Sculpting the Moon

Okay, I forgot to mention it last time, but I'm sure you're way ahead of me and you thought of it yourself: you need to put eyelids on the other eye! Did you do that? If not go ahead and to that, same way as below. Oh, but do look at the eye on the other side so that they relate to each other. They don't have to match exactly (ours don't), but they do have to relate. Our moon probably won't be viewed straight on very much. In fact he'll look a bit funny from that angle, but we still want his eyes to relate. Trust me.

Now that that's done, we'll move on to the chin. Pinch off a chin-sized hunk of clay, and begin to shape it with your fingers. Again, it's sort of a C shape. Put it against your moon to see how it's going to fit and adjust accordingly. When you are happy (or close enough to happy) with it, wet the chin area with your finger and press the chin in place. Smooth the outer edges with your fingers. You'll probably be fine using just your fingers for this step; no details to worry about.

New Books!

Don't you love getting a gift certificate? I do, especially a gift certificate for books or art supplies.

Recently I was given a Barnes & Noble gift certificate. After savoring the thought of it for a few weeks the day finally came when I had time to browse and consider my selections. These books can't be chosen in haste after all, they are gift books, they must be chosen carefully!

From the front door I spied a huge book on the history of the circus.....in the sale section!! I love old circus pictures. Several oddities have been inspired by the vintage circus look; in fact there is a circus piece in the studio right now that could use some inspiration.

After looking through the circus book - yes it did look promising, but a decision can't be made that quickly - I headed back to the arts & crafts section. In addition to checking out the books in general, there were a few I wanted to look at in particular: Rice Freeman-Zackery's "Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art". I also wanted to see "Who's Your Dada" by Linda and Opie Obrien and "Image Transfer Workshop" by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran. I was especially interested in Rice Freeman-Zackery's book. I have her "Living the Creative Live: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists" and I follow her blog and listen to her podcast, and I enjoy all of it, BUT, her book wasn't in stock. The other two books were available for my perusing pleasure; both looked good, especially "Who's Your Dada?". But, way up on a high shelf I spied "Art Making and Studio Spaces" by Lynne Perrella. Now, when it comes to other artist's working spaces I have to admit, I'm a bit of a voyeur. I must not be alone given the number of magazines on the subject that have cropped up in the last year or two. I generally find the magazines unsatisfying though; the spaces often look too decorated, too pretty for real work.

After finding a ladder I got the book down and thumbed through it and saw true work spaces.....enough to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies! A book chosen!!

Back to the sale section to look at the Circus book again. It had some great pictures and illustrations - lots of inspiration there - so it had to come with me too.

A quick pass through the magazines; too many possibilities to list, but only one came home with me: "American Style". The article about collectors Jerry Slipman & Chet Robachinski caught my eye. Whenever I'm asked to speculate about what I'd do if I won $100 million in the lottery I say I'd become a collector of art and fine craft. "American Style" showcases collectors whose homes and collections I'm usually thinking of when I say that, like Slipman and Robanchinski's.

My gift certificate was well spent I think, don't you agree?