Illustration Friday

This week's theme is "Linked", and here is my entry entitled "Nice to Meet Ewe":



This little lamb and sheepdog puppy are linked by their curiosity towards each other, and of course, by the puppy's playful tug on the lamb's ear!

Created with colored polymer clay on a canvas background.

I'm having a giveaway contest! You can enter several different ways! Leave a comment here, or on my Facebook fan page. I would like to see my fan page grow a little bit, so if you recommend my fan page to a friend and they join my fan page and leave a comment mentioning you, you will receive two entries. :o) Leave a comment of your own and that will make it three entries! More chances of winning! Become a new fan yourself, and leave a comment and you'll also get two entries!

What's the prize? This cute little snowman sitting on my desk this morning. I know it, he knows it - everybody is sick of winter and snow! But he's hoping to find a loving home all the same!

I'll be taking entries from now until midnight central US time Sunday, and I will announce the winner next Monday morning. That's March 22. :o)

Here's a link to my Facebook fan page:

Designs by Ginny Baker

And here's the little snowman you could win:

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

This week's theme is "Brave". I just completed this little astronaut guy floating above the Earth, and I think he fits that theme perfectly. I think it takes no small measure of bravery to become an astronaut!!

Created with colored polymer clay. :o)

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

My poor blog has become so neglected - yet again. I've just had a lot going on lately. It gets a little difficult to keep all the balls in the air at times. I've been given the opportunity to submit samples for a project that would be a dream come true for me - so, not surprisingly, that has my total focus at the moment.

The polymer clay group I started on Facebook is going strong. We're up to 161 members! Just incredible! It's a great group, and if you have any interest in polymer clay at all, I'd like to invite you to join us.

Designing With Polymer Clay

My Facebook fan page is growing more slowly, but then I've done nothing to promote it since I've been busy with other things. I hope to do some giveaways to generate a little interest as soon as I'm done with the samples.

Designs by Ginny Baker

Hope all is well in your world. :o)

SUNSHINE AWARD :o)

This Sunshine award was given to me by Lori Allberry of Sugarberry Sensations! If anyone I know deserves it, it's Lori. She is as sweet as the name of her business! But I'm honored that Lori decided to give the award to me as well. :o)

So, as part of the rules I must pass this award on to 12 bloggers. Here's my list:

ABCcreativity
Claykeepsakes
The Critter Company
Clay Wishes by Christina
My Tiny Treasures
Redheaded Stepchild
Tonja's Polyclay Corner
Helen's Clay Art
Saga of a Work at Home Mom
The Adventures of Mama Bear
Darbella Designs
Gourmet Felted Designs by Gerry
Here are the rules, so please pass this award along....
The rules for accepting the Sunshine Award are:
- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Not much sunshine around here today. I posted about the "Perfect Snow", and this is what we woke up to this morning:



The kids in the book didn't get a snow day - but the kids in our town did. My daughter's still sleeping blissfully. LOL

CLAY ILLUSTRATION

One of the areas I love to explore when it comes to polymer clay is clay illustration. My favorite illustrator of books for children is Barbara Reid. Barbara doesn't actually work with polymer clay. She uses plasticene. But the effect is the same - stunning three dimensional illustrations.

I've been a fan of Barbara's for years and own every book she's ever produced. It's just so much fun to see clay "come to life" in this way. Her illustrations bring such character and personality to the words in the books she illustrates.

Her latest, Perfect Snow, has just such amazing illustrations. You can almost feel the cool, crisp air, and hear the snow crunching beneath your boots when you look at the pictures. It's a really cute, fun book!


(click to enlarge)

Barbara also has a YouTube channel with videos showing how she creates her phenomenal clay illustrations.

She's just a very gracious, very talented lady. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when she so kindly told me my own clay illustrations were "Very beautiful"!!! There are few bigger thrills then receiving praise from someone you so greatly admire. :o) I hope you'll check out Barbara's fabulous work. I know you'll enjoy it.

NEW POLYMER CLAY GROUP ON FACEBOOK

I've started a new polymer clay group over on Facebook and it's already growing by leaps and bounds. If you enjoy creating with polymer clay, whether it's a business or hobby for you, please consider coming over and joining us!

Designing With Polymer Clay

CHANGING THINGS AROUND A BIT

When I started this blog, my intention was for it to be about sculpting with polymer clay and needle felting, as well as a means to promote my own artwork. Since then it's evolved into a bit of a free-for-all!

I want to get back to my original intentions for this blog. So I've moved my Creative Adventures posts to a new blog, The Adventures of an Artful Dreamer. I will use this blog to chart my journey on my Creative Adventure.

This blog will return to being about polymer clay art, with occasional posts devoted to needle felting, a new interest I've been hoping to devote more time to.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY

OK, this is my first ever Illustration Friday participation. The theme for this week is WILDERNESS. Well, using this definition:

wilderness

1.	a wild and uncultivated region, as of forest or desert, uninhabited or inhabited only by wild animals;

my jungle piece fits the definition. :o)

This is an older piece and obviously the one I use for my blog's banner. This was created with colored polymer clay on an 11x14" piece of glass.



This piece was inspired by the work of my all-time favorite children's book illustrator, Barbara Reid.

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
-Robert Collier

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.
-William Shakespeare

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Sometimes it sure feels like those small efforts aren't getting us anywhere, doesn't it? Or, that we're not just going at a slow and steady pace, but damn near standing still! Those times can be frustrating.

It's like when we were kids and we were traveling some place with our parents, and it felt like we'd been in the car forever. We ask of our weary parents again and again, "Are we there yet?" And again and again, the answer is a disheartening, "No".

About a year ago, I got this strong desire to write a romance novel. It started on a lark. I've mentioned here before about National Novel Writers Month, better known as NaNoWriMo. This is an online event that takes place every November, and the idea is to try to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days. My daughter, Caitlin, wanted to do it, and she talked me into doing it with her for moral support.

Well, I didn't write 50,000 words by the end of November. I did, however, write over 30,000 and came away with an idea for a romance novel that I love and really want to finish.

I've never written a novel before, romance or otherwise. So what qualifies me to write one now? Absolutely nothing, but the sheer desire and determination I have to do so.

I've had to learn and relearn a lot about writing and I'm finding the challenge to be quite fascinating and enjoyable. But, I do struggle at times with feeling like I'm really not getting anywhere.

When we look at a goal that seems so far out of reach, it's easy to lose sight of the steps we've already taken on our journey towards it. It feels like there's still so far to go, like we've been traveling forever, and we're just not getting anywhere. This is why we need to celebrate each step we take in the direction of our goal, no matter how small. Each one is bringing us closer and closer to our dream come true.

Looking at it as a whole, writing a novel is a daunting project. Writing ten pages seems a whole lot more doable. Writing just ten pages feels a very long way off from writing a 400 page novel. But, as we all know, ten pages on top of ten pages, on top of ten more pages will one day add up to 400 pages.

The key is in not getting discouraged and giving up. It's easier to keep going if we remember to celebrate all the steps we've already taken along the way. Soon enough, the distance we still have to go will be much shorter than the distance we've already gone.

Just like on those long road trips with Mom and Dad. Soon you start seeing those billboards announcing that your destination is getting near, and before you know it, you've arrived and the elation you feel is worth all the frustration and boredom you sometimes felt along the way.

Keep on keeping on. :o)

P.S. I'm not even worrying about what I'm going to do with the romance novel when I finish it. My only goal at the moment is FINISHING it. ;o)

Motivational Monday

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.”
Author Unknown

“The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.”
Earl Nightingale

Since we're setting off on a creative journey, and each of us has to find their own path to our dreams, I wanted to share the two quotes above.

I do believe that as we set out on the journey towards our dreams, the path does become clearer as we go along. Although, there are times when I would give just about anything for a GPS or a tour guide! But, for many of our dreams, there are no road maps. So we have to forge our own path, little by little.

It can be hard to take those first steps towards your dream when it's something you've never done before, and you're uncertain of how to proceed. What you can try to do is to break the goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.

For example, when I made up my mind that I wanted to do a craft book on working with polymer clay, I had no idea how to go about doing that. But, what I could do was to look at similar clay books, and learn to break my own projects down into steps, and write up instructions outlining those steps - or step outs, as they're called. So that, by the time I was asked to do a book, I was prepared to do so.

So when you look at the dreams you have, the things you would like to accomplish - is there one thing you could do right now that would bring you one step closer to that dream? That's how we get to where we want to go. One step at a time. :o)

BEGINNING THE CREATIVE ADVENTURE

Today kicks off the Creating Dreams Come True Adventure and our first assignment is to make a list of our dreams and post it online. Andrea suggested we list 100 or more small, medium, and large dreams, but I'm choosing to focus specifically on my dreams for 2010. I believe nothing is more powerful than focused energy, so I would rather focus my energy on specific dreams for 2010, rather than dissipate it by trying to focus on too much at once. But, that's me. Everyone has to do this program in the way they feel will work best for them. So, here's my list for 2010:

• To focus more than ever on my writing, both fiction and non-fiction

• To finish the romance novel I'm writing

• To create tutorials on sculpting that I will make available for sale

• To get more free publicity for my artwork in the form of articles on blogs and in publications

• To continue to build my illustration portfolio

• To redesign my website

• To regain my blog following and reach even more people

• To create more videos for You Tube

• To do more needle felting, along with my clay sculpture

• To USE my airbrushes on a regular basis

• To learn to work more with digital art

• To license my artwork
  

• To travel more - this year to Ireland and Scotland, land of my ancestors

• To take more time to expand and enjoy my social life

• To take better care of myself

I'll probably add more as I go along, but this is plenty to get me started on the new year. :o)

I didn't want to lose the lovely comments I received when I moved this post here, so I copied and pasted them. Hope nobody minds.

Carrie Anspach said...

Hello Ginny!

I'm on the creative adventure as well and I love you list! I love your focused energy concept and I look forward to seeing all these dreams and more come true for you this year!

roz said...

Happy New Year, Ginny. I think I'll hop in your bag when you head to Ireland and Scotland. I am half British and desperate to go back for a visit. I was actually married in Scotland. Edinburgh.
Hope you're settling in well to your new digs. It's so funny to me that we were both in Vegas and now in the Mid West.

ABCcreativity said...

great list ginny!

yes we all have to do everything in whatever way feels right for us :)

Redheaded Stepchild said...

I look forward to seeing you and the rest of us creative dreamers fulfill our dream goals!

Ginny Baker said...

Thanks ladies! I'm off to respond to each of you on your own blogs. :o)

Today kicks off the Creating Dreams Come True Adventure and our first assignment is to make a list of our dreams and post it online. Andrea suggested we list 100 or more small, medium, and large dreams, but I'm choosing to focus specifically on my dreams for 2010. I believe nothing is more powerful than focused energy, so I would rather focus my energy on specific dreams for 2010, rather than dissipate it by trying to focus on too much at once. But, that's me. Everyone has to do this program in the way they feel will work best for them. So, here's my list for 2010:

To focus more than ever on my writing, both fiction and non-fictionTo finish the romance novel I'm writingTo create tutorials on sculpting that I will make available for saleTo get more free publicity for my artwork in the form of articles on blogs and in publicationsTo continue to build my illustration portfolio To redesign my websiteTo regain my blog following and reach even more people To create more videos for You TubeTo do more needle felting, along with my clay sculptureTo USE my airbrushes on a regular basisTo learn to work more with digital artTo license my artwork
To travel more - this year to Ireland and Scotland, land of my ancestorsTo take more time to expand and enjoy my social lifeTo take better care of myself
I'll probably add more as I go along, but this is plenty to get me started on the new year. :o)

IT'S IN THE STARS

Keeping with the theme of using cookie cutters to create unique Christmas ornaments, here's a little Santa Claus ornament I made using a 2" star-shaped cookie cutter. This little guy was inspired by some adorable ornaments I had seen created by Michelle Zink. I've since done all manner of variations on this theme including many with dogs. The star becomes the body of the Santa, the top point of the star becomes his hat, and then it's just a matter of how you choose to embellish it.

Clay Cut-Outs

When Design Originals asked me to do a book on Christmas ornaments, they wanted cute designs that would be quick and easy to make. I had some Kemper cutters on hand, and I started playing around with shapes and came up with some simple, but very cute designs using the teardrop, heart, and round cutters in various sizes.

The teddy bear, angel, and Santa Claus have pants made using a teardrop cutter. I used a small heart-shaped cutter to create the angel's and Santa's shoes. I turned the heart cut-out sideways, stretched the top up slightly and then cut it straight across, then attached to the bottom of the teardrop shapes. I did the same thing to create the teddy bear's stocking, just using a larger heart cutter. Santa's jacket was made using a larger heart cutter turned upside down. I rolled out a very thin piece of red clay with a pasta machine and then cut out rectangles that I gathered for the angel and teddy bear's tops.







The gingerbread men that Santa and the teddy bear are holding were made using a small flower shaped cutter.

It's a lot of fun to experiment with these small cutters and see what you come up with.

COOKIE CUTTER ORNAMENTS

Since people are always looking for quick and easy ornaments to make, editors are always looking for quick and easy ornament projects. I came up with an idea to use a 2" gingerbread man cookie cutter I had to make a variety of Christmas characters that I could put onto glass ball ornaments. This was a project I did for the January 2001 issue of "Great American Crafts" magazine:



The snowman was made using the 2" cookie cutter, the gingerbread boy and girl were made using a 1" gingerbread man cutter.

The Santa Claus below uses the same 2" gingerbread man cut-out as a base, only this time, I cut the piece out of red clay, and then added the other elements to turn it into a Santa.



I attached the unbaked pieces to the glass balls using super glue and then baked them. They've held up for 9 years with no problems, but if you don't want to put super glue in the oven, you could always attach the unbaked clay pieces to the glass ball, bake them, then gently pop them off, and reattach them with glue. I've never had any problems with baking super glue. It is flammable, but not at the low temps polymer clay bakes at. I was not the first person who tried this! LOL I took my cue from many other clay artists who have baked super glue with polymer clay.

This makes a cute and very simple project that could easily be personalized.

HANDMADE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

One of the things I love so much about Christmas is putting up our tree every year. Our tree is traditional, full of ornaments I've made, or my kids have made, or that were purchased because they bring back memories of happy times in our lives, or special places we've been, or some were treasured gifts from friends or family.

I first worked with polymer clay over 30 years ago, but it wasn't until I met my friend, Laurie, who I worked with at a veterinary clinic about 20 years ago, that I really got started selling my work.

Laurie and I started doing craft shows, and we came up with a rather "nutty" idea at the time. We created tiny polymer clay scenes inside of walnut halves. I had seen an ornament that was made of resin and was an imitation walnut with a tiny scene, and Laurie and I decided to try to do our own little scenes inside walnuts with clay. We used the halves at first, but then after a while, my husband, Ron, started hollowing out the shells with a Dremel tool, so that we had a little more of the shell to work with! We sold these quite well at craft shows in Albuquerque, NM, where I was living at the time. The one below, was given to me by Laurie, and it's a wonderful memento of both her and my family's time in New Mexico. My husband was born in Espanola, New Mexico and grew up in Santa Fe. Yup, Laurie and I were crazy enough to do little adobe houses like this one, complete with hanging ristras near the door, tiny ladders, and for this one, Laurie even added a howling coyote and a tiny yucca plant!



Our line also included tiny walnuts filled with Santas, woodland creatures, and anything else our imaginations could fit into a walnut. Like this little Mrs. Santa I did:



Her shell is broken at the top now, so I can't hang her anymore, but she held up for 18 years on my own Christmas tree. Laurie's little adobe house walnut is hanging on my tree again this year, for the 19th year. :o)

Tomorrow, I'll share more ornaments.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

Only 15 days to go! Every year I say I'm going to stop and enjoy the season, but always in years past I'd be so busy creating last minute items to list on ebay, or finishing up the last of my orders, that Christmas would sneak up on me and be over before I knew it. Well, not this year. I am shipping off the last of my orders today, and I am going to enjoy the next 10 days fully this year.

I've been noticing a profusion of aqua colored Christmas decorations in the area stores. I absolutely LOVE the combination of aqua and red! The tree and other decorations featured below are from the website of a store in Canoga Park, CA called, Traditions:



Gorgeous, isn't it? Tomorrow, I'm going to feature some ornaments I've made for my own tree over the years. :o)

MY BABY IS 18 TODAY!

I can't believe it, but it's true. It's been 18 years since our daughter, Caitlin, came into the world. And let me tell you, she was in a big hurry to get here! She was born almost 6 weeks early, and weighed all of 3 lbs. 12 oz. She had to stay in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit for several weeks, til she got up to 4 lbs. Then they let us bring her home, but she still had to have visits several times a week by a nurse. She was SO tiny!

I'll have to add a photo later, because we're on our way out. I just wanted to wish my darling Caitlin Jeanne the happiest birthday she's ever had! :o)

TRYING TO GIVE A LITTLE BACK AND A THANK YOU

I will be listing more dog figurines for sale on ebay through Christmas, and I've decided to donate 10% of the sale price of these figurines to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I've loved and worked with animals all my life, from showing and breeding Boxers with my Mom for over 10 years, to working for other breeders of champion show dogs, to working as a dog groomer, and then later as the office manager of a veterinary clinic in New Mexico, so it's only natural that animals, and specifically dogs, play such a large part in what I create with clay. I've donated many pieces to other rescue organizations to be auctioned to raise money for their cause because I feel so strongly about it.

Recently, I posted about the three kittens we've adopted since moving to Missouri. I wasn't looking to adopt even one kitten at the time. My husband is allergic to cats! But I just could not leave these babies to fend for themselves. So I feel VERY strongly about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. I'm sad to say that I've encountered a great deal of ignorance from people over the years concerning how important it is to spay and neuter. Especially during my years at the veterinary clinic. We had so many people bringing in puppies and kittens that they had found abandoned, and I heard such horror stories. Puppies found in a cardboard box on the side of a busy road, kittens found in a trash bag in the dumpster. It broke my heart then as it does now.

My three kitty boys are growing up, and the first of them will be neutered this week! The other two will be neutered over the coming weeks. I want to support the ASPCA in their continuing efforts to educate the public on the importance of spaying and neutering, in addition to their many other educational efforts. If you're interested in my clay art, I hope you will continue to check out my auctions over the next month and maybe you'll find something you'd just love to have, and in purchasing it, you'll be helping me help the ASPCA.

You can click here or on the ebay widget on the right side of this page to get to my ebay auctions:

Designs by Ginny Baker

I also want to thank Julie Leir-VanSickle of Craft Gossip for posting my Snowman and Bichons piece on her blog this week. Here's a link to the article if you're interested:

Craft Gossip

CREATING A POLYMER CLAY SNOWMAN VIDEO

Well my video editing skills definitely need work, but considering it's my first attempt at editing together a series of clips, it's not too bad. I just wish it were as clear as it was before I uploaded it to YouTube. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy checking it out. Listening to that music, while I was working on the video, brought back so many great memories. My brothers and I grew up listening to those Christmas classics, which my parents would play every Christmas season. Both of my parents are gone now, so those memories, while wonderful, were also bittersweet. That music also helped put me in the mood to create more holiday themed items.

Here's a link to the video:

Creating a Polymer Clay Snowman