Trick r Treat! Halloween Studio Tour has begun!

Yippeee!! The Halloween Artist Studio Tour has officially begun!
It will run through the month of October. Some amazing artists are participating!
By clicking your way through the map you can visit the artists studios and see what great treats they have to offer. Not only is it fun but it benefits a great cause, Bat conservation!!
Please check it out!

I have three miniature Halloween dragons available for purchase through the tour. :)
This is the first time they are available for purchase online! They are one-of-a-kind.
For each one purchased and additional donation will be made to BCI.
Here is a sneak peak of my offerings:








For additional info and detailed photos of the pieces above, a glimpse of me in my wings and of my studio, come find me on the map! hee hee ;) http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com

Visitors will also have a chance at the "door prize" by collecting clues throughout the tour!!
Please come check it out and tell all your friends too!

Thank you so much for your support and as always, for visiting :)

HUGS!
Sprite

An update! :D

Well hello there! :)

I can't even believe how much time has passed since my last post, so much has happened! Let's catch up quick but mostly start fresh shall we? :)

After a long wait of knowing it was coming, I was laid off. Hoping it's the universes way of putting me on a more creative, happier path. I'm already amazed at how much more I can accomplish without the almost 4 hour a day commute. Here's a sneak peak at some of the random WIPs started just last week.






Go figure, in the middle of sculpting the weird creature head, out comes this cute little mousey sculpt! What the...hee hee :)




Oh! I have some exciting and fun news to share!! I'll be doing a virtual Halloween studio tour in October, created and coordinated by my new friend Karen who I met at the show, she adopted my creature piece! He now lives in Canada and loves it there :)

The tour begins October first and benefits Bat conservation! How cool is that?!
I will have a few pieces available for purchase :)


For more info please visit: http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com.
If you're an artist interested in participating check out this link

BTW, I(finally) got a new computer, so I'm hoping between that and having more time, I should be able to visit with all of you more often, create more and share pictures more frequently :)

As always, thanks so much for visiting!!
Have a super fantastic and wonderfully creative day :)

Big hugs,
Sprite

WIPS for PA Show :D Earth beings, a giant dragonfly and... a foot. :D

Making some progress on a few pieces, woo hoo!! Tremendous amount to do yet but fun fun!

I was trying to determine whether or not crappy pics were better than no pics and decided, yes, yes they are :D So here are a few.

A being, either emerging from the earth or dissolving into it.




















A giant dragonfly i started a few years ago and then sat on a shelf.
I'm really enjoying working on him again! His body still needs alot of work but I couldnt resist playing with and experimenting with his wings :)














An earth healer..and certainly a piece of me. Its hard to make out the details sculpted on the back but hopefully you can see her partially deformed wings...

























And a foot for the dragon creature thing, well the start of one anyway ;)























Have a super day everyone and thanks so much for visiting!

HUGS
Sprite

Hello!! and some news! :D

Hi Everyone!!

I cannot believe so much time has passed? lapsed? vanished? since my last blog post! Good gawd! My apologies and thanks for sticking with me regardless of my absence :) Over the past few months so much has happened we are just going to start fresh okie dokie?.....

How is everyone!? :) I hope super!

I just got back from Sherry & Jean's RenoIowa retreat, it was my first time in Reno and the retreat was absolutely amazing! I learned a ton, thoroughly enjoyed being with familiar friends, making new ones and I finally got to meet two of my close friends after only knowing them online~for 6 years, AWESOME!

Hopefully I'll get a slide show up soon. Cannot say enough positive things about these teachers or the experience. and guess what? They added another retreat! East Coast -New York in July and I cannot wait - I am in NY! WOO HOO GO ME! If you'd like to check out and/or reserve your spot at one of the retreats here's the link: http://renoiowaretreat.com/ Seriously amazing.

Also I have some news... :) I am doing my very first show in May in PA! I'm very excited and of course a tad nervous, especially since its a month away and guess who doesn't have a thing made/finished yet? HA HA HA Guess who wont be sleeping much until after the show?

If you are attending or are in the area and can stop by please let me know so I know to look for you. I would sooooo love to see some familiar faces and /or meet you!! Here is the link http://www.quinlanmuseum.com/convention/

As for creating, well, since my last post/ pics in June thankfully I've started quite a few new pieces and even finished a couple! So I'm thinking it might be fun to randomly snap pictures around the studio including the stuff I usually don't show... screw reservation! :) At the moment, my computer is fried so until I get the part to fix it, here are a few random wip pics that were in my cell camera you may or may not have already seen ;)

Weird lil gourd head creature - paperclay & plastercloth





























My first start at a pair of paperclay hands -














Random Body Parts, Sculpted feathers, the start of a raven mask and a teeeeny tiny dragon



















Lil dragon in a half shell who will probably be removed and put into something else later...




















and I guess that's it for now.. more very soon!

As always, thanks so much for visiting!! Hopefully I'll be able to post and share more frequently once things settle down a bit.

LOVE and big hugs :)

Sprite

New Stuff! Dragons and Baby Bird Dragon-Creatures??

Hi everyone! Hope you have all been super and are enjoying the summer so far!

I made a little more progress on the paper clay bust but still have much more work to do yet. Before I can move further I need to get his horns, teeth & spikes made so I can embed them in the clay and start constructing the wing frames.

Here's where we are so far:



















Thankfully, playing with paperclay inspired me to start some other new projects. It's so great to be creating again! I'm sculpting, drawing, painting, a little of everything! Yippee! I'm currently working on the courage to put up a couple of older drawings up (you know larger than thumbnail size) ha ha ha hopefully soon!

A few weeks ago I started playing with the Firm Super sculpey. I don't know why but i had convinced myself this stuff was going to be as hard as a rock, impossible to condition and would need to be chiseled into rather than sculpted with. Of course it is not at all like that so it needlessly sat in my drawer for years!

Sometimes with new or different clay(s) stranger than normally strange creatures emerge. I started sculpting thinking a dragon was about to be born but instead a baby bird dragon creature hatched from my clay!? Cute, but odd little creature isnt it!? He looks hungry, I wonder where his mommy is (hopefully finding him some food) and what she looks like.















Needs much work yet, horns, teeth, feet! ;) wing membranes and possibly some feathers or fuzzy flocking in areas cuz baby bird fuzz is just too cute not to include. :D

















This little one is being cured in the oven in stages the brownish areas are where I temporarily cured to hold details with a heat gun and roasted it. No worries it'll be painted anyway - speaking of which...I haven't a clue what colors he'll be, yellow, gold/ blue? Black, purple & red? ANY suggestions? Please!? :)


















That other lil blob next to him is a really rough start of a sleeping mousey looking creature.















As for the clay, I like working with it, not sure if its as strong as I would have imagined it to be but perhaps sitting in a drawer for years had something to do with that. The pieces is fine but I think I'll add some strengthener to it next time.

OH! and in closing, I see a few new readers, welcome and thank you all for being here! It truly makes my heart happy! :) Especially since I'm not the most frequent blogger and am long winded when I do post! To show my appreciation, I'm considering having a giveaway open to followers at 200 or so. That should give me a lil time to figure out what its going to be hee hee :) So stay tuned!

As always, Thanks so much for visiting!

BIG hugs,
Sprite

I'm back! and playing with paper clay! ;D

Hi Everyone! My goodness time has flown hasn't it!?

My apologies for the lack of updates, after my last entry my camera lens jammed so I've been without one. I was taking wip pics for an upcoming class and think I got some sand and glue in there, oops! Lesson learned ;) I'd also been in a major creative slump and when that happens I mostly draw and experiment with new mediums here and there - nothing terribly exciting but keeps me sane anyway...

Then last week I was reminded of how short life is with heartbreaking news of Hannie's passing... an amazing, awe inspiring incredible artist....who will be deeply missed....

Suddenly...my slump lifted. I didn't want to waste another precious moment waiting to play with materials I've wanted to experiment with, I grabbed the package of paper clay that I've had for quite a while and quickly grabbed some supplies and tools and started slapping some of it on a larger than my normal scale dragon bust armature that's been waiting for some love. To my surprise, I don't mind the feel of the paperclay which I'm thrilled about!

I'd only used this stuff briefly once before at Sherry & Jean's retreat. I love the idea of using it but it was quite different than what i was used to (polymer & apoxie) I was disappointed to find I did not like it, couldn't work with it, hated how it sucked my paint right into the seams I poorly blended and so I begged for help and gave the rest of my opened pack to Sherry to keep and make something wonderful with (and I have no doubt that she did!) I've seen so many beautiful figures being made with it I knew there had to be more to it....and there is! I think I just needed to try it again when I wasn't as nervous as I was in class.

Here's a quick pic of my first paper clay piece snapped with my cell phone




















It needs much work yet, including bulk, details, teeth, horns, wings etc, but i think I'm lovin the paper clay, (Although, truth be told I may add some of the finer details in my beloved apoxie sculpt.)

Hope you have all been super!!!!! As always thanks so much for visiting!!

BIG hugs,
Sprite

OWOH Winners & another very special Giveaway!

Hi Everyone! OWOH is over. Thank you all who stopped by to enter! It's so wonderful to meet you. :) Unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit as many blogs as I would have liked to this year but I will be sure to visit you all shortly. I'll also be having another giveaway as a thank you to my followers, soon. ;) Ok so here we go.....

As I mentioned I"d donated a piece for the ADO giveaway, what a fabulous response to an incredible giveaway! Congrats to Cathy!!!! of Christmas Corgi! She won my piece :)



















And Congrats to Joanna Thomas! Who was random generator picked # 27. She's the winner of my giveaway!




















It was quite difficult to capture their true coloring which is golds, copper, bronze and interference colors. I truly hope you both like them when they arrive.

I had a very pleasant surprise yesterday when I was informed that I was the lucky winner of this gorgeous piece of silk fabric from Shashi's giveaway!


Isn't it yummy?!





and....

Before I let you go, I wanted to tell you all about another a very special giveaway my friend Sue is having on her blog, It's called Thanksgiving in February.

Trust me, it is definitely special, I don't think you'll want to miss it. I'm headed over shortly to enter myself! ;)

Have a super fantastic & wonderful & creative day and as always thank you for visiting.

Hugs,
Sprite