Happy New Year! :D

Hello my lovely friends in blog land :) I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

This served to be a very interesting and crazy year, I can't wait to see whats in store in 2010! I'm hoping it's a fully recovered, creatively productive, happy, healthy year! For everyone!

I thought I'd start the new year off right, with a blog update! :D

I'm taking Linda's Photo a week challenge which is to upload a picture every Monday. It's been a wonderful glimpse into the lives of those who participated last year and I'm really excited to join them this year. It certainly ought to keep me on my toes! ;) I've added the badge over there on the right. ;) For more details pop over to her blog.

Secondly, though I've been very very busy with the holidays, I managed to straighten up the studio a bit. I have a few new years resolutions but the biggest is attempting to let go of any reservation, create to my hearts content without fear, start some new projects asap & finally finish some of these WIPS! I can use all the motivation I can get, so if you'd like to join the ufo/ wip challenge please let me know! :)

I'll be having a little blog giveaway in the coming months, hopefully some free tutorials as well as a lil new class to share. :D

In closing, here are the ornaments I made for this years Holiday ornament swap.
I love making these snow people! However they are very hard to photograph!

These are sculpted in polymer and coated in many layers of "snow" (powder/ glitter & various grades of glass shards and beads)

Hard to see but he has a smiling mouth :)









This one is Mister Snowflake. Upon closer inspection, you can see the snow formations, swirls and irridescent beads form a "blowing" face. Can you see it?

















How about now? ;)


















I absolutely adore sculpting/ carving, scenes inside little shells. It's probably one of my favorite things to do, possibly because it's a lot like drawing and allows me to bring out a bigger piece of the vision. An ocean sky...

A winter night sky viewed through a trees branches...

After spending the day swimming through the sky, between the clouds and the breeze anxiously awaiting nightfall,
It finally arrives, her friend, the moon and the mesmerizing twinkling little stars...

She follows and catches a shooting star and drifts to the moon with it to rest...
The warmth and glow of the moon embrace her, a blanket from the starry midnight; ocean sky
wraps itself around her as she falls asleep.....

Of the stars, she dreams...

























Here's wishing all of you a super fantastic and safe New Years. ::Raising a toast:: May it be filled with family, friends, love, laughter, warmth, health and peace.






Hugs n love,
Sprite

Yipppeee!! & New piece :D

Hi Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the season :D

My apologies for the lack of postings. Geesh would you look at the date?!! I'd been working on my annual holiday ornaments and since they were all surprises I couldn't post pics. Usually that's the only swap I am able to participate in but lucky me while I was home recovering I had the time and honor of swapping with a special person and friend.

I have my very own magical fantastical Bonehead from none other than Flora at Boneheadstudios! Woo hoo! I love him to pieces!!! He and Mr. Coolie hang right in my studio where I can see and enjoy them everyday! Her work is Awesome!

Here's my bonehead :D isn't he just absolutely wonderful?!
My pics will never do him justice and yet he still looks fabulous!

















Here's the one I made her....

"Baby Boo Bones"

A ghostly lil dragon wrapped in a comfy boo blankie sheet,
covered in dewy silken spun cobwebs
holding his favorite snack, a bunch a bones without the meat!






















Sculpted in glow in the dark polymer so he glows entirely, but his bones, cobwebs, horns, teeth and the word "Boo" are not, so when you turn out the lights his features are distinguishable, and so is "BOO" :D Think he could scare anyone? Probably not, but this picture certainly may! It's the best I could get of it glowing... :/

The post office lost him temporarily and I'm just so relieved and glad he made his way to her safely. He looks so happy to be there!! I hope she loves him as much as I loved creating him for her. Thank you again Flora!! :)

Big hugs,
Sprite

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Happy Halloween Everyone!! :D

I thought I'd post a quicky on the lil guys I've been working on. They still need lots of work, cleaning, painting, wings, embellishing etc. but here's what they look like so far. I am having sooo much fun with them!! Now to decide on their colors. Any suggestions? :)

My lil Trick r Treat ers?











The first one's a lil chubby baby bat dragon, sitting in a Halloween candy bucket and will be munchin on some bones, candy corn and innards. He'll have bat wings. See how chubby he is from eating all those treats? :D


























The second lil one is fast asleep in his caldron bubble bath (bubbles to come later ;) Possibly tired from trick or treating. The skeleton mask he's wearing is on an elastic cord, it's positionable and removable.















Have a wonderful day, eat lots of candy, have lots of fun, and be safe!!


















Enjoy the weekend and thanks so much for visiting!! Happy Halloween!


BIG hugs,
Sprite

Roboboot?! ;)

Hello There :) I hope you have all been super!

This years been kinda crazy, I recently had my third foot surgery all in less than 11 months, this time by a different doctor, it looks like he was able to correct whatever went wrong and it seems to have went well. I'm really excited and finally feel like I'll be able to walk (normally) again after this is over with. Third times a charm? Woo hoo! yeah! :)












This is the new robotic looking boot cast above (my roboboot!?) I have to wear while on crutches for the next 8 + weeks. Cool looking isn't it? Can't say I haven't worn similiar ones ;) but that sucker is heavy! I'm getting quite the workout!

Hopefully Ill have some new pictures to share shortly. I did take a few pics of some new stuff I was working on before surgery I haven't gotten to look through yet. I'm looking forward to getting back to them.

It's funny how pain meds can create such wonderful inspiring visuals but you lack any desire to move and feel too nauseous to do any of em HA HA HA. Now that I'm taking less, I'm hoping the newly arranged- so I can sit and create with my leg up and watch movies - studio, is manageable. Gosh I hope so I'd been going stir crazy! I couldn't do much of anything fun, thank goodness for kitties, reruns and drawing. ;) So now I need some new movies to watch, see any fun ones or have any favorites you could recommend? :) It'd be much appreciated!

Oh!!! and I received two awesome Awards from two awesome peoples!!!!!

The fabulous Jodi Creager has presented me with the Kreative Blogger Award! WOW! What an honor! Thanks so much Jodi!





and lovely Anjah has given me the "Este blog e um sonho" award which is a beautiful little stamp which I believe translates to "This blog is a dream" :) As is hers, thank you sweetie!

I'm flattered & honored that both thought of lil me!

As soon as I can sit here and think straight enough to answer the questions, I'll be back to pass them along! THANK YOU so much ladies!! :)

Thanks for visiting & for keeping me company!
Have a super day!

HUGS,
Sprite

Oh my! A magical box of Creager Happiness!

Hello Everyone! My goodness I'm so excited I just have to share!
I am sure you are all familiar with the Creagers yes? :) Well, a few weeks ago they had a blog giveaway. A name would be drawn from their followers list and the prize would be random goodies laying around the studio. A prize for enjoying and visiting such an inspiring, most entertaining blog? Huh!

I hoped and prayed I'd win but never for a second did I envision that it could actually happen. Well, while I was away a name was drawn and there sitting in my inbox when I returned home was an email letting me know it was me!! :O I still cannot believe it, Happy belated birthday to me! I rarely win anything let alone something like this!

It's here! It's here! I came home the other day to a glorious box of Magical Creager happiness sitting outside my door!














What makes this all even more unbelievable is the size and contents of the goodie box. Oh-my-GAWD! Would you look at what they did?! It's filled to the brim with stuff! Random goodies including these awesome skeleton finger molds (they made me do a double take hee hee) and flashy fibers to play with!

Their DVDS?! :O Holy **!!















A Creager collectors piece?! I'm not ready to open it quite yet - it'll need to go in a protected cabinet but here's a quick peek at the wonderful elf inside.








And, as if the above wasnt more than plenty.... there's still more!


Jewelry! Sculpted hands! Props! and The coolest hand armatures I've ever seen! All incredible.























A poster, cards, dvd including photos of their amazing, inspiring work and a wonderful little handwritten note. Can you see the print of Richards train drawing below? I can't get over the details. I took separate photos of it but it comes up sideways on blogger. Jodi's photo's of it are so much better than mine anyway so here's the link to it in their etsy shop. I cannot wait to have these framed.

I'm seriously still in a bit of shock. Not just at the combined talent of these two artists but also their kindness and generosity. This box left me temporarily speechless and each time I go through its contents, it happens again.

Jodi, Richard, you're amazing. These gifts made my heart all warm and fuzzy. I will enjoy them for years to come. No doubt they will keep me company and help during my recovery over the next few months. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

I truly hope everyone is having a super week and that something magical happens to enhance it. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing my excitement with me. It means a lot. I certainly feel like one lucky lil girl. :)

Life's good...

hugs,
Sprite

Elderly Witch and her elderly pet dragon...

Hi Everyone! My goodness time has flown.
My apologies for the lack of posts! It's been crazy, yet again!


I just got back from the retreat with Sherry & Jean. It was of course awesome! Learned a ton! Sherry and her family warmly opened up their amazing home to all of us. It was so special, I can hardly wait to be back there next year. Hopefully I'll be able to get up some pictures of all the fun soon.

In the weeks prior to the retreat, I'd been desperately trying to pack and ship my supplies, finish my retreat challenge piece amongst many other things. I created a few pieces before I left that needed to go with me, when I get pics I'll share those too.

For now, here's my newest...
I learned an incredible amount during its creation. I've never before attempted, this old. I think I'm most excited about her hat and little tiny pocket! Can you see it? hee heee!


A few years ago a friend of mine shared a poem with me that was found on the internet, written by "angel" as pertains to commercial type witches and why they may have appeared as they did. It sheds a very different light. It's a very sad poem and it has stuck with me since. You can read it here if you'd like... She Returns...

This piece was indirectly inspired by both the poem and my good friend who shared it with me, who just happens to be a witch.

I hope she likes the, kinder gentler vision and interpretation. I wanted to show her as the gentle old woman she is, someone who might even just be tired of acting out the part every Halloween simply because of how she is portrayed and gladly retires to her quiet spot in the woods, to her faithful companion, her elderly little dragon.











As always, thank you for stopping by :)






Hope you are all enjoying the season.













Love and hugs,
Sprite

On the Sculpting Table :)

Hi Everyone!

Since things are once again crazy, I figured I'd share what’s on the sculpting table before more time passes! Hamadryad has been put on hold, I poured so much energy into that piece that when I finally stopped working, I was drained and couldn’t create for days. This happens to me often, but it’s not ideal when you have so much to do! So now I’m trying to get things back on track, running out of time and attempting to crank things out.

I have the retreat next month in Iowa with Jean & Sherry & cannot wait! I’m so excited but sooo unprepared! I dyed some fibers and need to get my supplies packed and shipped shortly.

They are having a Halloween/ harvest challenge at the retreat. There is just not time to construct the piece I had in mind but along the same lines, I’m attempting my first very elderly woman/ witch of sorts and her elderly dragon! The dragon pics were blurry so i'll snap some new ones soon. I sure hope to finish in time but if not, I will when I return. Still plenty of time to get it in for the ADO Halloween Challenge either way :D

This is what we’ll be making, isn’t it awesome?!
This large bug woman is a collaboration between Jean & Sherry.

I sculpted my head, well two of them, but decided on this first one since it goes better with the creature I have in mind. ;) It'll be covered and painted so i didn't go crazy perfecting anything. Here they were getting ready to hit the oven. :D

Recently my polymer group had the dragon challenge which inspired me to try a larger scale fully standing dragon which I kept wanting to do but putting off for one reason or another. I didn’t get to finish it but I’m trying to get him far enough to get into the oven before the trip so he doesn’t get ruined. Here he is so far, he's very rough and pics arent to sharp either. For a while there he looked like he was doing a chicken dance! Still kinda does doesn't it? ha ha ha It was going to have a little tiny dragon hatchling along with it in an earthy crystal setting, but now I keep getting this weird vision of the dragon, trick or treating with a pumpkin basket?! what the!? HA HA HA Could just be the effects of the season approaching but I can’t decide whether to run with it or run from it!

Here is another little guy who stole my attention. I think he's on his way to becoming a chubby candy corn eating baby bat dragon.

Oh!! and I finally added some bits to my cage piece to tie the class trio together. So see I haven't entirely failed my UFO challenge! woo hoo! I sure hope Sherry likes it. :)

Ps: Once things settle down a bit, I am planning to do a small blog contest/ give away as a little thank to my readers and followers. I can’t believe its at 111 today! Thank you so all much! :) Please stay tuned for details!

Have a super fantastic and wonderfully creative day.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

BIG hugs,
Sprite

Fan~Frieken~Tastic! ART!

Hi Everyone! We'll I have a few new pieces under way but I have not gotten to take pics yet. I will shortly, I promise! :)

I received two very special awards recently from my friend Cindy. I'm totally honored and completely flattered that she thought of me for both! Wow! Thank you sooo much Cindy!!! She's new to blogging, please help me welcome her and her awesome work into blogland! She is really something wonderful!

The Bella Sinclair Award…is a very special award and the person it was made for is a very special woman. She is a sister-friend, a talented artist, A great mom, a poet, a mental ninja, a muse, beautiful, a genius, and her friend-sister Ces created it for her.

Read the full article HERE.

The Byrum Spiritual Award means
“You make a difference … I know, because you have for me!”

There are quite a few people that fit both award descriptions! I guess I'll have to narrow it down (for now!) so, I'd like to pass these awards to my very special friends, Sherry, Jean and Judy.

Judy & I met a few years ago on BPCAG; our beginner group. She helps us all on a daily basis. She's been a great friend to me and is always so helpful. She also is very new to blogging.

I have got to share this with you. My group recently had a dragon challenge, I didn't get to participate but the entries were all terrific. Judy's piece won and in a minute you will clearly see why. Her newest sculpture is amazing and incredible. Think I'm kidding? I'm not! I have gotten so many emails from people thinking I created this piece, it's very close to my heart and I wish I could say I did, but alas I did not!

It's unbelievable and truly unique. Ready for this?
It's a dragon, but not quite.. It's dead, his remains.
An amazing creatures bones!

A visual?.....

A long life, with many battles... a once strong being, glides into this spot to rest, he's tired, frail and weak. He rests his head on a rock and diminishes. A beautiful creature has fallen, his bones left behind, showing his amazing structure and feats.

An unbelievable and amazing piece.

Congrats Judy :)

If you love her piece as much as I do, or even shed a tear because of it, maybe pop over to her blog and let her know that you enjoyed her work. :)

Thank you to both ladies! And thank you all for helping me welcome them into blogland in celebrating incredible artwork!

BIG hugs,
Sprite

ADO Elemental Challenge - Earth - Hamadryad (Dryad)

Hi Everyone! :)

It's time for The ADO Blog challenge, or shall we call it a party since this is so fun?! Yeah! Paarteeh'!

As previously mentioned, I'm participating in the ADO Elemental challenge, the challenge was to make a art doll/figure with one, two, three or all four of the Elements as inspiration, everyone was invited to join in the fun, members and non members, all levels and/or no experience necessary. We had a great turn out, 90 participants! Please be sure to visit the ADO blog to check out the fantastic pieces and other artists that were inspired by this challenge! The participants list is on the left. Please show some love by commenting to letting them know you stopped by. :)


I'm so glad I participated, it really motivated me to continually work on the piece and not procrastinate until mildly loosing interest. So far I'm really excited about where shes going and how close it is to what I envisioned.

Although today is the day we post our photos and I've been working on her as much as possible, I haven't quite finished yet. I'll be working on her more over the weekend and as I do hopefully we will get some nice weather so I can take some updated, clear pics. For now, I snapped a few just as the sun was going down. Just this side, the others aren't quite as finished ;) hee hee



In closing, I was asked the other day why I refer to her as a hamadryad. I thought I'd share, in case anyone else was wondering. There are different types of dryads, and wikipedia has provided me with the following definition to offer regarding this type...

Hamadryads (Ἁμαδρυάδες) are Greek mythological beings that live in trees. They are a specific species of dryad, which are a particular type of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a specific tree. Some believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are simply the entity, or spirit, of the tree. If the tree died, the hamadryad associated with it died as well. For that reason, dryads and the gods punished any mortals who harmed trees. The Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus lists eight Hamadryads, the daughters of Oxylus and Hamadryas:

As always, thank you so much for visiting! I truly appreciate that you took time out of your day to visit little me! :) Have a super fantastic and wonderful weekend!

BIG giant hugs,
Sprite

New WIP -- Dryad ~ Hamadryad

Hi everyone :) My goodness time has flown!

I had another surgery recently, I guess the first time wasn't enough but lets hope the second is! Now I'm trying to catch up on all things. Not too inspiring being stuck in bed, I must say! but I did manage to set up my etsy shop which then inspired a few small sculpted pendant type bead thingies and ornaments. Some of these items should be available soon. Thank you so much for all of your kind comments and inquires, they all mean so much!! :)

A few weeks ago I started a large piece which was mentioned on the ADO blog. (Thanks Zan!) Versions of this piece have been in my heart, head and have shown up in my drawings for years. The armature sat on my worktable for at least two, tell me why the uncontrollable cravings in my hands to sculpt it after all this time came at 2:30 in the morning when I needed to get up for work at about 6:30?! I never get enough sleep, insomnia, I've always had a form. Like it's wasting too much time to sleep even when I know it's important and heals our bodies. As I get older I'm starting to feel the effects and hope to get on track, I'm trying! but when things come out as a result of lack of sleep I remember why I have this problem in the first place! Not enough time in a day. So many sculptures would never have been born if not at unideal times! ha ha ha. :)

Anyway, as luck would have it, the desire to create it came at the same time as the Elemental ADO challenge so I am trying to focus and use this motivation to make the deadline and finish it. It's going to be a big and wonderful event! If you haven't heard of it yet please check out the blog for details. You can even participate even if you are not part of ADO :) and I sure hope you will! If you're not familiar with this group of fantastic artists, please check out their blog to see some of their work and of course to visit them from July 17-19 to see their finished challenge pieces. Such a nice bunch too!

This is my Dryad, well a hamadryad...

Some of you may have seen a couple of these but I wanted to share a few more since I was finally able to get a few alternate views and of the lil creatures found tangled in there. Do you see what I see?

I'm also working on a new dragon and it's much bigger than my norm. I'm having so much fun! Pics soon but for now time to catch up on some blog hopping! Oh how I've missed you ;)

As always, thank you so much for stopping by!
Take care & stay well.
Big hugs and tons o luv,
Sprite