Last week I showed the beginnings of a Halloween jar I was working on. Well here's the finished jar. It turned out much differently than how I had originally envisioned it but I'm quite pleased with it all the same:
Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true. -----Napoleon Hill
The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams. -----Eleanor Roosevelt
There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, 'Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams.' Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, 'How good or how bad am I?' That's where courage comes in. -----Erma Bombeck
I'm proud to be a dreamer. How about you? :o)
And just for fun, here's the cutest video I've seen in a long time. Perhaps these little pups had pleasant dreams after being sung to sleep with this sweet lullaby. My mom and I bred and showed Boxers for over 10 years before she passed away, so this video really brings happy memories to mind for me. Hope you enjoy it! Dream BIG dreams! :o)
Sometimes I get these great ideas, and I'm all excited to create them - until I sit down to actually DO it and remember that what I planned to do presents a bunch of challenges! For example, I purchased these really cute and inexpensive pumpkin-shaped treat jars from Wal-Mart with the intention of covering them with clay, and then creating bas relief Halloween scenes around the center of the jar. It's been a while since I took on one of these projects, so of course while all caught up with thinking about the darling designs I wanted to sculpt on these jars, I completely forgot what a royal PAIN it is to cover curved surfaces like this! Especially when the piece is narrower in some places then others. UGH.
I contemplated taking them back, but I really wanted to use them. I just didn't want to spend hours working on them driving myself over the edge into insanity (a short drive I admit) while doing so. So I altered my plans a bit. Instead of covering the entire center of the jar with one continuous piece of clay, or having to seam several pieces together to create the background for the scenes I wanted to create, I decided I would do little vignettes instead. I have a large square cookie cutter with a decorative edge and I decided I would do 4 squares with little scenes in them instead. I did however cover the entire lid of the pumpkin with orange clay. I have to say that after trying a brand of clay that shall remain nameless to cover that lid and having nothing but problems with air bubbles, stickiness, etc. I decided to try Studio by Sculpey clay. I had a bunch of it on hand that Polyform Products had graciously sent me to try. It worked FANTASTICALLY! It was a dream to roll out, no air bubbles, and the seams blended smoothly. I know this stuff is controversial in the clay community for reasons I won't go into here, but I have to say it was wonderful to work with for covering the glass jars. This clay has an interesting feel to it, almost powdery. It's hard to describe. It's soft right out of the package but not overly so. It bakes to what the company calls a suede-like finish. It doesn't really feel like suede but it does feel different from other polymer clays when baked. It was a pleasure to work with. :o)
What's on my worktable today? Some custom orders and some adorable glass pumpkin jars I am covering with clay: But what's on my list of things to do is growing longer by the day. Being a self-employed artist, we do it all - creating the art, photographing it, editing the photos, uploading the photos, writing up the ads, listing items for sale, wrapping, packing, shipping, billing, bookeeping, customer service, creating the website, promoting the art, and on and on it goes. I love what I do but it does get a bit daunting at times when you add on the responsibilities of being a mom, running a household, etc. I get tired just thinking about it all!
I've been enjoying working on the Halloween items. It's one of my favorite holidays to design for. Here's a cute little candy jar project I did for a magazine a couple years ago:
