Friday 13 March 2009

Faces are Fun!!


I am lucky enough to have quite a few marvellous pieces of art, (as thats what they are!) by Collen Curren ( from Wetpaint) in my haunted house, most of which have amazing sculpted faces. I have never even dared to try and make anything with a face but loking at Nikki's recent postings she said they were fun and surprisngly simple to do so today i thought Id give it a try!Woke up with no voice, Laryngitis has hit, ( sure I heard John saying woohoo!!) so just wanted to stay in and fiddle about with clay.Found it tricky to find a tool small enough to blend the clay in the tiny places around the nose and mouth where you cant get fingers in. But I agree it is fun! Whatever face i felt I was trying to do just didnt happen so I agree that you just have to go with it and it seems to turn out as it wants to be!
Firstly is my grumpy washing bowl, didnt have any little glass balls which i would have like to use to try out part of Nikkki's tutorial on bubbles, so used green food colouring and resin with a syringe full of washing up bubbles while it set.Next to him sits a copper pan, he turned out with a huge nose!! Couldnt find any copper paint so I found a great old nail varnish in copper metallic which did the job beautifully.Just a bit of fun to put into the haunted kitchen , but can see why it gets addictive!

We didnt have the right sandpaper to sand the fireplace down today, so going to get a sanding block and paper tomorrow so we can do it at the weekend, cant wait to get it into place.

The chandelier and wall lights are in Dumbledores office, so now we can start planning out the rest of the room layout. Going to do 3 rooms to start. Im working on Dumbledores room ( but Johns doing the bookcases) and John's job is the potion room. Both of us will do the kitchen together and the other 2 rooms will be done afterwards. Lots to do :-)

9 comments:

Creager Studios said...

Hello yu two...

I just awarded you with the Sisterhood Award... details on my blog...

Love your blog

Jodi

Debbie said...

Kate & John there is an award waiting for you over on my blog.
Kate well done for your first attempt with the faces.
Mini Hugs

nikkinikkinikki72 said...

See, faces are a lot easier to make than people imagine. What you have made looks fantastic and just proves all my theories about faces.
Next time you make a face start with the nose and blend in, then the rest just falls into place.
Rather than trying to add bits on to bulk out the face as you go, before you even start the nose pad out the eye area, chin and cheeks and smooth before the nose goes on. It just makes the creases and folds easier to create.
The only tool i use is a cocktail stick.
Nikki x

nikkinikkinikki72 said...

Lord, you must have been up early. I don't stop snoring until 10, 11 12 ish on a saturday. Sometimes i don't even get up. I forgot to tell you my favorite thing to do is nothing and sleeping mixed in.
Hope your throat gets better.

Whittaker's Miniatures said...

What a lovely thing to wake up to, 2 blog awards, WOW! THANKYOU SO To Jodi and Debbie for our blog awards, we are so honoured.We must admit we havnt a clue what to do with them yikes, I can just about manage to copy the picture and there are so many wonderful blogs that will be no problem, but all this talk of sending links etc, oooh !! Still Im in today with no voice so will figure it out in time, thankyou both its great and John loves the idea of being a 'SISTER!!!!!!'

Whittaker's Miniatures said...

Nikki and Deb thanks for the comments on the faces, it was so much fun! Nikki, I did try the coctail stick but I kept poking bits of clay out with the pointy end he he, need more practise! I will try another following your tips Nikki to start it off bulkier and sculpt out rather than adding loads of bits. I started with the eyes, added the nose then lips and then added cheeks etc, and tried to blend it all but it was tricky that way! I dont think Id attempt little things like Candles as Deb did, but for bigger items it adds some character to more boring accessories in the house!
Nikki, was up at 6.30 this morning, we call our youngest '6 o clock Lacey!' Were in the park by 8 o clock this morning , now back, snuggled up with coffee and danish pastries to spend a lazy day in! Thanks for the lovely comments and all have a great weekend, John and Kate xx

nikkinikkinikki72 said...

If i had a child that woke at 6 I'd be well annoyed.
But then once I'm asleep I'm out for the count and wouldn't hear them anyway.
I'm a terrible mother like that and when they were babies for their night feeds they'd just help themselves. I didnt even know... lol. None of that waking up for me!

Whittaker's Miniatures said...

Im the same Nikki!!Im lucky in that John is an early bird ( not so lucky for him, his arthritis means he sleeps very little) but it means he dosnt mind getting up and leaving me in bed! I could sleep for England! Kate xx

Judy C said...

I am so impressed by the faces on things. Such fun to find an unexpected face.