Windmills and Dutch Girls

Thanks, Mom, for the suggestion to make some designs with a windmill theme. I love cute little Dutch girls and who doesn't love windmills?



This block tint is being carved out of gold linoleum available online at Dick Blick.

A little break from clay

Drawn on vellum with technical pen and ink

I started a few illustrations over the last two weeks as jumping off points for an idea I have for printed kitchen linens. This drawing of a girl with a tray of cupcakes is based on a vintage 1950's illustration. Originally, she was dressed in a long gown, wearing boots and holding a broom. She was a lot uglier in the original, too. I think gave her a sweet, fifties innocence.

I drew the girl and the saying on two separate pieces of paper, so I can later scan each into the computer and merge them there, adjusting the placement as I go. I'm going to finish that larger cupcake, too, don't worry!

I even broke out my long neglected watercolors and painted this little folk art girl. She reminds me of a cloth doll I made last year. I kind of miss my doll making; I love going through my stash of felt and fabrics and picking things that work together. This little painting is about 6 x 10. 

Watercolors sketches

Itsy bitsy hedgehogs are taking over my laptop!

The last pic is a shot of the tiniest of hedgehogs I've made so far. I actually made these from clay that was left out for a while and was in danger of getting too hard to do much with. Plus, I was distracted with a program on the little TV on my table. They look pretty cute. I like them displayed as a herd. What do you think?

Just born: New Animal Spirit Guides

I finally have a new batch of animal spirit guides! What a variety. These are all fairly small sized and three of them are even smaller than that. These were all made during one of my inspired moments, when I could sit there and turn them out one after another while the muse was upon me. That doesn't happen that often. Usually, I sit there, thinking. Thinking some more. Then making and then doing some more thinking.

These seemed to be easier.

I wish I had made a couple more of the toucan, because if I knew how

great the beak would come out, I would want one for myself.

I tried something new to get the colors bright and true while still firing to cone 5.  I also discovered that some of my cone 6 glazes actually came out much nicer when only going to cone 5.

My favorite is the squirrel (or chipmunk, as he really has a more chipmunk-y expression). The photo doesn't do him justice, but he's really cute in person and I love how the glaze came out on him - partly matte and somewhat grainy. Very cool.

Find me on my new Facebook page

I started a new facebook page for Iktomi- mostly because when I originally started on facebook, I had no idea what I was doing and my page ended up with the name iktomi.clay which drove me crazy. I decided to bite the bullet and start over brand new so I could name it without that awful dot in the middle.

So anyway, now I have few fans there. If you take a moment, won't you pop over and hit the "Like" button for me? I need to get a few more fans so I can rename the url to IktomiClay.

I'd love you for it!

Don't forget to say HI

Here's the address

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=83869&id=108279512557325&saved#!/pages/Iktomi-Clay/108279512557325

(isn't that long url ugly?)