Beauty In Decay

Gourd from Halloween

Opps. I forgot about those gourds sitting near the cabinet. They are just sitting there quietly, minding their own business rotting on the floor. Rot brings forth such beautiful colors. There is beauty in decay. Even with a nauseating headache yesterday I just couldn't leave well enough alone and pulled out my acrylic paints to capture the gourd.

The rest of the mini gourds sit quietly on my floor near the cabinet, minding their own business rotting in preparation for more painting. I may actually keep this one on my desk to see how interesting the decay gets. Within a few hours the gourd changed color and shape and is now greatly sagging on the left side. I'm further inspired.


Drawing the shape in graphite.

Acrylic washes

Blocking in color

A fun comparison

Trying to capture all the blues,
browns and purples in the decayed area.

Finish. My favorite spots are
the light blue areas where the mold started
to form. Mold on decay is fun to paint.

Horse & Harvest

The horse....

Breyer Remake front

Breyer Remake from the side

...and the harvest is on my mind today.

More Harvest pieces

Scary Fun

Just a few of us

There is nothing like a good Halloween pumpkin carving party to bring family together and rejuvenate the artistic soul! The weekend was all about family and fun and we all had a ton of it. It's wild to see us all together. That is a typical turnout on a Sunday for dinner. Its hard to believe we all fit at the dinner table.

Doing makeup on my brother-in-law

I was, of course, the evil baker Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd and I thoroughly enjoyed getting into character. I had a blast placing my meat pies all about the party. Although I didn't win the best costume awardd (Aunt Mildred really did look much better in her costume than I did) we all agreed, if there were a "Best Prop" award, I would have won it for the pies.

Want a pie?

Pumpkins carved and lit ready for judging

For my pumpkin carving I chose to go the traditional route. See the one in front with the happy smile? That's mine. There was so much creative energy at this party, and many cool designs chosen, but I just didn't want to think about design so I went for the five minute cut out and sat there soaking in the energy. Of course the wine helped in this task! LOL

My little hero

All around, a fantastic weekend and Halloween isn't even here yet! There are two more parties to attend and with all this going on I feel that November will be here in a flash!

Oh A Customer!

Hot outta the oven

Did you come here for a pie?

Sit yourself down. Tis a bit wet out there today. Hasn't rained in weeks and today, the day of the Halloween party, it rains. I believe I'm the only one rejoicing. Not only do I love the rain. I think it's a PERFECT backdrop for my Mrs. Lovett costume. I'm fully prepared to carve pumpkins and whoop it up with family in costume. I'm bringin extra ale and my camera.

If you are wondering about how I made the pies, it was really very easy and fun. Here is the recipe if you want to try it yourself or with your children. It's safe and you can cut it in half if you don't need that much dough. I did and it worked out just fine.

Fake Bread Dough
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tsp. instant coffee (heaping)

Mix flour and salt together. Drop a heaping teaspoon of instant coffee in warm water and mix well (will give your dough color). Add the water/coffee mixture to the flour and beat/knead till dough forms. Bake in an oven at 300 degrees for approx. 3 hours. If you half the recipe it takes about 1 1/2 hours for the bread to cook. After the bread has cooled you can glaze more color on using watered down acrylics. FUN!

With that I am off. Enjoy your weekend. See you all on Monday. Hopefully with a ton of cool pictures from the party! ENJOY!

I'm callin' it the cobra leaf
Coolest one I've found so far.

First Though....Costumes

Sushi is a carnival

First line of business today was costumes! Parties are coming and we needed to be prepared. With much trepdation we entered the "spooky cellar" of the local party shop. Such a walk is old hat to me. Laughable in it's attempts to even muster one ounce of fright in me, BUT to a little one of 3, it terrified. It was so real to him as were the fake fingers I bought for my Mrs. Lovett costume that we made our selections quickly. How, as adults, we forget and become immune over the years. I enjoyed his experience and almost wished I was having my own scary experience for the first time again.

Our hero

My husband met us for lunch and there is nothing finer than sushi with my two men. Raw for us and of course, cooked for our son. We have been frequenting a new place that I just love. It is such a happy, colorful place. I instantly feel good when I enter. Its like a carnival and the waiters and waitresses are so happy. It's infectious.

Ingredients for a Halloween meat pie

So besides mailing the very last of the Halloween mice button boxes nothing artistic was accomplished today. Still, I feel energized and ready to work tonight on finishing things and maybe even starting on my fake meat pie.

Game Over

"Game over man! Game over!"
I give.

So the teapot wasn't anywhere near being dry last night when I checked it, but everything looked great. I woke this morning to find a good portion of the upper part dry. The lower portion of the spout, to my dismay, was displaying a nice large crack. I was, and still am, speechless and disappointed beyond words.

The offending crack

I am besides myself and I know that some days you just have to give into projects cause no matter how hard you battle with them, you will always wind up the loser. I started this project for presentation two months in advance of the due date. The first teapot has earned an honored spot on the "learning shelf" in the studio. The second one came out even better than the first and I took my time adding the pieces, but I guess I didn't adhere them well enough? Something went wrong because I shouldn't be staring at a crack at the bottom of the spout.

There is no time to make another so I suppose I can try and put together an interesting raffle package with some of the fine English porcelain luminaries I have been creating. Pair one nice one up with a handful of Yankee candles and I might have something formidable for this event.

I'm disappointed to say the least cause the porcelain bowl, although pretty, doesn't have that WAM factor I was hoping for. I could also just not donate and sulk. I think for today I will allow myself to sulk just a bit. Perhaps spending some time working on a sm might make me feel better too.

Therapy for a bad day

I'll end on a positive note today. I am happy to tell you that the second (and last) batch of Halloween mice came out of the kiln looking really cute. The candy corn mouse is my favorite from this batch.

New Halloween mice fresh from the kiln
Please join my NEWS GROUP for sales info
Going on sale tonight

I'd also like to mention that I have placed one of the fully painted lidded boxes I finished this week up at auction. This piece can be personalized to suit the buyer's needs. Full photos are also being shown on the auction site and I like the way they came out. Very feminine and pretty.

Currently at auction

A Quick Peek In

A peek at the china painting desk

Today, a quick peek at my china painting desk. It's messy and filled with little button boxes and lidded boxes galore. I'm exploring mice, scrolls and roses. The kiln started cooking up the new mice very early this morning and I'm off to package up the last of the sold button box mice and hopefully get them to the PO today.

Slowly building color on lids

After this morning's kiln firing the new Halloween Button Boxes should be finished and ready to go to new homes. I've decided not to repeat the previous costumes so this next batch of mice are all unique. I'll give proper notice to their sale. So stay tuned. LIttle trick-or-treaters are coming!

Chilly Air

The chilly air this morning sent my mind wandering on pumpkin patches, falling leaves, and the delights of trick or treating. I pulled out a few porcelain button boxes and let my imagination go wild. Just my thoughts of Halloween, a few mice and many costumes later and I present to you some fun new china painted pieces. Well, they still need color, but here they are before their first kiln firing.

Little ones ready
for a night of trick or treat

I love this time of year and as my son pours over a costume magazine trying to decide who he will be this year, I gaze over our family schedule and remind myself its going to be another crazy, busy season! But oh, what fun we will have. I love fall!

Quick sketches for the boxes