Prosodia Lab: November 2013

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

making a forest revelry - the players

The players ~

The fox picked the banjo sending rhythms to the mice tooting notes to the bear dinging accents to the chipmunk ringing bells to the rabbit thumping beats to the squirrel harping solos to the raccoon stringing melody.

The bear. I made him first ~ the first always has a special place in my heart. This fluffy bear came pretty easily. He lacks appendages thin enough for wires, which saves oodles of time and patience. Except for his toe claws - those are wrapped wires. His triangle dings like a real triangle :) :) :).

This rabbit is roughly the size of a nickel. His ears, tail and arms are made out of wrapped wire. If you look very closely, you can see the tiny pink edge of his ear. The felt tail is also supported by wire - you can bend all of the limbs!

Ah - The Fox. Sly bugger who strums a mean banjo.

This raccoon stole my heart with his fat little belly, delicate limbs and a giant smiley face.

Teeny tiny stitched ears, wire wrapped once, and a 1/4" harmonica.

One of the things I love about this piece is that all of the components are stand alone. I can place the animals in different settings, with or without instruments. In my day job, we call it the "fine art of reuse"; do it once, use it many times. I go to great lengths to avoid using glue for this reason. But sometimes there's no avoiding it. As you can see below, the tip of the bell is as big as a tweezer tip. I can't think of a way to engineer that staying put.

Well, now that I look at it...there may be one way. I'll get back to you after I pry the chipmunk free from the krazy.

I also glued the drumstick to the drum. It is not attached to the rabbit.

Meeces.

The trees are a character in their own right. Each large tree took 2-4 hours to complete:

1. Design and cut patterns ~ 30 min/tree

2. Cut two layers of tree trunk ~ 45 min/tree

3. Cut holes in top layer of tree for large knots ~ 15 min/tree

4. Embroider chain stitches and split stitches throughout ~ 3 hr/ large tree, 1 hr/small tree

The trees were my favorite to handle; once completed, they were stiff and textured like bark. You can see the border of the piece in the photo above. This makes photographing and framing much easier. I add this border to all of my customer people portraits.

So, nearly 10 months later, I'm concluding my thoughts on the Forest Revelry. It was a wonderful journey; one that I'm ready to hang on the wall.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

the sloth

I collect postcards. This compulsion has led to a graphic redesign of our fridge. Being aware of my capability to become a hoarder, I abstain from collecting magnets. But that doesn't mean I can't make them for others (please buy my crap so I don't start hoarding sloth magnets too)!

I doodled a sloth in my journal one day. Weeks later, I created a pet magnet for a friend. After revisiting the sloth doodle, I decided a sloth magnet had to be next.

Etsy Shop - Sloth Magnet

Knowing the first sloth would be for us, I didn't shy away from detail. I wrapped a single thread around wire for the claws and sewed fur on the belly.

The inspiration piece:

I had to simplify the design to make it sell-able. I decided the sloth's face and beady eyes were the most important feature. Though my favorite feature are the original's long claws, that portion took roughly an hour to complete - not sensible if I want to make any sort of profit on these guys.

The simplified sloth: