Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun

Or maybe it's, "I just love being a Ghoul". I really wasn't sure what title I was going to give this post.

This ghoul is my first but maybe not my last. She was such fun to work on that when I got ready to paint her I had several different ideas but stuck with the original and putting the rest into the maybe file.

There were a couple of firsts with this piece, one of which is she's the first of my figures to have an actual neck. That leads me to another first. Since the neck needed to be strong enough to support her head I needed to leave the armature for it in place.

So, here she is, my first ghoul which would lead you to believe there may be more, who knows, maybe there will be.

This is Wisteria. She has been around for many years and has adjusted to "life" as a ghoul. Although she has lost her once beautiful hair, she still feels feminine and pretty. Since she's discovered face art, she is constantly seeking out mirrors to admire herself.

"Oh my.....

Wisteria's gown has lace embellishments around the neck, down the front and at the edge of her  jacket. She also has lace as a band around her head.

Wisteria stands just over 11" tall and is approximately 4" wide. She is painted with several layers of acrylic paints and sealed to protect her from the elements. Like all of my other pieces, she is a one of a kind figure created from paper mache clay without the use of any molds. She will be listed for sale in my Magick Shop.

Just a reminder, Maggie is having her drawing for the wonderful Santa today, so don't forget to pop over to Off My Rocker to see who's the lucky winner.

I hope you've enjoyed meeting Wisteria and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Grandmother Goose

This is the third witch that I've created since going over to the dark side. I started her at the same time as I did the other two. The idea I had at the time I started the three was to make the witches and then go back to sculpting Santa figures.

Since then I've gotten carried away creating these little magickal beings and have started four other creatures of the night. They're not witches but something else.

I don't know if I feel like going back to the place where it's Christmas year round. What can I say? I'm having fun and something has gotten a hold on me. I've even taken to watching movies like, "Practical Magic" and "Hocus Pocus" and "the Witches of Eastwick". Does anyone have suggestions for other good movies along these lines?

This latest witch I have named Minerva. She has spent the day in the herb garden where I found her earlier and asked permission to take some pictures for this post. Here she is with her pet goose Winnie.

As you can see, the sun is much brighter today. I can't seem to catch a break. It's either too dark or too bright for picture taking. The jack-o-lantern at her feet was made by my sister Maggie.....it's really cute.

Minerva is wearing a gown of dark blue topped with a black cloak lined in a deep shimmering green. Her hat is made to look like leather of the darkest brown/black. The hat band is moss. Winnie has snowy white feathers and a black bill.

Minerva's hair is pulled to the back of her head and fashioned into a large coiled bun.

She seems to like my herb garden and would probably like nothing better than stay there, but I'm afraid that she wouldn't continue looking her best if I left her there. Even sealed, things made from paper mache are not meant to be used as outdoor decorations.

When I took this picture I asked Minerva if she would mind coming into the house so I could take a few more photos. I'm not going to repeat her answer as I don't say words like that. I had to coax her by offering to make her a cup of tea and promised to introduce her to a unmarried wizard by the name of Balthazar.

I really have got to get a light box built for taking my photos. These photos don't even begin to capture her beautiful coloring.

Minerva is going to get along great with the Crone and Ginger. They've just met and seem to have hit it off. I can hear them cackling while I'm writing this.

This little figure is made entirely or paper mache clay and is painted with many layers of thinned acrylic paint and sealed with matte acrylic varnish. She and the other magickal creatures are now in my new shop located as a stand alone page on this blog.

To celebrate the opening of my new shop, there will be a 10% off sale on everything in my two blog shops, North Pole Gift Shop and The Magick Shop,  starting today and continuing until the end of the month.

Just a reminder that the drawing for the Santa made by Maggie from Off My Rocker is happening at the end of this month. If you haven't entered to win the Santa there is still a few days left so hurry over and get entered. I have seen this Santa and held him and would love to win him, so I have to ask myself why am I sending you over???  

I hope you enjoyed meeting Minerva and as always........
thanks for stopping by.

And the winner is......

When I was trying to decide how I would pick the winners for this contest/giveaway I thought back to all of the blogs where there had been giveaways and how the winners were chosen. My first thought was to borrow Santa's bag and write names on  pieces of paper and put them in the bag and have one of the elves reach in and pick the winner, but that or something similar has been done before. I really wanted to do something different so I put on my back-up thinking cap, (remember what happened the the original one) and I came up with what I think is a totally original way of picking a winner.

Here's what I did.

I set up a tripod in the back of the yard and placed a board covered in cardboard on it. The pink squares of paper are post-its with the entrants names stuck on it.

Yep...that's me and as you can see, I'm doing this the really hard and impartial way by throwing the knives while blind folded. This whole process took a bit longer than you can imagine. Truth be told, I'm not that great at knife throwing but I gave it my best. Remember, I had to go through this process twice as there were two drawings.

Tada.....and the winner of the mystery Santa is the entry sent in by Dawn in the Forest.

Here's the Gingerbread House that was such a hard thing to guess. I honestly thought it would have been an easy guess and I'd hoped more of you would have guessed the correct answer.

As you can see, I've painted the house and Santa's face and hair, but the rest is up to the winner to decide how it's to be painted.

Since Santa's hands are full, he's wearing his back pack to carry the toys. There's a bear and a doll that need to be painted too.

The winner of the second drawing is: Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles. I should point out that most of the post-its on the board for the second drawing were hers. It would have been hard to miss. 

Here is the prize for the second drawing.

Perhaps you remember these little critters. Yes, these are the Egg-posters that I posted in April. They're all boxed up and ready to be shipped as soon as I can get an address.

If you're a winner in this giveaway I need you to contact me by email and give me your contact information.

I want to thank everyone who entered this giveaway and wish that you all could have won a prize. Since I've had so much fun doing this and because you all have been so great I plan on having another giveaway in the near future.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

The Witch with Sprinkles

I couldn't wait to show you this little witch. I just wish my camera would show you how she really looks. I've decided my problem is I have to use the flash as the lighting usually makes it necessary and even though there is no shine on the piece it always looks shiny in the photos.

This little green witch is named Ginger. She got her name because of her hair which is red or 'ginger' in color. She is fair skinned and is covered with a 'sprinkle' of freckles, hence the "Green witch with sprinkles" title.

Ginger practices "Natural Witch Craft." She works with the energies of natural objects like stones, gems, herbs, animals and the elements and believes all of these things have a spirit or soul. 

I've so enjoyed working on this little witch as she has such a joyous spirit. From the moment I had her face roughed in I knew she was going to become one of my favorites. 

Ginger is 100% paper mache clay with the exception of her wand and the handle of her broom. She has an owl perched on her hat that I didn't make, and a feather tucked into the band of her hat. She has been painted with many layers of acrylic paint and sealed with acrylic varnish. To make her a bit more magickal  she has the tiniest touch of sparkles on the feather and band of her hat and in her hair and on her collar.

I think I'm going to take Ginger outside later today and see if I can get a better photo so you can see how sweet her face really is, and hopefully get a better look at the colors in her clothing and her hair.

I can't help but smile when I look at this little witch's face. She just looks so happy and good natured.

Even though the colors aren't true to the real thing and the flash flattens everything I hope her sweet nature is still evident. I so enjoyed working on this piece and hope the last of my three witches is a lovable as this one.

These last two photos are obviously from outdoors. I couldn't resist taking the whole witchy trio out to see if the lighting made any difference. Maybe a bit. What do you think?

Just a reminder, there are only 4 more days until the drawing for the mystery Santa. If you are interested in entering the contest/giveaway you still have time.

Hope you enjoyed meeting Ginger, and as always, thanks for stopping by.

The Crone:

Although I mentioned making a witch with sprinkles in my last post this isn't her. That little witch is still drying but the witch I'm going to show you is just as nice. I call this one The Crone.

The Crone represents age-old wisdom. She cares for the Maiden and the Mother. She stands at the door to the other dimension and understands that the journey is just another step on every one's path. Because of her years of experience, she is one who counsels well. Many Elders carry stories that can teach everyone so much. In today’s world, so many traditions are being lost because the younger generation has no interest in keeping the legends alive. The Crone's age range is late forties and older. Her colors are black, purple, brown, indigo blue and gray.

The Crone is a protective figure, and a helpful crone is often linked to fairy godmothers whereas a wicked fairy godmother often appears in the guise of an evil crone.

She is called “Dark Mother, Hag, Mother Death,” and has become perverted into the archetype of the ugly Wicked Old Witch found in fairy tales.

The Crone is the Queen of the Night, and is associated with night and darkness; the waning moon and especially the dark moon, the unconscious realm, dark colors especially black. She is associated with menopause and the aging process; death and decline and the underworld realm and the end of cycles.

She also represents wisdom and power, healing and transformation. We think of the Crone in connection with winter and the Winter Solstice, the direction North; spiders and webs; the elderly and the outcast; cauldrons of transformation and regeneration.

We associated her with old seed pods, hibernation, dormancy and retreat. The animals associated with her are  Owls, Vultures and flesh-eating birds, black birds especially ravens and crows. We think of her at times of transition, such as dusk, dawn, and midnight and associate her with divination, prophesy, and scrying.

This is the first of three witches I’m working on. I’ve no intention of doing the Maiden, Mother and Crone, but have done some research on the three. For whatever reason I find that I’m drawn to sculpting the older witches and so all three of the ones I’m presently working on will be crones. This lovely crone was painted with many layers of thinned acrylic paints and has been sealed with three coats of acrylic varnish. Her hat and cloak are black and she has a dark green shawl. Her gown is a dark grayed brown.

She has her book of spells tuck under her right arm and her wand in her right hand. She holds her broom stick in her left hand. On close inspection you will see her right eye is covered with a cataract and she has a snaggled tooth smile on her face.

While I was sculpting her, I used myself as a model and exaggerated everything a wee bit. For one thing, my hair isn't as thick and my teeth aren't quite as yellow since I've been using this new tooth paste. My nose may not be quite so crooked.

This is pretty much what I look like from the backside except my hair is thinner although it's about the same length and the style.

For some reason the profile gets me every time. I think it might be an  Alfred Hitchcock thing. I like the way the broom turned out. She looks like she's ready to get down to business, doesn't she?

As I said earlier, I'm working on two more witches and will have them both finished in the coming week.....if they ever dry.

Speaking of the coming week. This is the last week before the contest/giveaway drawing. If you haven't entered, go to my contest/giveaway page to see the rules and then come back here to enter. Remember, you can enter as often as you like.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Not Quite Another Santa, Is It?

My daughter saw my latest piece a few days ago and made the statement that this isn't a Santa is it? I have no idea why she asked that as at the time he was faceless and all beige and tan and really pretty rough looking. He wasn't even close to being completed and at that point he sort of resembled Santa.

I've mentioned how I often make what I call a blank and then add PMC to create a figure. A blank is pretty much what it sounds like. If you go back to an earlier post where I did a WIP you can see what a blank looks like. It's basically sort of cone shaped. I often make several at a time and have them drying so I don't have to wait for that particular step when working on a new piece. When I decided to depart from Santa sculpting I decided to see what else I could make with a blank.

This is what I ended up with. Meet the wizard Balthazar.

You may see a slight resemblance to Santa in the shape of the piece, but aside from having a beard he really doesn't look much like Santa to me.

He holds his wand in his right hand and a small crystal ball in his left. His gown is a blue black and his robes are a nearly black green. The lining of his robes is a deep purple.

I have him leaning slightly forward to give the appearance of movement. His wand and the crystal ball show up better from this angle.

Although he is wearing a hat, his robe has a long pointed hood that hangs down his back.

Balthazar is wearing gold rings on both of his index fingers and the middle finger of his left hand.

I know he isn't that much of a change from my usual offering, but there was enough differences that I didn't feel like I was doing the same thing again. For one thing I had to do fingers on his hands. Not easy with PMC.

I'm thinking of making a nice friendly little witch for my next project. Maybe even one with green sprinkles.

Don't forget there are only nine more days until the drawing for the Mystery Santa, so if you haven't entered there is still time. Remember, you can enter as many times as you want.

Hope you enjoyed meeting Balthazar and as always, thank you for stopping by.

COULD THIS BE THE LAST?

I recently said that I might end this series with an even dozen. I've reached that number plus one. The plus one is Mrs. Claus. I have sculpted one dozen Santas in this style, including the one that is the prize in the giveaway.

That last few have even been similarly posed. There's only so much you can do with Santa and that is the reason I'm going to take a break for awhile. It's not going to be permanent, but just a break or time out. I'm going to try my hand at sculpting other figures. I've got something else in the works even now. My daughter saw the other project yesterday and said, "I hope this isn't Santa".

Here we have number twelve in the series:

If you'll remember in an earlier post I had two pups in Santa's bag and I said my feline nephews may feel slighted. To make it up to them, I've put two kittens in Santa's pocket. They're just kittens so they're napping.

Here's a better look at the kittens and a profile view of Santa and the bag. I'm using the red and green color combo again but letting green have the bigger role.

See, I am in a rut. I even have a bunny in the bag. He's a different color and you can see his buck teeth if you look closely, but it's still a bunny. For those who think that's another Annie, you would be wrong. This raggedy doll is named Fannie Freckles. She's the first doll I ever had. My parents told me that I used to climb out of my crib by using her as a step stool. I'm not sure if Fannie Freckles was just the name my parents gave her or if she came with the name.

Here are the last two Santas standing side by side so you can compare the contents of the bags.

Note another scarf offering from Mrs. Claus. This one is knitted from yarns matching the hat and sweater.

Don't forget that there are two weeks left to enter the contest/giveaway. For clues to what Santa has in  the bag, go to the contest/giveaway page and then come back here to enter your guess.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

CAN YOU FIND THE BUNNY HIDDEN IN THIS POST?

Summer has finally arrived where I call home and my spirits are soaring. I love the sunshine and the balmy breezes. I love the lush summer foliage and the beautiful flowers. I love everything that is associated with summer, so why doesn't summer love me?

I suffer from allergies year round but it's much worse this time of years. It may be due to the windows being opened letting all of those pesky pollen particles in. I can't not open them as the house seems so stuffy with them closed. Guess I can endure for awhile.

I have to tell you about a dear lady that I know who has decided to honor me as the featured artist on her blog. Her name is Linda, aka Oma Linda or the Olde Bagg. She has not one but three blogs. Olde Baggs 'n Stuft Shirts, Practically Magickal and Ye Olde Crone's Gazette. It's on her Practically Magickal blog she features artists and I feel humbled by her featuring me and my blog.  If you haven't been to her blogs you're missing some good times.

Now I'm going to show you the latest member of the Santa Squad. I just finished him yesterday evening and can't wait to show him to you, so here he is.

Here he is heading out on Christmas eve to make his deliveries. He has carrots for the reindeer in his left pocket and a new scarf from Mrs. Claus in the right one. He has many scarves as Mrs. Claus loves knitting them and makes them to match the sweaters he wears under his cloak.

See the edges of his sweater sleeves peeking out of his coat sleeves?

I always love viewing Santa from the side. I believe he has a lovely profile.

There are those of you who believe this is the "money shot". Can you spot the bunny? Yep, that's him tucked in beside our little Miss Annie.

I have to include this photo as it shows Teddy from his best side. The other two occupants don't look too shabby from this angle either.

This guy and the one on my last post are both wearing red coats with black boots and gloves. If viewed side by side the reds are nothing alike. That's what's so great about the red and green combination for painting these guys. There are so many possibilities I could use just those two colors, red and green without ever duplicating them on one of my figures if I didn't want too.

Just a reminder, there is only 18 more days until the drawing for the Santa in the contest/giveaway. There's still time to enter your guess. Whether you guess correctly or not your entry is eligible to be drawn in one of two separate drawings. The prize for the second drawing is pretty nice too, so if you are interested in winning the Santa in the contest/giveaway don't forget that you can enter as often as you wish.

For clues to what Santa is holding go to my Contest/Giveaway page to see what they are and then come back here to enter your guess. There will be no more clues given so you're going to have to make do with what's there.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the new guy on the shelf and as always, thanks for stopping by.

DOGS NIGHT OUT

The very first thing I want to do is say thank you to Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles for giving me yet another award. It's getting to be a habit with her. I'm starting to think she likes this blog. I'm supposed to pass the award on to five people who's blogs I follow that I feel are a ray of sunshine but can not choose just five. You are all special and are all a ray of sunshine to me. Please copy this button and display it on your side bar.

Thanks to all of you who have such enjoyable and interesting blogs. You really do add a ray of sunshine. I also want to take this time to welcome my new followers and to thank the ones who have been with me since the beginning.

Now that I've gotten the important things taken care of I'm going to introduce you to the newest member of the Santa Squad. As you can probably guess by the title of this post, there's more than likely some dogs in the bag. The reason we now have dogs showing up is because I've been thinking of my canine niece and sending healing thoughts her way. As those of you who follow my sister Marlene's blog all know, Daisy recently had surgery on her leg. She is such a happy little girl that even when her leg was bothering her she was still so full of joy. I know that she's probably keeping Marlene jumping trying to keep her from doing something to keep it from healing, hence the thoughts I've been sending her way.

So, not to drag this out any longer, here he is.

Since I've discovered black gesso I can't seem to stop myself from using it on my pieces at least in the areas of their coats. It really seems to give me the results I'm looking for.

Here's a little known fact that I'm going to share with you. Santa carries sweets in his pockets because he suffers from low blood sugar and has a sweet tooth. This time he has a ginger bread man cookie and a couple of candy canes. Two of his favorite snacks.

Here's a look at the two dogs in the bag. They are flanked by Annie and Baby Bear.

It almost looks like Baby Bear is trying to climb out of the bag. Maybe he is.  The scarf that Santa has stuffed in his pocket was an early Christmas gift from Mrs. Claus. 

I couldn't resist giving you another look at the pups. Have you ever noticed how looking at a happy puppy makes you smile even when you don't realize you're doing it? Maybe it's just me.

Now I suppose I'm going to have to put some cats in the next bag or my feline nephews are going to feel I like dogs better than cats.

I want to thank everyone who's expressed an interest in winning one of my Santa's in the contest/giveaway. There is still plenty of time to enter and come up with the guess that puts you in the bag for the main drawing. So far it's a pretty empty bag. The bag for the second drawing is getting quite full.

The clue for today is: Think Christmas, folks!!  
The item on the plate is something that you see  only at Christmas. It is edible but is not normally eaten. Does that help? Please feel free to put your guess on this post.

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the states and a Happy Canada Day for our neighbors to the north.  As always, thanks for stopping by.