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. :-)

Welsh Corgi

Here's a link to one of my recent sculptures:

http://farmgirlarts.com/2012/02/welsh-corgi/

Thanks!

Krankies Holiday Craft Fair!!

visit my blog to read more:

http://farmgirlarts.com/2011/12/krankies-holiday-craft-fair/

Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival!!!

To see my blog about this go to:

http://farmgirlarts.com/2011/10/southeastern-animal-fiber-fair-time/

RSS feed is working on New Blog!

Got to this page:     http://farmgirlarts.com/blog/
Click on rss feed or that orange icon to sign up for my new blog.
Also, go to the Home page to watch my video and to Portfolio to see a whole array of the animals I've made!

Thanks!
Laura C Frazier

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.

Panther on the Prowl

My son attends Paisley International Baccalaureate Middle School. I sculpted this panther to benefit the school's Fine Arts Night fundraiser. I hope someone will like him enough to buy him to support the school!

The Paisley Panther On The Prowl

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.

In the Studio: Elephant

Houston, We have Ears!

Ears and gray really helps!

Don't know when I'll ever embark on such a large sculpture again!

 

Sculpting an Elephant

Elephants' bodies are truly complicated. Much more difficult to understand and recreate than cats, dogs, bears, turtles, etc. I have an "idea" of the elephant body, but once I began really LOOKING at elephant pictures, I noticed how wrong that idea was. The joints are quite different from dogs and other four legged animals we're familiar with. The front legs are much longer and the spine is lower in the back. Last night I recorded a PBS show on animal communication which included a segment on elephants so I could refer to them moving as often as I like. 

Because I am making the Elephant nearly 3 times the size of my usuals and because I'm so unfamiliar with this body, this sculpture is taking much longer than I thought!

It is a fun challenge, though!

We are Siamese if you please. We are Siamese if you don't please.

I was asked to make the Old Fashioned Siamese. Not the ones that are now bred to have enormous ears and a long pointy nose. I had no idea the new look existed. I prefer the older version mySelf.

Jack the Christmas Cat! Styling in his tux.

This is Jack. He was a Christmas commission. The real Jack lives in Belgium. Sorry, I don't have any photos of the real Jack.

Jacob Sheep Sculpture: Christmas commission

Never Winter Parfait a 2010 Jacob ewe lamb

Parfait

Parfait

My version of Parfait. Her owner sent me some of her actual fleece so I could use it for the exterior.  I used Suffolk wool for the rest as it is my favorite for sculpting the core and legs.

Using Jacob fleece was so nice. It's soft and fluffy.