Soft Sculpture Bears

At last the new page is up on the web site for some of my soft sculpture mohair bears, as the site now reflects our multi media art and not just the jewellery I thought it would be nice to have a page with some of my bears. I had to stop making my soft sculpture after an accident, my wrist would no longer take the strain any more it was a great sadness to me as I loved creating my own designs and dying the mohair and alpaca that I used. The bears I put on the web site are all Teddy type bears.

I especially loved making my Kermode bears, they stood between 20" & 24" I hand shaded them. I have added a picture of a Kermode that I considered to be one of the best, I made these to commission only so I no longer have him.

My Dragonslair Bears appeared in many magazines internationally and also a Lark Book. I do still make the occasional bear not the large ones I loved making though. Now I mainly enjoy making needlefelted tiny bears and animals.

At least I never get bored how can one be bored with so many things to design and make, with new things to learn, every day brings a new challenge, renewed interest, so much to look at the leaves turning such wonderful colours as the autumn draws on. A hedgehog appeared at the back door a couple of days ago, they will soon be curled up and hibernating but with the mild weather we will see them around for a bit longer.

Wrong link!

Oh dear somehow the link got put in all wrong it should read http://www.thesilverlodge.co.uk ahh thats better, thanks for pointing it out ChezChani so glad you liked the site though, I think Lara made a really nice job of it and the feedback has been all good.

Grand Sale

Well here I am again, the web site redesign is finally finished all is uploaded and we are starting out with a Grand Sale up to 60% off, at http://www.thesilverlodge@tiscali.co.uk to clear the way for new things we want to showcase. The site has been redesigned with our multi media art in mind so there will be more art jewellery, art, sculptures etc all in their own galleries, we have lots of ideas for the future and lots of new things to go on the web site.

I finished a new watercolour painting yesterday from my July trip to Ireland of Glenveagh Castle and gardens, now I just need to buy a frame and mount sometime, as I only have smaller ones left. I really do find it quite relaxing to be painting again. Soon the evenings will draw in and the light will not be so good, I am enjoying while I can, the lovely sunshine we are getting in this Indian Summer even though the nights can get quite cool now. There have been some gorgeous sunsets though!

An update

It has been ages since I last posted on here I have been leaving it up to Lara to do the posting but I have recently gone back to my roots and have started painting again, after a holiday with friends in Ireland. I came home with loads of photos of places we visited mostly coastal, ruined castles etc but there were several gems among the usual snaps one of them was this sweet little St Gobban's church just big enough to hold the bridal couple and parson with possibly two witnesses, I painted two pictures one I sent as a gift to my friends and this one I kept as a memento of a happy time spent with them.

Tutorial

I made my first tutorial for a clay sculpture, I thought you would be interested in seeing. I wrote it and my friend edited it and put it on her site.

It's to make this little guy here.

You can make Skillet, a cute creature I made up. The tutorial is $10 and can be bought through the site here. I will be making more if they are popular. I hope to make creatures holding things and show how to make fur and blend clay. I'm also thinking of doing a bigger project later in the year and doing an online class for polymer clay sculpture.

~Lara

More commissions

Here are two recent commissions I did. Both are creatures I have never made before and I think both turned out well, especially the second one.

The first is this

He's a professor and belongs to a friend of mine. This was the first time I'd made a human and to be honest, although I was happy with him, his skin darkened too much in the oven while I baked him. One of his hands was way too dark. I was pretty happy with his face and hair though. The character wears a lot of hair gel so I glazed his hair to make it look wet and keep it authentic.

He holds a death ray gun in his hand, which was probably the hardest thing to make. I used wire supports in his legs and the arm holding the gun but stupidly didn't make the wire go through the hand so of course when I put the gun in it, it threatened to break at the wrist and I had to bake him on his side.

I have problems thinking out ideas. Of course it's logical that the wire had to go right down the hand but I never thought of that. How I think bugs me a lot. I try to be logical but it comes out wrong. Anyway, I'm happy with this and I'm glad it didn't turn into a complete failure for a first try at a human.

Human heads are really hard to make though; I'm used to making muzzles and beaks on the front of the head and to make one that has no muzzle was strange for me. I like him though!

Here is the other commission, a ram. I've never made a ram before either but he was fun and fairly simple to make. His horns were the hardest part because I was afraid they would droop while he was baking and they weren't supported with wire since I didn't think they would need it. However I put in card supports to keep them in place in the oven and it worked fine.

I like how I did his legs and hooves, they worked really great for a first try so that's something else I know I can do now.

I glazed his horns to make them look nicer and I think the hardest part with him was the different coloured markings. To make those, I make really thin bits of clay and try to blend them onto the body. I think the blending worked best on the legs. Blending is easiest with softer clay so you can rub it with your fingers and it will just smooth on to the rest of the clay.

I used reference drawings for both of these characters.

If you would like a commission, check out my site here!

~Lara

Sculptures

I thought you guys might like to see one of my commissions. It's a sculpture of a collie my friend commissioned for her husband.

Her husband has a collie character. I was told the pose could be anything but that he was an active collie so I chose this playful pose for him. He cost $45 and if you would like a similar one of any animal, please let me know by leaving a comment! I am always open for them.

~Lara

Ancient Egyptian Artifacts

Jackie's hand made clay pendant was announced a winner in the Egyptian Treasures contest in Beads and Beyond magazine in October 2008! The inspiration was the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 in London. Each polymer clay piece was made separately and applied, no molds were used. The central winged scarab is a vintage brass componant, as are the two ankhs, the cabochons are vintage Swarovski crystal. It also includes turquoise and glass beads. It hangs from a vintage brass chain with lotus flower ornaments. This ornate and intricate pendant was inspired by a piece from the tomb called Tutankhamun's pendant.Jackie is now working on an Egyptian collection.

Please click here to see the rest of the collection so far.

~Lara