windstoneeditions.com

The Phoenix has been found and will be rising soon. This is a photo of the Paint-your-own Phoenix looking very lumpy in his partially completed first master mold. He is sitting in a cabinet next to the larger Winged Wolf sculpture which is at nearly the same stage in the mold making progress. These two are having dribble molds made on them. This is a method of making a "quickie" glove mold. Layers of the liquid silicone are dripped directly onto the gypsum sculpture.

I misjudged Melody Peña, the modest artist and sculptor who is the creative heart of Windstone Editions.

I assumed that anyone who sculpts fantasy figurines would somehow view the real world through that fanciful gauze. Just as some members of the Society of Creative Anachronism bend their lives around the Medieval persona they portray at festivals and on weekends, I assumed that Melody would appreciate a bit of fantasy in my reports from the company’s new home in Corvallis, Oregon.

Having arrived at the blue metal building that is Windstone’s new home in the Northwest, I opened the door and stepped into a small foyer with a service window into the office. Windstone brochures were perched in a stand on the window counter. On the floor below the shelf an amazingly lifelike lizard sat sculpted on a rock, as if taking in the sun. The details were perfectly rendered, right down to the scales, but I overlooked the neatly folded wings that marked this lizard as one of the "garden dragons" in Windstone's catalog.

One of my favorite subjects to rant about is: "What I do badly" .

The list is endless, of course, but drawing "humans" is one of them.

This is an unfinished digital painting I've been working on, and a quick sketch of a Hippogriff. I' m trying to get a feel for this creature. Each individual part is easy, but putting the whole creature all together is a nightmare!

I found this ink drawing I did of three pieces from the original old animal line that was produced by us, Windstone Editions, when we first started the company about 25 years ago. The lion and lamb sculptures are extremely rare, and unfortunately, we haven't found any of these castings unpainted, but we did find several of these fine Mother Grizzly bears.
I will be painting these old sows soon as I can get to them. They are in boxes, on a cart, in our new shop... somewhere. We have a problem finding stuff.

We are now going through the difficult after effects of moving . The most emotionally wearing part is not being able to find stuff you are used to having at hand. We have a system here at Windstone, of unpacking boxes, placing the contents out on rolling carts until the stuff can be put away, then loosing it again. Problem is, the carts ROLL, so they keep getting moved around. I knew where the precious cart of unpainted Grizzly bears was last week, but now it has vanished into the crowd of other carts full of boxes.

CRIPES!! It is snowing again!!
Us ex-Californians can hardly deal with drizzle, let alone THIS stuff!!
We just love the weather here, don't get me wrong , but wow, it is cold! Our California-raised llamas and sheep won't come out of the barn. They aren't stupid.

Look at this! Our own Windstone Editions blog page!
This is a blog in which we will be talking about several topics: Pendragon, John and I and will be talking about our epic move from southern California to Corvallis, Oregon, and our simultaneous push to expand our presence into the online world. I'll probably get bored with all that stuff and start rambling on about art, animals and the sculpting process of Windstone pieces.

Right now I am trying to figure out how to use this blog page... Let's see here... how do I post and image? Ah, file attachments.. hang on..

Anxious to see what Windstone Editions was all about, I drove south of Corvallis a mile, then turned right at Murphy’s Tavern onto Wake Robin Ave., a long, straight, dead-end that I had never explored in my 15 years in Corvallis.

I passed humble houses and an apartment complex on the right, cows and a kiln-making shop on the left. I crossed a little-used railroad siding and passed a fenced warehouse where a Volvo older than my own was parked. Within sight of the road’s end, just beyond the barking dogs at the Corvallis Kennel and Cattery, I found Windstone Editions.