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I wonder…could we perhaps have a gallery here on the site for these? I think it would be a neat thing to have them all collected in one spot, no worries about expired picture links, and if needed, the uploaded images could be watermarked to prevent someone printing them out for nefarious usage.
Meanwhile, I have three of them in my desk drawer that I’ll try to get pics of tomorrow to post here in the thread.
*hugs*
I would add the possibility of planting a tree for him somewhere, or going somewhere he loved to go to. My ex MIL created her own ceremony that included writing a letter to her beloved second husband, and sending her words into the sky via a small fire on the first anniversary of his passing.
But–stay flexible and remember that everyone grieves differently…what helps one person may be of no use to another. My grandparents’ generation made a huge deal of going to the gravesite–neither their children nor their grandchildren find that of any comfort. Things like going through old pictures and old memories may work for some; for others, a year may not be anywhere near long enough for such things to bring anything but fresh grief. I’ve lost all my closest blood kin and several friends, starting when I was six–I tend to grieve alone and in private; for me, there’s no set time to commemorate–I do it whenever I feel the need in whatever way feels appropriate, and most people would have no idea that anything is going on in my head. My husband, on the other hand, is the kind who needs as many of his loved ones as close to him as possible, who keeps pictures of his grandparents on his desk at work, and who speaks of them regularly with his parents.
So while all our ideas are good possibilities, you may wake up and want to do something different from all of it, perhaps something that may not “seem” commemorative, but will allow you to work on the next stages of your own journey through this loss.
In the end, be gentle with yourselves and each other.
Off to go rearrange the cabinet as the newest “houseguest” arrives from Windstone this afternoon for his short term stay. He’s going to find the accommodations a bit crowded…
haha! Shes a pretty girl!
I’ve been bad with my Windstone habits as well o.o I don’t have to sneak them in, I just have to figure out what I’m going to do with them! lol! I don’t have space for so many new pretties! Yet anyway.. lots of cleaning and reorganizing going to be happening later this week! lolCan’t wait to see what else you’re getting Jolie!
Thanks–she is just beautiful. And in the grand scheme of things, hubby won’t really care much; but yeah, other expenses and such mean I need to figure out how to manage this addiction a bit better. Got the cabinet rearranged–if I can ever figure out how to get pics of it that aren’t pure glare, I’ll have to put it up to show just how small it really is. It’s about 2 feet wide by perhaps 5 feet tall & a little over a foot deep. The pic of mama & babies was shot somewhere where I had enough space to spread them out a little. A lap dragon is about as big as you’d want to go “acreage-wise” on a shelf in the curio; the mama uni is the biggest sculpt in there. And the Windstones have to share it with my fossil collection, so it’s definitely getting cramped inside. LOL
UPS arrived with my temporary baby. And let me tell you, that whole “do something about this addiction” thing pretty much went out the window. I’m curlie addicted.
Cupcakes, anyone?
They’re all a little grumpy about being awakened & moved. From left to right: Caden (Melody’s dark copper test #2), Rory (PS’ Tomato Garden test #1), and Ciaran (production Black Gold). All the household curlies have Gaelic based names that fit their descriptions, though Rory’s real mom will probably choose something else to call him eventually.
Rory is our new babysitting client until my friend’s birthday in October. He & Caden share a shelf in the curio for now, surrounded by fossils. I can see them from my desk, and I’m pretty sure they’re arguing like siblings (“My rocks!” “No, MY rocks.” “Don’t you dare cross this line, this is my side of the shelf.” and so on….)
(In case PS sees this–he’s amazing. I just love the red stone, it really does look like a cherry tomato, and pulls the whole color scheme together. Fantastic job!) And yes, I expect it’ll be hard to let him go when the time comes, but by then I’m sure I’ll have found someone else for Caden to argue with. LOL
Meanwhile, I’m also running out of space to store Windstone boxes! Aaarrrggghh…I don’t know how those of you with bigger collections manage this stuff. I have to be so careful where I put the boxes, or hubby tries to recycle them.
Melody’s cat griffins are just amazing!!! I love the serval, leopard and tiger–can’t pick a favorite of the bunch! What gorgeous eye candy. Thanks for sharing!!!
At this point, I’ve switched favorites–the tiger wins. *grabby hands at Hannah’s new shiny*
Stephanie, love those poads! I really adore them when they’re all together like that.
Well, in my quest to come up with a GB young, I’ve utterly failed. But the babies now have some unplanned, unexpected company. Mama Metallic Palomino #1 has come to keep an eye on them:
I somehow missed how big the mama unis are! Until you see them in perspective with a Windstone you’re familiar with, it’s so hard to tell even looking at the measurements. I can’t even imagine the Grands now. She’s a beauty…but forget sneaking her into the curio–the cabinet’s not THAT big, and she’s going to take up a fair amount of space on the shelf. I may regret not sticking to the “find a GB Young” plan when hubby spots this golden girl.
And buying her meant no cool new male ocelot griffin. The money earmarked for him went to catching her instead. Then again, he probably won’t fit in the cabinet either. LOL
A couple of other new gypsum friends are either en route or already here; it was a bad week for trying to curb my Windstone spending. One of them is a present for a friend though, so at least that one won’t be staying forever, but I’ll get to enjoy him while he’s here anyway. I also finally got my hands on a frog wizard, and again, wow, he was bigger than I expected too. I must have a really poor sense of scale!
Off to go rearrange the cabinet as the newest “houseguest” arrives from Windstone this afternoon for his short term stay. He’s going to find the accommodations a bit crowded…
No progress today; was down with a migraine all day, so I got absolutely nothing done on anything, including PYOs. Hopefully tomorrow works out better.
Definitely going to pick up some of those stippled eyes…I’m becoming an eye & rhinestone addict. (Though to be fair, more of the rhinestones will end up in jewelry–I pick up old rhinestone brooches all the time in need of repair & convert them to focal points for feather hair fascinators. It’ll be nice to be able to repair them rather than hiding the missing stones in an inconspicuous spot. And I’m back to thinking about earring designs again too. LOL)
Siri–the stone used in Plague’s tail is a Swarovski Rivoli cut chaton (foiled & pointed back); the official color is “Volcano” and the size is 24ss–just over 5mm.
A couple of things to note: Rivolis are no longer made, so they’re all vintage, and the smaller sizes are REALLY hard to find (anything below 10mm, 12mm-14mm is typical). Most colors available in the big ones aren’t available in the 5mm. This is the smallest size Rivoli cut I have managed to find; I don’t think they actually made them any smaller. You don’t want the ones that say “sew on” or “pendant” as these typically have drilled holes in the gems.
Because these stones are actually over 5mm, it took a fair amount of time scraping out the tail hole to fit it correctly (and then repainting the area to mask the edges of the dug out spot). You want it buried as close to the beveled edge as possible, because the color/foil process they used on these turned out to be really fragile, more so even than a regular gem. Leaving any of the foil exposed means the edges will likely chip, and the color will vanish when the foil does. Also, as it’s a shallow cut, I actually found it harder to set in that spot than a traditionally cut rhinestone. It was worth it, because even the tiny rivolis are amazing–but it was definitely a good bit of work to get it set level.
I purchased the Volcanos from BeautifulJewelry on etsy. Mine are not loose stones; rather, they’re set in pronged brass settings with a single loop that I plan to use in jewelry, so I have to pull them out of those settings if I want to use them for PYOs. That’s a huge nuisance on such tiny stones…but it was cheaper because I could buy fewer stones than if I bought them loose, and I’ve been spending way too much on stuff lately. Having said that, I’ve actually thought perhaps I should get together every color I can get my hands on and divy them out into small assortments of the colors if people here really like them…the tiny rivolis are THAT hard to find, and no one sells mixed lots.
Do be careful not to buy ones mounted to fancy findings if you want to use them for PYOs. Some of the sew on ones are set in prong mounts, but they’re a lot more expensive. As for the others…if there are no visible prongs, the stone is glued in place. Once they’re glued, you can’t remove them without destroying the foil and losing both color and sparkle.
Also, one general note on rhinestones that I probably should add to the gem & eye thread: if it doesn’t specify Swarovski in the listing, seriously consider passing it by. I spent money on an ebay lot that specified “fire polished” and “machine cut” rhinestones in addition to Swarovski–well, it was about 1% good stuff. The fire polished stones are simply glass and have little to no sparkle to them, and the non-Swarovski machine cut gems weren’t consistent in color, size, or shape. They also weren’t as sparkly, though they were better than the fire polished glass. Spend the extra to get the real thing. It’s worth it–otherwise, you’ll just end up frustrated and buying actual crystal gems later! I have some all Swarovski mixed lots arriving tomorrow that should prove to be more useful both for jewelry and PYOs. No rivolis in the batch though, unfortunately!
Good to have you back–and what a beauty your newest creation is! Can’t wait to see the new tutorial as well.
I knew my paint-fume addled brain was missing something–more transparency to the paint! *smacks forehead* Thank you thank you thank you! I’m laughing at myself– bayou, I just read your awesome muse tutorial yesterday, and here I’m forgetting everything in it.
I’m using Winsor & Newton’s Galeria line (their renamed slightly-better-than-student grade soft body paint in tubes). Some shades are semi transparent, some fully opaque. I can certainly thin them down still further than I currently do for a more transparent wash with various mediums, and the thought of using them over the whole piece to start is less intimidating than the idea of starting over scale by scale. (It’ll be far more effective than anything my mind was spinning out.) Layering more heavily in certain areas after that should put me back on track.
Barrdwing, thanks for the yellowish olive recommendation in addition to the brown tones; that will give me a good starting point. The current brown is a bit more irregular than it may show; darker in some spots, wiped back clear to the ivory base in some high points, then relayered and wiped back much less in other areas to tone down the stark highlights in the mane & tail. I should be able to do similar with the next colors. And I’ll definitely think through the “washes from the start” approach for the small dragon waiting his turn.
FlamingDragon–I know exactly what you mean about dry brushing and texture. In my case, I’m fairly certain I’ve used too much paint in the past. That’s definitely one technique I haven’t really worked enough with to be more than semi-adequate at it. Other than traditional glazed and fired ceramics, these PYOs are my first real work done with paints and the various techniques available. That means more often than not, I really do paint myself into corners as I learn!
Thank you all! At least I now have a better idea of how to move forward next.
(Took a break and messed with the iPhone camera for a while instead–different project to clear my head! LOL)
I think everyone’s right at this point. etruscan–I’m definitely thinking gold hooves, and maybe a couple of the tiny round scales in gold too, but that will be close to the last thing I do. The antiquing/glazing definitely needs to be muddied and greyed or darkened. I’ll probably use some as a glaze, but then brush in the darkest areas by hand.
Changing the base–damn. FlamingDragon, I totally agree it should be done; though the piece is a bit more ivory in tone in person, it very much looks like brown antiqued white overall. That said, redoing the scales is going to be a PITA unless I’m missing a trick or two (which I probably am). I guess it doesn’t matter too much in a way that it’s already antiqued, since it sounds like I’ll be doing much of that over again anyway, but ugh–I feel like I’m starting over!
Went out onto Tohickon’s site, since I need to place an order anyway, and found these:
Anyone used them, or opinions? Given the intended scheme, I thought they might make a nice muted tone that blended in rather than contrasted. Then again, once the piece is darkened…
Thanks, all! Plague really is my favorite PYO I’ve completed yet–though the next small dragon *might* usurp that role! (And Night Wolf, aka “Shiny” is staring at me with a highly offended expression right now. LOL) The rest of Plague’s detail pics are now up in my PYO gallery for those who are interested: http://windstoneeditions.com/image-galleries/paint-your-own-gallery/joliesdragons
Next problem…
Have you ever done a PYO that came out exactly as you envisioned, and you find you don’t like it? That’s where I’m at right now with the current WIP.
I really love Windstone’s Ivory scheme. I’m really never going to be able to afford it unless they put it in the store (pretty please with squeaks all over it???). But in researching ivory a bit, I started looking at carved ivory netsuke and decided that with the right antiquing, I could make a Ki-Rin (and the Foo Dogs, whenever they arrive) have a similar quality.
This is the example I had in mind (exhibited in the Bolton Museums’ collection):
And this is where we’re at:
(This little one is still in a very raw state, cleanup & touchup needed, no clear coat yet, though that will be matte. Rest of her pics, including closer detail shots, are here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAqtPXh)
The good news is, while readying the pics for this post, I realized part of the problem is that the antiquing/glaze I used is just too red (straight burnt umber). (Note to self–if you’re going to base something on a picture, keep the picture in front of you! duh… ) The “ivory” paint I mixed & used is also a good deal whiter than the example’s aged yellowed tones, so I’m concerned that adding a darker brown is going make the contrast too stark.
And I hate the eyes, but I don’t know what color might work better. I’ve tried Tohickon’s metallic green (similar to WS’ ivory moon/sun–which I loved). Nope, doesn’t work with the reddish tones. I suppose if I do darken the brown, it might work better? Tried every color I have on hand. Nope. I really don’t want to go with a dark “horse” brown. Tohickon’s gold is going to be too bright. I’m starting to feel like Goldilocks…
I’m at that stage that most artists hit somewhere along the way, where you absolutely despise the project, but you’re afraid to touch it because anything you might do could make it worse. So I’m putting it here. I badly need a fresh set of eyes on this one.
Artists–If it was yours, what would YOU do next? Doesn’t have to be identical to the example, just in keeping with the theme. What would you change/add/do/redo to give this piece a feel closer to the original?
I just got this little guy today at my local Windstone dealer
So far he’s my only non-PYO Windstone. I’m really happy to have him, he’s so darn cute!
Congratulations…and welcome to the addiction!
(Hint…they’re like cookies; you can’t stop at just one. LOL)The baby unis really are cute, in almost every color and pattern. With those and the curled dragons, it’s really hard to stick to my “one per sculpt” rule (and I haven’t). Luckily, they’re small and easy to find space for!
I have a few new pieces that I’d like to share! I just traded for these grab bag unis, and I am IN LOVE. ^^
….
And my whole group!
Atrayel, Apokryphos, Benvolio
Bisbee, Tango, Willow, and Tiger (name to be determined)
SO jealous! One of these days, I’m going to get my hands on one of the GB youngs. Congrats!
One to start (also one mom & one dad) as I have one paint scheme in mind for my personal collection. But could want more later depending on inspiration, price, and painted resale demand.
I just finished my Capstone. 121 pages, 3 months of writing, and the culmination of the last 2.5 years of my life.
It feels very … strange. I’m sure I’ll be happy in a few days, but right now I feel a little lost.
Great big huge hugs! I’m so proud of you. I know how hard it’s been, especially the last few months. Endings like this always feel a little odd at first, but a summer off from school before heading into your next adventure will be a lot of fun.
