Stormy Weather

This storm that came in last night is really something. The winds are howling and the trees are bending. It's been raining hard since 4:00 am. My lights have flickered several times, but so far, no power outages. I'm lucky I'm not in a flood zone, but I do feel for those who are down the hill on the flatter parts of town. I know the water drains overflow causing flooding along the roads and highways.

This is all supposed to be gone by tomorrow and I'm very worried about my baby squirrels. The poor little things just started to come down to get some nuts about two weeks ago. They are very tiny. I've never seen the mom squirrel with them, but they have been hanging out in my yard for hours. They can't sit up for too long because their legs are just still to wobbly.

I just took a crude video of the trees and the driving rain from my back yard. The wind gusts have gotten up to 60mph. Those Eucalyptus trees are 70 feet tall! Turn down your volume.

I found something to play with!

Here's a new one! :)

I still can't seem to find the energy to sculpt, but I did manage to make some sparkly new fairy jooles! These were actually a lot of fun to do.

Sometimes things like this are a nice distraction from sculpting block. I love playing with the crystals, so I made these hairsticks.

Things are changing

It's been a while since I've been here. The weather has been great! This is the time we get our summer. I haven't sculpted in a while but I started to smoosh some clay together and actually made a couple of faces. I do have a plan for them, and it's an ambitious plan. That's all I can say at this point.

I get in a blue funky mood when I finish a piece and it takes a while for me to get back into the zone. It's coming though...I feel it. I either have to continually sculpt or go into hibernation. It takes weeks before I can touch the clay again. Any interruption can put me off track. Is that what they mean when they say an artist puts themselves into their work? It seems to be true for me. I put so much energy in, there's nothing left when I'm done! LOL I think this is why I don't do as many pieces as I would like. I'm sure I'm not the only one that goes through this.

It's official! My California business permit has the new name. I spent yesterday on the phone with paypal and ebay to change everything over to the new name and then I had to open a new account on eBay for listing my sculpts. The bad thing is I can't use My Wycked Ways as the name for the new account because I had already used it...so the new eBay account is wyckedwayssculptures. Now all I have to do is sculpt something to list! LOL

I'm finishing up a rather large wing order and if all goes well, I'll have some pics today.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had quite Facebook. Turns out that a few days after I had done that, my local news had a segment which mentioned a class action lawsuit against Facebook for privacy violations and ID theft. Seems it's not just the games that have hackers, but the ID's are being hacked too, so I went back in and deleted most of my information. When you deactivate your account, they still keep your information. You can't delete your account.
That bothers me because it's still in their servers. Well, if I get hacked, I'll know where it came from.

I just put in my application to California to officially change the name of my supply business. The decision was difficult, but a couple of people had commented that their hubbies thought they had gotten some exotic things in the mail...(disappointed to find sculpting supplies). Some others had misspelled the website in their links (mywyckedways) by spelling it correctly as "wicked" and you can imagine where that took them! If all goes smoothly, the supply website will officially be OOAK Artist Emporium!

The other news is, I have added Tussah Silk and Mulberry Silk roving to my growing line of art supplies. Not many people know that these fibers are wonderful in use as hair for their tiny fairies. It's soft and shiny and very fine which adds a more proportionate look to fairy hair. It's all natural and takes dyes beautifully. It's also a straight fiber. I don't know much about needle felting, but I would think this would also be perfect in that venue.

I dropped out of facebook. A couple of people had some hacker issues...one while playing one of the games (farmtown) and the other just logging in...no games. Their computers were taken over and both had to get their computers cleaned out. So for me, it's not worth the risk.

Well, at last I can reveal the dragon that I made for our clay group challenge. I didn't start out with this look, but since my attempts to make a dragon that looked realistic didn't pan out, this just popped into my head and I went with it.

I have to say, this was a lot of fun to make and watch as it progressed. I think I may have found my niche in making dragons. The dragon is entirely made of Cernit clay.

"A Dragon's Winter"

It's foggy here

This has been the wackiest weather, but some might say it's a typical San Francisco summer. Last week we got into the upper 80's. Today, it's cold, foggy and very wet. Not the wet from rain, but wet from all the fog. I can't see the mountain which separates me from the coast. Weather like this tends to bring me down. Hopefully, it will clear up in a couple of hours.

Yesterday afternoon, I glanced out the back door and saw a falcon sitting on top of my fence. Next to the falcon was a squirrel! Both were staring at each other. Well, I have no idea what the squirrel was thinking, but I think I know what the falcon was thinking...yum!

Some of my friends already know that the squirrels come to my house to snack. Hubby buys walnuts, cashews, peanuts and hazelnuts and makes his very own blend of squirrel food. This has caused other critters to stop by for a snack...crows, hawks, falcons, owls, racoons and others.

Some of my favorites

One of my favorite pieces was Kenya. She was inspired by the art of LeRoy Neiman. I am lucky enough to have a Neiman serigraph and I never get tired of looking at it.

I wanted to capture the wildness of his animal paintings and still have the feel of softness. I named this piece Kenya after the Kenya Leopard. She is very feline! Did I mention I love color?

Here is the inspiration piece.

"Kenya Leopard", by LeRoy Neiman

The"Lust Imps" are also among my favorites. It's difficult to pick just one because they all have a a unique quality. They represent those emotions and desires that make us do things we wouldn't ordinarily do. They are impulses in 3D.

Lust Imp, Heart's Desire - 2008

Why is it, girls want to get married on Valentine's Day? If it goes bad, you always have the crap to remember....every year! Anyone getting married on that day is asking for it!

Why am I here?

Well, at the gentle persuasion of my friend Sprite, I'm giving blogging a try. It's difficult to know where to begin. So many people I know are doing it and seem to have fun, but I'm not alone in my feelings about it. My other dear friend Janet, feels the same way. I can't speak for her, but this old fossil is hard to convert! I was also terrified when I started my website a couple of years ago. Technology comes slowly to me.

I guess I'll start with a brief description of how I see myself. I am a person who creates things to make myself happy. That sounds selfish, but it seems that no matter what I do creatively, as soon as it becomes a job, it loses it's luster. As long as I'm doing what's in my heart, I'm motivated. I don't think I'm alone in this mindset. I've oven thought about accepting commission work for my sculptures, but stop short because of the fear of it "feeling like a job" and losing my creative drive. On the other hand, it makes me feel great when someone buys one of my pieces...they like what's in my head too.

I also get easily sidetracked and then have a difficult time getting focused again. I'm sure other artists go through this. I can't possibly be the only one, although it feels like it at times. This puts a real damper on doing a lot of projects. There are so many things I'd like to try, but never seem to have time. If I get two sculptures done in a year, I feel lucky. This is not the way to build a name for ones self!

Well, that's it for now. I might be back later :)