Family of Elephant Sculptures

Please visit this link to see the entire post about my recent Elephant Family sculptures.

http://farmgirlarts.com/2012/06/elephant-family-love/

New Cat Commissions Completed

Three cats owned by a friend. She gave these portraits to her husband for their anniversary. 

I used real fur from each cat in it's portrait.

This is Jooge. His stripes were a fun challenge!

This is Tyson. I loved creating this pose. So inspirational.

This is Tailhook. Sadly, she passed away in 2011.

I was about to give up sculpting cats as they had been quite difficult. However, working on these helped me become more acquainted with the form of felines. So, I'll keep taking commissions for cats. :-)

Sitting Kitty: Cat Sculpture

This kitty was commissioned for Mother's Day by a daughter. The kitty's name is Bonkers and she had a habit of sitting in a most "unladylike" position. 

Buddha-esque or Yoda, maybe?

Here's Ms. Bonkers herself. A big girl with beautiful gold/green eyes.

Getting those full jowls and the double chin were essential to capturing her character.

Red Fox Sculpture

Recognize this critter from your backyard? 

This was a commission for a young man from his parents. 

I loved working with the coloring of the fur on the body. My favorite thing is working the details of the face.

It was hard to say goodbye to him on Friday.

100% homegrown natural colored and hand dyed wool. No armatures.

Before looking at close up photos of wild foxes, I hadn't noticed how the color is red roan on the haunches. It gets darker toward the head.

The physical build of a fox is an odd combination of cat and dog characteristics, I think.

Dog Portrait: Bryn (chow/collie mix)

This was a gift to a teenage daughter on her birthday from her parents. Was fun to work on this dog because I know everyone! Looking at the photos today, if I could change anything it would be to add more hair around the head/neck area.

Left ear up, right ear down.

Several layers of dog hair carded in with dyed Suffolk wool to get the dual coat look and texture.

Funky tail curl over the back and darker shorter hair on back.

Tail and underside have longer fluffy hair.

This is Bryn in real life.

Elephant Sculpture: "The Matriarch" is in the House!!!

Some 80 hours, 14 ounces of wool and many wrinkles  later, photos of the Elephant Matriarch follow:
(Ginny Weiler, Photographer)

 

She measures 8.5 inches tall x 13 inches long (trunk to tail). No armature was used. All wool!!

Imagine a 14 ounce pile of fluffy Suffolk down wool needled tightly into this shape.

The tusks were the hardest part of all!

I loved adding the wrinkles here, trunk, sides, back legs, flanks, ears, etc.

The Quarter is there just for scale.

Dog Sculpture: Sally

This is a portrait of Sally who was commissioned by a mother for her daughter who owned Sally. I spent some of my growing up years with Sally's owner and her sister. It was an honor to sculpt Sally who passed away earlier this year.

The following photos are of Sally. She was half Australian Shepherd and half Sharpei.

It seems she almost always had a smile on her face.

She knew how to relax!

Sophie's Portrait

Here are a couple pictures of the real Sophie. She was the model for the felted dog in the previous post. Husband had me sculpt Sophie for wife's birthday. "She went nuts!" he said. Glad they liked it.

Making Contact

I must hand out 50 or so cards every week at the Farmers Markets. That's putting out money rather than bringing it in, but it's also making contacts and connections. Yes, I do sell some needle felting wool and yarn every now and again and I do get commissions for all kinds of critters, but slowly. I just hope that everyone who took a card to get back to me on a commission doesn't show up 3 weeks before X-mas!!!

I love sitting at my booth, needle felting away and having folks of all types come up to see what I am doing. Some think my work is way over-priced and hurry their children away. Others really get all the work that goes into each animal: feeding the sheep, shearing them, getting the wool washed and carded, dyeing the wool, not to mention the actual sculpting process. Those in the latter category tend to think I'm not charging enough. Interesting!

I'm just grateful that I can make money doing something that combines my love for animals and my ability to sculpt!!!

At The Farmers Markets

I offer my sculptures and wool products at three farmers markets:

Krankies Farmers Market: Tuesdays 10am - 1pm.

Reynolda Village Farmers Market: Fridays 9am - 1pm.

Winston-Salem Farmers Market (Dixie Classic Fairgrounds) Saturdays 8:30am - 11:30am.

Look for more frequent posts here.

Thanks!