Some small progress

Today has been excellent. I managed to put wood panel into the back of the clock case, sand the inside, gesso it and start the first layers of paint for the background.

I also, out of the blue, started and finished 2 small paintings that hang together. They came about because I was asked to say a few things about anthropomorphism in my work for The Storque. And it occured to me i'm not that interested in attributing human characteristics to non-humans but the other way around. I love animal masks, and as I say in the article, this all started with the Wicker Man movie....It could have been a more impressive beginning I know! So i've been messing around sketching animal masks and head dresses and looking at other representations, like this gorgeous drawing by Ink and Ginger and the stills from the Wicker Man film, here and here and this Joanna Newsom photograph:


They all combined into these:

See Mr I Don't Know has been pelted! The poor wee devil. Two wood plaques, they're called 'The Queen and I'.......Some details:


I really liked them, and crucially I was so relieved to just have the time to make something after so long being unable to. It will probably turn up in the shop soon!

I'll post some pictures of the theatre progress soon!

The newest thing!

Hello! Thanks again to everyone who gave their ideas, I am planning to scan in sketches etc that came about as a result of them in the next few days. I would have done earlier except the last 3 weeks have been exhausting with me working 40+ hour weeks for my job. Finally next weekend I will be able to take off a couple of extra days and do some art!

On that note, I have a few things in the run. One of them is mechanical, and I will finally incorperate music into it! This is much longer term as I still don't know exactly how the mechanism will work, i'm going to have to do some soldering of wires - frightening!

The other thing is that i've discovered that old clock cases are the perfect things to use as theatre cases! Oh yes! Ebay etc have a bounty of abandoned and unloved ornate clock cases which I am going to use to put scenes in. And I thought you might like to know there are certain kinds of cases which would be perfect for people to give a bit of love to and hang the paper forest doll and the mystic cowboy in, see:

All they need is a bit of polishing up and some TLC and they are perfect, which leads me to the one I just bought and am going to house a rather scandalous scene in:

It was a bit dirty so I polished it and rubbed some wax into it. I will repaint the gold edging as it has flaked off but the dark wood stain will stay as-is.

I'll have to inset a piece of cut wood into the back and paint it as it is quite damaged there

The nice thing of course is that you can put it onto a mantlepiece or table or it can be hung as it is flat at the back. It's got a glass fronted door which i'm not sure about....we'll see. I'll post sketches and progress as I go wheeeeee!

And the winner is...

Well, you guys have got some wacky ideas eh? Technicolor bunnies, native spirits, Ghosts, living toys. I sort of lied when I said I wouldn't steal your ideas, I did - well by accident, they just kind of lodged in my brain and i've got several sketches of different ones, which, I will post when I have some time - I hope really really soon!

Anyway, the winner is picked by a random number generator! So far we have 19 posts, although one of those is from that really annoying spammer who keeps posting naughty videos...it would really be the pits if (s)he won. Anyway, the winner is number 11! which makes it Lonnie but, since Lonnie already has one of these (bizarre eh?) then she will recieve something else which i'll think of and do asap! So, I must chose again! And it is number 4 :) Which is Joanna! I love your idea, it reminded me of Ernie Fosselius (What a name hey?) and his hand-made car with his hand-cranked automatons. He is actually a film maker by trade but there's such magic and charm in his hand whittled toys. A life like that seems to run completely against the speed and direction of the world in which we're living.

Special mention must go to Jo for being a fan of Benjamin Pollocks toy shop. For anyone who doesn't know about this place, it is a fantastical place, the museum and shop are seperate entities, but both celebrate the magic that is toys
http://www.pollocks-coventgarden.co.uk
http://www.pollockstoymuseum.com/

A while back the toy museum almost closed, but has thankfully survived. I was blogged by the lovely Trish and as a result the toy shop now carries some of my Heart Revealed theatres and some Dark Forest dolls.

Anyway, I digress, Lonnie and Joanna I will be in touch!

Another quick update and a giveaway!

Hello!

A very quick update due to work work work...bleugh. I now have a full size (width and height) theatre with fully jointed dolls in the shop. It's relatively expensive due to the sheer quantity of ink and the cost of the Etching paper. However, I think it is rather beautiful and although it takes a it of time to construct, being more detailed, I think it was well worth it.

Here's some pics.

Along side the smaller theatre.

I'm only doing 20 of these as they are a bit long winded production wise, but the very first one i'd like to give away! :) Obviously there's a catch, heh. I'd like to hear what kind of theatre you'd build. Don't worry I won't steal your ideas! :) I will pick one from random and send the theatre your way.

For what it's worth, the theatre's story (which i'll one day illustrate, curse this procrastination) is that the girl on the dragon has a horn which contains a heart, and when she blows it, it reveals what a person really thinks and feels. Does anyone else think that this could be quite devastating?

Long time no see!

It seems like ages since I blogged about anything of note. So here's some kind of update very quick (About to go to work!).

I'm taking part in a group exhibition called 'Toys' at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. Here is my submisson...I'm running late so I need to ship it asap!


He is called 'King for a day' - and is based on traditional French harlequin jumping jacks, infact his snazzy outfit is lifted almost directly from a fabulous one I found here. He has a wee bell on the bottom of his string so that he jangles when he jumps.

In other news, i'm currently producing a full size version of the Heart Revealed Theatre. I'm just test-constructing it now and then will list it. It's printed on A3 german etching paper, all the dolls are jointed and hung in the same manner as the original theatre and it has a few additional touches. The smaller one is very sweet and easy to put together, the larger one is, well, larger, takes longer to construct and so forth but is very beautiful - I think so anyway!