Gnomes, Fairies and other garden friends

Great name! Oliver it is.
When my daughter was small we used to make gnomes from pinecones and dress them in felt clothing. They were so cute! Those were the days..

These are made out of Polymer Clay....the first one will be according to the book instructions....After that I start to change things and improvise...Like my cooking!
This is the picture from the book....doesn't mean mine will look any thing like it...but.....

Wow! What a cool project! Will be looking forward to seeing the result!

Have to finish a second Troll I am doing for a DG Friend before I start the Gnome.... we have all of our stuff on the Polymer Clay thread in the Craft and Decorating Forum....this is a not very good picture of little Morgan, my first troll.........

Trisha - I went over there and looked at your first stuff awhile back. Your troll is amazing. Does the polymer clay harden after awhile?

Polymer doesn't harden until you cook it in the oven.....which is a good thing, I'm a slow worker at times.......doesn't air dry and you can cook it in the kitchen oven.....one reason I do more polymer than "mud" clay.....no kiln required! (and not nearly as messy)

You have a talent for faces. I could get the clothes and the limbs. But that doesn't work without faces!! LOL

Thanks Sally, I am just learning the faces....it has taken a lot of practice and I still need a lot more. Most of us on the thread are fairly new to Polymer Clay....but we are lucky to have several ladies drop in that are very good, and a couple who are real pros that offer a lot help and encouragement to those of us who are still learning. This is one of jylgaskins creations....makes mine look pretty sad...

WOW!! Look at that nose and those little fingers!! But I think yours is just as good, it looks like a troll!! Love the ears and the feet.

Thanks for the ego boost, but forget the ball park, I am not even in the same league with jyl....yet....I hope to be that good someday! Just have to keep practicing.

Well, I have a seven thirty eye appt. in the morning....have a lot of weird floaty things that need to get checked out...have already had a detached retina in the same eye so makes me nervous....don't need any more vision problems, I already need my glasses to find my glasses.....guess I had better turn in...talk to ya tomorrow.

Judi, Oliver is a great name. Enjoy his company in the garden. He will let you know who comes to visit during the night.

Trisha, love your troll. Great work!!! Sounds like a lot of fun.

Trisha so much work you have put into the troll! He has a lot of character, especially in his ears!

Trisha, the head and face on the troll is unbelievable! I love it when people have such talent and ability. I could never do that kind of work. I think it takes a special eye for detail.

Thank you all for your nice comments. For all of you who say you could never do something like this.....that was my line just a few years ago....took a couple of art classes at the local JC and discovered I can draw, and paint and play with clay if I make up my mind I want to....I tried for years and couldn't produce anything I would want anyone to see....I don't know if it was just me, or if I just found the right instructors....but I shocked myself in these classes and have been having fun ever since...I still have a long way to go, but I am making progress...

Good news is my Doc says I am just getting older....the eye is fine I will just get floaters occasionally....these were just very different from the ones I have had in the past and made me really nervous....all back to normal today.

That is good news! I think it's so cool that you took some classes and then just 'took off' with flights of fancy in your artwork! I love that. And it's obvious you are having a really good time.

Thanks.....

This is aboot that was one of my class projects...

Ooohhh I would love to make some plant pots - what would this class be called?

Great boot!

It was a clay sculpture class that I did the boot for.....

This is my final for the Oil Painting class.....

I am not so good with people, but this is a charcoal I did from a picture of Laura when she was little......

Trisha - is the big jug your project? Were you painting on the clay items?

No.....that was just an Oil on Canvas....the picture was one from a kitchen scene in Taiwan...I do wish I was capable of doing something like that jug.....I have never been any good a t wheel work....I just stick to sculpture and handbuilding....

Trisha do you mean to tell me that is a photo of the actual painting you did? WOOOOW!!!

That painting still blows me away. The first time I saw it I though it was real too, and it was sitting somewhere I knew that couldn't be. It still hits me now and then and I know what it is, but that picture really brings it home. I can't see anything in it that seems out of place or unreal.

I just talked to mom and she's going to take a picture of the painting on the wall and post it, because even though I know it's a painting I have trouble believing it from that picture.

When I get a few minutes at home I will get a pic of it...it is hanging on my kitchen wall.....

The problem I had with several of my Art Instructors is that I can make a lot of things look very Real.....it is some of the Not so realistic, "Artsy" things I have problems with.....if I ever find my studio under the rubble I would like to do some more painting......it is a very relaxing hobby when you don't have to meet class deadlines.....

Trisha you are so very talented. I hope you keep painting!

Thanks Judi....I enjoy it....

Trisha, you are VERY talented! I love art, and am so jealous of the people who have the talent to create it. Keep learning and honing your skills....you definitely have the touch!

Wait a minute! Are you kidding me? That is a photo of an oil painting?? I thought it was a photograph of something you were supposed to try to paint as a final project and you had not actually done it yet.
Well, put a cracker in my mouth and call me stuffed! that's really amazing. Perhaps you are distantly related to Leonardo da Vinci?

It is on my kitchen wall now... it is in a little entry area and I can't get back far enough to get a good picture.....I'd like to frame it someday.....

That painting truly is astonishingly real!!! You captured the feel of that scene as well.
But I really like the charcoal of your daughter too. It has a childlike aura that matches the little girl in the picture. Not that I know anything about art, but that is how it struck me.

I just popped in to see everybody else's gnomes and fairy friends. I don't have any sculptural items matching the theme of the thread, but I have enjoyed seeing all of yours. All I have is some metal chicks and the mama hen.

Thanks, I really like the charcoal too...it still needs some work, we didn't have very long to work on that segment of the class....

I am just getting started with gnomes and fairies myself.....all I have is the few pieces I made and a couple of $$Store Gnomes.....I have a few ducks and frogs that could be friends with your chickens......

Trisha....looks to me like the classes awakened a talent you didn't know you had. Wonderful.

Everyone has something they have a passion for. Mine happens to be needlework. I started a tatting class two years ago, and my instructor started saying "You shouldn't be able to do that yet" about a month after I started. LOL This is what I'm working on right now.

Sally,
that needlework is so beautiful! Wonderful craft!

Alice

Thank you!! I really like doing it.

Trisha, it's so exciting that you have developed the talent that you didn't realize you had. Beautiful.

Sally, love the tatting. Such fine detail. I think my eyes would go buggy trying to do that. Cross-stitch is about it for me. I haven't done any that is real finely detailed though.

Hi, Alice. How's the season shaping up in Sweden?

Jan

Hi Jan,
the season is getting warmer every day now. Hurrah!

... but still a long way to go before I can start planting in the beds.
That would be appr 10th June.
Alice

Wow! So many skilled people...just beautiful products!

Wow, that is really pretty!! I have never done tatting....a little crochet, knitting, embroidery and a very small amount of cross stitch. Need something to do with my hands so always trying something.

Ha! All I do is crocheting scarfs or blanket - must be square or rectangle so as not to confuse me! Used to knit but it hurt my fingers.