An update and some new work.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I am not getting as much accomplished as I would like due to getting ready for our daughters wedding. Shopping definitely has taken time. It is so exciting; I now have a suit!

I did make three new moulds but I haven't had the time to cast anything let alone get them ready to post in time for Christmas

 We are so excited about the wedding.

I do have a marotte that is ready. Meet Alphonse. Jack said that it looks just like him. This marotte is built over a 1939 (?) Pinocchio marotte that was in very bad condition. All of the paint was off of the handle, the paint on the face was coming off and there was no other ornament at all on the head. The head did spin around and activate the music box. It was crying out to be recreated. Wire arms have been attached to the handle and papier-mache covered them to simulate wooden limbs. Papier-mache has been applied to the head and the body. After many long hours (days in fact) of drying, we have had a LOT of rain lately, it was ready to paint and apply his accessories. 

His party hat is made of hand painted papers, as is his party horn. That wonderful fine red stuff hanging from the inside of the party horn is cellophane. I was at a Salvation Army Thrift Shop and found about 10 packets of very old candy wrappers from Spain. Some of the packets were just cellophane and some were cellophane and paper lined foil. All of them were finely cut on both ends of the wrappers. To top it off there are about 50 pieces in each packet. I love the delicate nature of the finely cut cellophane. Now back to Alphonse, he is nibbling on a lovely large piece of marzipan, one of his favourite candies.

I have had this candy container in the studio for a while now and just needed the time to finish it and I am glad to say it has been completed. Early Santa's had a more elf like appearance and I wanted to capture that innocent spirit. He is sitting on top of a giant snowball. In his left arm is a basket filled with gifts. His right hand is holding onto a hand made goose feather tree complete with decorations and candles (decoration only, not to be lit). The tree is standing in an occupied Japan brass urn. There is also a mess bag of oranges hanging off of his right arm. The snowball is sitting on top of an upturned 1920's metal light socket emptied of its electrical innards. Around the base are vintage "gifts" and presents wrapped in vintage Christmas paper, tied with vintage ribbon.

The wedding is coming, the wedding is coming!

This is as far as I have managed to get on the large frozen pond serving tray. Blue, green and purple high lights need to be painted on and then the trees and other accessories need to be added so it will not be finished in time for Christmas nor will the cake/display stand, oh well.

Did I mention that we are really excited about the wedding?

The New Hallowe'en Candy Container Ornaments Are Finished.

I didn't get the candy container ornaments posted yesterday did I? We went to the hospital again to visit Mum and the baby. Our lawn mower died so we went shopping for a new lawn mower after leaving the hospital. One thing after another seemed to get in the way.

Well, it has taken a while to cast, clean up, paint and accessorize the candy container ornaments but they are finally done. I am more than pleased with them if I may say so myself.

But now (a brief pause)

I can say (another brief pause to build the anticipation and eventual joy)

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, please welcome the new, the wonderful, the marvelous - "HALLOWE'EN CANDY CONTAINER ORNAMENTS!"

I think this might be one of my favourites, Timothy, a pattypan squash, has a squirting flower. SOLD

Johnny and I were talking about unfortunate costume choices and he recounted the time he decided to go as an apple on the end of a string, that old game that no one seems to know the name of. He couldn't go anywhere. He hung there feeling somewhat nervous that he may become part of the games. He holds a working rattle.

Pierre, a Rouge Vif D'etampes pumpkin, came to the "J-O-L-ity Fair Costume Ball" dressed as a Persian scribe.

We have fireworks at Hallowe'en in Victoria, unfortunately firecrackers were banned years ago. They were dangerous but so much fun. This is a string of handmade firecrackers (fake!) that are tied together exactly the way the real firecrackers are tied together. AVAILABLE

Morty has his rattle ready to wake up his fellow mushrooms. SOLD

All ready to get that bag filled with treats. SOLD

Black Cat carries a wonderful rattle that he won at the J-0-L-ity Fair. SOLD

Harv, as he is known to his friends and Harvest Moon on formal invitations, has an armload of fireworks gathered on his travels around the world. AVAILABLE

Whooly is just about ready to go out and trick or treat. SOLD

This little acorn guy has his parade lantern ready to light the way for his fellow treat gatherers. SOLD

"Caws-mo" has decided to wear a fake mustache so that no one will recognize him. He had to have some help to tie it on. He also decorated his hat with a blackberry, a piece of fern and some fleece that he found in the field. SOLD

A Little Tour of My Brain, Part 2 - Pumpkins, Squash, Gourds, and Vegetables.

The plain old orange globe of a pumpkin is beautiful, but have you looked at all of the other gourds and squash? If we had a large area in our yard I would grow lots of gourds, squash and pumpkins. They are so beautiful. The colours and shapes are so varied. I do take liberties when I paint them, so don't expect an exact representation of a hubbard or pattypan squash. All of the close-up photographs were taken at Dan's Farm and Country Market on Oldfield Road.

This French pumpkin called Rouge Vif D'etampes has a beautiful red orange outer skin. They look like a large pouf that you can put your feet up on to for a good rest. One of the candy container ornaments is based on this beautiful pumpkin.

I have no idea the name of these squash but the shapes and colours are so interesting.

More unknown squash. The stem on this squash is thick and has an interesting texture.

Ornamental gourds come in a myriad of wonderful shapes, sizes, and colours. I made the mistake of cooking a gourd one time. It was disgusting. It was a volunteer in our garden and I thought that it was squash. One of the warty gourds influenced the design of another of the candy container ornaments.

These last three photos were taken at the Metchosin Days fall fair. Another of the candy container ornaments is based on a pattypan squash. He is delightful.

It is held every year on the first Sunday after Labour Day in the District of Metchosin. This is the one fall fair that we go to every year. The midway consists of a tractor that pulls a very large trailer filled with bales of hay to sit on. There are two tractors that alternate on the route around the perimeter of the fair grounds. They are always filled. There is also a backhoe for the kids to use. The smaller children have an adult to help them but the larger kids use it themselves. They dig the soil out of one hole and deposit it into another hole beside the original hole. This is real life fun! The volunteer fire department has fire-fighting clothes for the kids to put on and they then do a very short obstacle course ending with them shooting water out of the fire hose.

Rainbow carrots, Rainbow chard, huge scallions and heirloom tomatoes, what could be tastier?

I am finishing the last four candy container ornaments and then I will photograph the lot. I am very pleased with them.

A Little Tour of My Brain, Part 1- Fireworks

It is over a week and I haven't let you know how the ornaments are coming along. I have been very busy with the little guys. I am going to give you a little tour of my brain and the things that influence the finished pieces. So here goes with part 1 - Fireworks.

This is a very distorted photograph of a poster in my studio. It is about 3' high so I guess that is why the photograph came out distorted. This Standard Fireworks poster was on the wall of a place that sold fireworks. They were kind enough to give it me when I asked for it. Standard Fireworks is a British company.

I love the fireworks graphics. The older items tend to be more interesting. These photographs are from a British book "The Unsophisticated Arts" published in 1951. Sadly the graphics on most of the new fireworks are poorly designed.

My wife and I went down to the Inner Harbour for the Canada Day fireworks display. They were fantastic. Fireworks can be bought in Toronto for Canada Day, but not in B.C. I don't know if they are available anywhere else in Canada for our nations birthday. Let me know I'm curious.

Fireworks are sold in southern B.C. at Hallowe'en. This is the only time that fireworks are sold. The ink drawings above are from a 1966 reprint of a 1938 book "Holiday Handicrafts" by Nina R. Jordan.

British Columbia was very British in the beginning. That is a dumb statement otherwise it would have been called "Something Else Columbia". Anyway they greatly influenced the way holidays were celebrated.

Hallowe'en was influenced by Guy Fawkes Day. For those of you that don't know about Guy Fawkes and his dastardly deed of trying to blow up the houses of parliament well now you know. November 5th is "Guy Fawkes Day".

All good Brits construct a "guy", think scarecrow, stuff fireworks into his clothes pop him on a huge pile of wood and set the whole lot ablaze. All of this is done to celebrate the fact that he was caught, his plot foiled and then executed for treason. He wasn't burned at the stake but hung. If someone knows why the bonfire started let me know. I am definitely rambling. Guy Fawkes Day I think is the reason that we have fireworks on Hallowe'en.

I cut this ad from the 1990 Times/Colonist. I don't know of anywhere else that has fireworks on Hallowe'en but I am that glad we do.

President Fireworks shown in all of their glittering frenzied glory to be used with caution.

This photograph of novelty fireworks is from George Plimton's book "Fireworks a History and Celebration" published in 1984 by Doubleday.

This image is also from George Plimton's book. It shows various indoor fireworks and party bombs that shoot out trinkets for the guests. When I was in London years ago the Christmas dinner that I was at had Christmas crackers with miniature fireworks in them. There was a tiny fountain that shot sparks about 5" in the air and a roman candle that shot one tiny ball of fire about 3 ' into the air. They were wonderful.

When we were in Switzerland indoor "Party bombs" were available everywhere. They came at various price ranges. You could also buy them in undecorated brown cardboard ready to decorate to your own personal party theme. There is a wick at the bottom that is lit and the contents shoot out the top for everyone to gather. There was no real explosion unfortunately. The contents of our bomb consisted of thin card mustaches, red plastic clown noses, red lips that had a siren/whistle in them to blow, and conical party hats.

This preamble was just to explain why two of the candy container ornaments are holding fireworks.

Candy Container Update

I know the picture is out of focus but I liked the colours and the bugs eye view. The next day and for several days after the sky was overcast. The days were wet and grey. The temperature was a little colder for this time of the year. It was more like early autumn weather. For those of you who don't know what a West Coast autumn is like think "Wet Coast". I like the rain.

I thought that I would give you a little up-date on the candy container ornaments. Ta-daa. The very messy studio work table. My approach to painting the pieces is probably a little unconventional. I like to build up the colours of the item that I am painting, it gives more depth to the colour. I suppose I am more painterly in my approach. This picture shows the first layer of paint that goes on. Most of the time it is very bold. You can just see the bumpy squash in behind the cat head, it was painted with two different yellows. I painted a 1" to 2" area in one yellow and then used the other yellow blending the edges. Sometimes I know what I am doing and other times I go for broke just to see what will happen if I use a different colour as a base coat. This step forces me to come up with solutions to what could be a bad decision on my part. I love challenge and often create mini "obstacles" to overcome. This also gives results that are unexpected and better that planned. There have been disasters, but they are few and far between.

This is the second layer of paint that goes on the piece. Sometimes I brush it on, other times I will scrumble it on with the brush to give the colour visual texture. I might use a small piece of sea sponge or even my fingers to put paint on and take it off. I am a product of the 80's faux finishing fad. I have used these techniques for building props. I like them because it gives me a more realistic look to the finished piece. I am not going to show any more of the pieces until they are done. I hope that has wetted your appetite a little. I am working on the accessories for each candy container ornament. They can take a while to produce as well. I like detail. Am I obsessive-compulsive?

Socks on a Mexican blanket

There was a low tide at 8:30 yesterday morning so my wife and I went down to the beach for breakfast. I burn, so yes, I was wearing long pants, a long sleeve shirt, and shoes. I took my shoes off and liked the colour of the Mexican blanket and my H and M socks. I sat there and took about 8 pictures of my feet on the blanket.

This is my favourite picture. I did crop it to just zero in on the checkered pattern of the socks and the bold colour of the stripes.

I don't just take pictures of my feet. These are the latest set of Hallowe'en candy container ornaments that I am working on. There is a cats head, assorted squash, pumpkins and gourds, a moon, a mushroom head, an acorn head, an apple, a crow, and an owl. I am looking forward to seeing the finished pieces. All of these are hollow and will hold candies, chocolates for those with a more refined pallette or non-edible treats. I have trimmed them and now they are drying. I must get going as I have work to do.

Here Comes The Easter Bunny

Forget the Hallowe’en ornaments it’s Easter and here are two figural candy containers. 

Meet "Mr. E. Rabbit", he measures 15" high x 8 1/2" wide x 8 1/2" deep.

Here he is opened. He is available here.

and "Mrs. E. Rabbit", his lovely wife. She measures 14" high x10" wide 8" deep.

Here she is opened. She is available here.