using some old Bratz clothes I pulled apart and a lot of guesswork. Naturally patterns are a fluid thing here... always changing cause I always seem to get something wrong! Still I'm loving doing it.

Carol has a trench knife (actually she has two, one is bigger than the other with a silver blade, the other is all black) and a gun. Her belt is made of a tiny strip of leather off an old jacket I bought years ago and never did anything with. The buckle is a rusty washer. The knife sheath is also made from the same leather.

Since Bratz feet and shoes are all one, I had to find a way to make Carol some boots. At the time I didn't have any which suited, the best I could do were these high heeled sandals which I made into boots.

First I painted them, twice to get the shade right. Then I added laces... Talk about tiny work! I got slivers of leather, put bronze coloured crimps at each end and glued them in place. Voila. Lace up boots. I even scuffed them up a bit.

Here is the before and after photo.

Michonne was a much bigger remake.

With Michonne I had to remove all the doll's hair, repaint the face, then give her dredlocks. I did this by wet felting squares of black and different shades of brown wool. I then cut those up and worked them into dreds. I glued those onto the doll's head one layer at a time, making a head band out of a scrap of fabric.

Michonne's jeans are original Bratz clothes but the rest of her outfit I made myself. The leather jacket and belt are both made from the same leather jacket. Details were painted on the jacket. The belt has silver studs which I just realized aren't visible in the photos...

Since I couldn't give her gloves I gave her a wristband - a Monster High accessory I adapted. Her boots were a wierd tan brown so I painted them black with silver details to look like biker boots.

The hardest bit of Michonne is her katana sword. I've made 3 of them so far. The first was air dry clay didn't take the paint well - so it crackled... Nice effect in itself, but on a sword? The second was all polymer clay and I broke it while trying to straighten it. The third is a mix of hammered wire and polymer clay. That was looking really promising till I broke the handle yesterday while try to pose her with it in her hand. I'll be making another one today, with more wire in it to keep it strong.

Both the katana and the sheath need painting for Michonne to be finished. Then I'll list them both on ebay. I'm hoping they'll make someone happy this Christmas.

I've been going through some stuff recently and I've spent a lot of time just wasting time, feeling down. That's the reason I decided to stop blogging. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going with it at the time. But then I thought I wouldn't let something else stop me doing something I enjoy.

This new hobby has been great for me as its something that I enjoy doing and has been making me feel so much better. I love being creative but when I'm down I can't find the motivation to do anything. Doing dolls, even in bits and spurts as I've been doing these girls, is a small way to get me up and doing stuff.

So does the garden. And my dogs. And grooming dogs. Those are things which make me feel good about myself, so I'm doing them as much as I can. I was told I needed to look after myself and make myself happy. Doing a radio show on Sundays where I play music I love, making art, DIY stuff, the garden and dogs are what make me feel good inside.

And I'm a show off so I'm showing off what I make!

z

Shared at:

sculpture and soul searching

I had a comment about how I'm blogging a lot lately. Unlike the huge gaps between posts most of the other time.

The fact is I know I'm a poor blogger. Good thing I'm not trying to make money from this blog!

I began blogging as a way to share news and photos of our lives with friends overseas. Then I began to share projects and got into the whole DIY/repurpose/recycle blog thing. I enjoy that stuff, I do it for myself anyway, why not share with others who like the same thing? Makes sense, right?

But... there are days I just don't feel like blogging. I have nothing to say, I can't be funny, or I'm flat. Its one of those vicious circles: when I feel good I'm creative, when I don't create I feel flat. And work sometimes drains me to the point where all I want to do when I get home is curl up and zonk out in front of the TV.

On those days I think about giving up the blog. I mean, who cares what I make or do? I'm just some random person living on a small island on the bottom of the world. I have nothing important to say. 

I think the only reason I blog and share is cause I'm a showoff. I used to accuse my brother of being a showoff when we were kids but turns out I'm the one. 

Who knew...

Anyway, I'm still here, still blogging even if sporadically at times. You could say I like to be unpredictable. Like with the stuff I blog about. Its not all DIY, craft, decorating, gardening or any one thing in particular. Its a blog about me and my life - and I'm a wierd kind of jack of all trades kind of person.

So today I'll share some sculptures. The theme was 'body'... so body parts it is. As I found when making the animals, I love sculpting.

These sculptures are more along the lines of ART than the animals. I wanted them to look like an unfinished work.

Here they are finished. Difficult to photograph cause they're so bright white. 

Unfortunately the wire nose ring burned off in the second firing. I'll try to replace it but the bit remaining is in really firmly. I also need to make earrings to go in the holes I made in the ear.

So there you go. Another completely different thing.

z

cowpig and other ceramic animals

Its been years since I did any work with clay. High school in fact. And back then I didn't think I really enjoyed sculpting.

Well, I tried it again a little while ago and I LOVE it.

This little pig bowl was my first foray into the world of pottery. He's called a cowpig cause that's what a friend called him when she saw the colour. Ok, so I got the holstein patches on a pig, ok, I stuffed that up... but he's still darn cute.

I picked aqua blue for the inside cause pink would just be wrong... and disturbing... plus I love aqua.. The idea is that its a little bowl I can plonk bracelets or such in. For now its sitting on the air conditioner (which is a floor model) in the living room where I can see it every time I walk past.

Love his little face...

And his little tail!

Next I made some little critters. I made a chicken, two bandicoots and a wombat. The chicken is not here, neither is one of the bandicoots, but the other two are.

Let me introduce the brown bandicoot and the common wombat.

I gave the little bandicoot a copper wire tail.

I'm loving this. Both the building up and the carving out. I want to buy a slab of this paper clay and make a ton more stuff.

The paper clay is clay mixed with paper pulp. It dries completely white and is easy to work with. I then take it to a place in Hobart to have it fired, paint (glaze) it with the right paints and have it refired.

I'll get onto that soon as I find some time...

After the huge garage sale at the end of October. After moving the grooming room to the storage room.

When I find time.

z

indian sign

Yippee!

A project I began and finished entirely since breaking my finger!

I had this large piece of plywood, with a thin metal border from when Wayne bought a wood splitter. It arrived in a lovely ply crate which was, unfortunately, destroyed during the unwrapping stage.

I went into the garage to see the unveiling and snuck off with the intact top. I put it in the silver shed where I store a lot of 'future projects' (ie junk I have plans for) and forgot about it. For at least a year, probably closer to 2 years... A few months ago I saw it while searching for something, thus it was near the front of my mind when I was wondering what kind of project I could do with one hand.

I had always planned to paint the Indian Motorcycle logo on it for Wayne's garage. I mean, he's a cowboy, he loves anything american indian, and its a great sign for a garage...

First I undercoated it with a 3 in 1 primer, sealer undercoat I had on hand. Then I projected the image I wanted onto it so I could trace it. I'm no sign writer, I needed the help!

I worked on it in the grooming room (since it wasn't being used for grooming!) so I could keep it a surprise for Wayne. I only worked on it in spits and spurts as the inspiration and energy hit me so it took a full 3 weeks to complete.

I began painting it with artist acrylics but they didn't give a nice finish. The face and head dress (which is a pale beige but looks white in the photos) are textured and not smooth. I had to buy some tiny (and expensive) pots of water based enamel paint. Its liquid and goes on smooth. However they have limited colours - I used those for the red, yellow and black.

The sign will hang in the garage, probably be put up next weekend if we're lucky. Its something thats best admired from afar... the black outlines are a bit wobbly in places.

Wayne is pretty impressed with his gift. Its for putting up with me constantly complaining about my finger and for using it as a good great excuse for not cooking.


UPDATE

Wayne has hung the sign in the garage.

z

shared at:

re-purposing used tea bags into a fish

What do you do with your used tea bags? I dry mine out and collect them of course.

Doesn't everyone?

Ok, I'm not normal.

I just love the tea coloured stains - I've used tea to dye things before, and used flattened tea bags on the dress I made recently.

Anyway, the tea bags and a trout seemed the perfect match for an art project. For Art From Trash of course. This is another of the projects I created at work with the help of one of the guys.

First I drew a trout on a large piece of paper (from a roll so it was long enough). Traced this onto some thin MDF and cut it using a jigsaw.

Since it was going to be a considerable size and moving it in a car would present a problem, I kept the trout in two parts. I glued strips of wood to the back of both pieces at either end. These served two purposes - the ensured the trout hung out from the wall a bit instead of sitting flat against it, adding dimension. It also gave me somewhere to attach hinges, making this a foldable piece of art!

Practical as well as pretty!

My assistant helped me paint on the face, tail and fins by adding all the spots. Then we began the long process of gluing on the tea bags together.

I left the strings on them on purpose - I think the movement of the strings in a breeze gives the illusion of movement.

In order to blend the 2D painted surface into the rich texture of the tea bags I used flattened bags which let the painted colours show through.

Add a hole for the 'fishing hook' and it was ready to hang.

Once we'd finished I sprayed it with clear varnish for protection. While that was still tacky I sprinkled it with some very fine aurora borealis glitter - cause, you know, trout shimmer!

This is the finished trout. 

 And here it is at Art From Trash.

Yep. That is a sold sticker! It sold pretty much straight away, and I've had enquiries as to whether it has any siblings.

It was a great success at the show.

z