Santa and his Cloak of Many Colors

When most of us think of Santa Claus we picture him wearing bright red clothing trimmed with white fur. His hat is red and his suit is red and he has black boots and belt and then there's that snowy white fur. I make figures of Santa dressed in red, but have never trimmed any of them with white fur. I have trimmed other gift-bringers clothing in white fur. Ded Moroz and his granddaughter are two examples. Some of my Nossie have white fur trimming on their clothing as well.

I do dress some of my Santa figures in red but not in the style that you may expect. I let my imagine take over when designing his wardrobe. I don't believe that Santa would have only one choice when he looks in the closet in the morning. I'm sure he likes variety in his clothing. He may favor red and perhaps even bright red, but I think he also has a selection of clothing in other colors too.

When I created the Santa I'm going to show you today, I decided that he might have a cloak in his closet that was made with patches of materials that were used to fashion some of his other garments. This would be his patchwork cloak, or his cloak of many colors.

This figure is 13 1/4" tall and 5 1/2" at the widest point. His cloak is a random patchwork pattern worked with shades of red, brown and green. The sleeves of his cloak are a medium brown and match his hat. He's wearing pale antique gold colored robes. The clover green toy bag on his back holds a Teddy bear, Jack-in-the-box and a stuffed lion cub peeking out of the opening. At his feet, tucked under the front edges of his cloak are a hound dog and a black faced lamb. The fur that trims his cloak and hat is a deep tan color.

After painting the piece I applied two coats of polycrylic sealer with a walnut stain for antiquing. As with all of my pieces, he is a OOAK sculpture made entirely from paper mache
clay.

As you can see, he may carry a bit of weight that his doctor might have advised him to loose, but he looks fairly trim in this cloak.

Even in a profile view he still appears quite trim and fit. I think he also must possess animal magnetisim. They seem to be drawn to him.

Hope you can get a look at the toys in the bag. I had a heck of a time with the Jack-in-the-box. It's the first one I've ever built and it doesn't even work.

This is his best side in profile. I was hoping you could get a closer look of the Teddy bear. I've made so many of them lately I'm actually getting pretty good at it.

Hope you enjoyed seeing another of the many Santas I feel compelled to make.

Thanks for stopping by.

The answers to all you questions about EGG-POSTERS

The triditional Easter egg hunt has just become more difficult. Instead of the children hunting for bright or pastel colored eggs that look so much like small spring flowers tucked here and there they are now faced with finding eggs that have been disguised to look like other things. Is that a little bunny or is it an egg-poster? What about that baby duckling over there? Is that really a kitten or is it an egg-poster? Egg-posters can be disguised as anything.

I spend most of my time making figures to be used to decorate for Christmas as it is my favorite holiday to decorate for. I decorate every room of my home for this holiday and leave the decorations up for at least a month. I've never given the other holidays as much attention when it came to decorating . I love the colors of Christmas. I love the smells and the baking and shopping and the gift wrapping and the dinner and the visiting with family and friends. There's so much to love about this holiday. However it doesn't mean I don't do anything for the other holidays. I just don't go as gaga over them.

Next Sunday will be Easter. There was a time when I would decorate the house and make baskets for the kids and grands. I loved the shopping for or making special little treats to put in their baskets. I loved looking for the perfect clothes to wear for Easter church services, whether it be that special pattern and fabric or a store bought outfit. I loved the Easter egg hunts in the back yard where the kids and their friends would look for the eggs I'd hidden. I loved watching them search through their baskets looking for just the right peice of candy or watch them select an eggs I'd dyed. I loved the special dinner with the baked ham and all the trimmings and the fancy rolls and desserts. I loved it all. Now that they have grown past that stage of life, it's become a holiday that is only a special Sunday dinner.

I've decided that I should pull myself away from the Santa business to make something Easter related, but what should I make? One thought was to make paper mache egg shapes and then apply colored paper with mod podge, but since I've never been good with that sort of thing I didn't think about it for long.

Another thought was painting the egg shapes in pretty patterns, but quite truthfully, that didn't get me excited either. I needed to come up with an idea that was a bit strange and out of the ordinary and that's when my weird little mind came up with the Egg-posters. In case you haven't quite figured it out, they're eggs that are imposters. Get it?

There can be an endless list of possible egg-posters. I chose four to make. I started with the bunny as rabbits for some reason I'm not quite sure of are always present in one form or another at Easter. My favorite form is chocolate rabbits. I completed the bunny on the same day as two other projects I'd been working on but decided to get a few friends for him completed before blogging about him. I've been getting a bit of flack from number one son for waiting but what the heck, this is my blog, right?

Now something very strange has happened. Once again I've completed three pieces on the same day. This has happened two times in one week. I couldn't believe it when it happened the first time a few days ago, and I really can't believe I managed to do it again so soon. I guess this is bound to happen when you work on so many projects at the same time.

So, without further ado, here are the Egg-posters.

From left to right we have Bunny, Ducky, Chicky and Miss Kitty.

The duckling and chick are the shortest at 3" tall. As you can see, Ducky is sporting a 'duck tail'.

                                                     
The bunny because of his ears is a w-hopping 4 1/4" tall. Note the cotton tail.

Miss kitty is not quite as tall measuring only 3 1/4" at the tip of her ears. She's well aware her ears don't match her body colors but they only come in black.

Wouldn't it be a hoot if these guys catch on? Can you see it? Me the inventor of a new Easter egg decorating technique? Sure, Egg-posters may not be as popular or as tasty as Peeps, but who knows what the future holds. They will never be as tasty as Peeps, but maybe they will be as popular.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. Have a great day.

Santa at work

Last month after viewing the post of my sister's seated Santa I made the comment that I would probably never make another seated Santa due to the challenges I'd had with my one and only earlier attempt. A while later I thought about that comment, and realized it sounded like I wasn't up to the task and I was backing down from something that was a bit tougher than my usual. I don't like to think I'm a wimp or afraid of a little rough going, so I challanged myself to make another seated Santa.

I've been working on this Santa just short of a month now and although it wasn't always an easy road to travel, I finally completed my journey. If you've been following my blog, you probably know that I work on several pieces at once. This medium requires patience as there are many times when you have to stop and let things dry or harden or whatever. Also some breaks are required to let these old eyes have a rest. I seem to like to include loads of detail when painting the cloaks and robes my figures wear not to mention the small detail work on the faces, and paper mache isn't the easiest surface to paint on. Since I've never been known for having any patience I'm forced to have pieces that are at different stages of completion so I always have something to work on.

My sculpting seems to be taking over the whole house. There's usually something in the oven, and I wouldn't suggest trying to eat it. I have more pieces sitting on and surrounding the drying racks in front of the small heater that I bought solely for the purpose of drying my projects while other pieces are sitting on my one and only available heating vent. I have more bits and peices on the work table and at the painting station that I've set up with several light sources as I have a very little natural light this time of year. Since I've only been doing this for about three and a half months, it's been overcast this whole time, I'm not sure the lighting gets any better when it isn't overcast.

So, back to the point I was trying to make, I have been working on this Santa a little here and a little there everyday over the last 26 days. I've stuck fairly well to my original sketch making small changes here and there during the process which seems to be the way I work. I knew I was getting close to end of our time together and wouldn't you just know it, I was reaching the same point with two other pieces.

The other day, I finished all three. I was shocked and dismayed. I had this huge decision to make. Which piece would I blog about first?

Would it be:

A. Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden

B. Santa at Work

C. One who must not be named (At least for now)

I selected Snegurochka to go first. She and I spent a great deal of time together this week. I'm going to miss working on her.

I'm also going to miss working on this seated Santa. As I feared, there were many ups and downs working on this guy. He is made over a full armature of wire, card board and paper that had to be left in place. I don't like this method but had to do what I had to do.

Santa sat on a over turned coffee mug for most of the time I worked on him. I had to decide what kind of a bench I was going to build, and what materials to use to build it and if he was going to need another piece of furniture to put his painting supplies on. I settled on building the bench out of paper mache clay over a cardboard armature. I made it wide enough to hold his painting materials so building a table could be avoided.

He's just finished painting the face of a hand puppet and there are some dolls sitting on the floor nearby that need features painted on their faces.

This whole piece is 100% paper mache clay with the exception of the paint brushes and the base which are wood. I used acrylic paints and walnut stain for antiquing and applied two coats of polycrylic sealer. Sitting on his 8"x12" base, Santa is 11 1/4" tall.

This is a better shot of his painting supplies and the detail around the yoke of his shirt and the silver buttons that attach his suspenders to his trousers. For some reason or another, this photo also makes Santa look more slender across the backside.

I'm not saying I won't ever make another seated Santa, but will say that if I do it won't be for a good long time.

Thanks for stopping by.