Embroidered Poe Portrait in Progress

I've been working on this embroidered portrait of Edgar Allan Poe on and off for a couple years now. There is probably 15 hours if work in it so far. Tiny running stitches!




My favorite Poe quote:

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content, but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man grimly bent on making his dreams come true.

Paper Mache Beetle

 

I made this as a piece of wall art for my new apartment!  It's done with a cardboard and newspaper base and covered in paper mache.  I painted it with acrylic paints.  It's pretty big, see the light switch in lower left hand corner for scale!

 



Frog Spawn Sad Song

As a follow up to my micro story post yesterday, I present an illustrated story.

Conjoined Pumpkin-Head

I really love doing craft swaps – for those of you unaware of this super amazing thing, it is when you and a partner make a crafty object around a theme and personal interests.  There are set guidelines on how much time and money is spent on a project and how long you should take.  At the end of the crafting period you and your partner swap (usually by mail)!  It’s a good way to get a handcrafted, custom made item that you couldn't make yourself. 

Anyway, the theme for this swap was “Vintage/Retro Halloween” although in retrospect I went for a more antique-y look.  My craft partner really made it easy for me when she said she loved pumpkin heads and skeletons and physical anomalies.  It was like BAM! Conjoined Pumpkin-Head!



The Front

Wire armature with blue tape to fill it out a bit

My initial plan was to make a wire armature and cover it with paper mache, but the armature was a bit too small and slippery for paper mache (or I lacked the finesse) so I switched to covering the body with sculpy.  For the pumpkin heads I ended up ditching the wire armatures in favor of plain ol balled up newspaper.  After baking, I sanded them down a bit and painted it with acrylics. The heads were attached by a rod and E6000. I’m really pleased how it turned out, especially since my experience with sculpy is limited.



The back

Counting Layers of Moussaka - a Tribute to Jerry Nelson

One layer of Mou-ssa-ka!

Two layers of Mou-ssa-ka!

Three layers of Mou-ssa-ka!

Four layers of Mou-ssa-ka!

One, Two, Three, Four layers of Mou-ssa-ka! ha ha!

In case you missed it Jerry Nelson was the voice of Count the Count on Sesame Street.  He died last week at the age of 78.  In addition to Count the Count he performed as Mr. Snuffeupagus and Camilla the Chicken (Gonzo's girlfriend) and was also a puppeter and voice actor in Fraggle Rock.

But my post is funny right?  Right? .... anyone ....?



Undulating Fjord - a Moving Panorama

I wanted to make a present for JW but was having trouble getting some inspiration, so I texted him asking what his five favorite words were.  A couple mintues later he texted me back and in the mix gave me these two beauties: Undulate & Fjord.

Putting the two together wasn't that hard conceptually.  What undulates in and around fjords?  Water.  So I made a moving panorama!  Pull the tab and the water undulates!  How exciting!

The entire thing, from the frame to the individual layers, are constructed out of bristol board colored with my trusy Prismacolor colored pensils and inked out with a quill pen.  There are four land layers (not including the background) and three water layers running between them.  It was really fun to make!