Money Tree

DAY 6: Today is our grandson, Jonah's Christmas concert. We watched the entire Montessori school perform, crying toddlers and all. It obviously takes a very special person to teach these little guys day after day.....not a quality I possess!
The rest of my day was spent happily wandering the aisles of Lowe's, buying incidentals for our entryway including insulation for the floor as we have no basement but only a crawlspace. Years ago when I first got into renovations, insulation comprised of batts of spun glass held between 2 pieces of tarred paper. Back then you had to be very careful not to cut yourself on the glass particles that had resisted being spun.
After an hour or so lying flat on my back, cutting and pushing the insulation up between the floor joists, I wasn't in any mood to do more than soak in a hot inviting bath.
No sculpting done today...

Money Tree

DAY 5: Started over again using a human style armature. This time I've made it sitting & I'll show the face on the torso and have the leaves at the top where a head would normally be. Added Magic Sculpt but must be careful not to use too much....this stuff turns so hard that I'd have to live with any mistake that I make.

I think my original planter is too big now. Will have to find another one.

Our builders did a wonderful job. Instead of a plain mud room that I thought we were getting, we have a gorgeous entranceway instead.

Money Tree

DAY 4: Builders here to start work on our mud room. No sculpting done.

Updates

Update #1:
I entered into Rosanna's Christmas Swap quite a while ago. My receipient was Julia of Bear Cabin Miniatures. My gift is coming from Sonia.
Rosanna lives in Italy; Julia in Wales; Sonia is in Spain and of course I'm in Canada. Small world eh!
At any rate, the swap terms were to make something Christmas related that is neither red nor green and to wrap it in an unusual container.
Today Julia wrote to tell me that she had received my package. However she hasn't opened the package because the last swap condition was: no peeking or unwrapping until Christmas eve!
I told Julia that it would be OK to just open the package as my gift was secure within it's container and can't be seen without tearing the container apart.
When my daughter was small she used to try peeking by very carefully undoing the tape holding the wrapping paper together in case the box told of it's contents. So since that time all my gifts come unpeekable. I even told Julia, she could shake the container if she needed to guess the contents by what they sounded like. All the kids do that here....and I'm sure everywhere else too. (unless they've broken, mine won't rattle.) Aren't I terrible! tee hee hee
Rosanna, please forgive me for what I am about to do...
...but I figure that since we in N. America place our gifts...wrapped of course...beneath the tree as early as when the tree is set up, I might be allowed to show my wrapped gift.
So go ahead, guess....there are 2 items within the Christmas cracker and they don't rattle.

Update #2:
Yuki is settling in nicely. She sleeps with Luna. Gets up at 5 & cries for her saucer of milk.....which she gets when we get up to make coffee at 8!
She's already learned to stop doing whatever she's doing when Ken or I have a red squirt bottle (filled with water) in our hands.
I have learned that baby kitty nails need clipping once a week.
While Kitkat has learned to ignore her, cause she's not going away.


Update #3:
Elly in Amsterdam with all the other things that she's doing, has already finished the second of my 3 promised pet pillows. You can see it on her blog. I won't show any pictures until all three are finished and have arrived.

Update #4:
Chris Verstraete of Candid Canines featured my mouse (among others) on Day 1 of her advent calendar.

Money Tree

DAY 3: I hate it!!!!!!! It looks all wrong....like a giant chocolate kiss. The Magic Sculpt made it as hard as a rock so I know I'm OK there.

To paraphrase Scarlett O'Hara: .......again. I'll start over. And I'll think of some way to use a human shaped armature. After all... tomorrow is another day.

Twas the Night before Christmas Mouse

My mouse sold today! Guess I need to make more or at least one so I can send it off to Britain...

Money Tree

DAY 2: I'd always had in mind a sort of turnip shape for the trunk and then a face that's spitting money. And so I've spent most of the night trying to figure out how to make the armature for my tree.
I know that lots of people plan things out on paper & then work from that. But I've always been a "by gosh & by golly" person.
This is what an armature for a "human being" looks like:
Those brass tubes that you see are so that hands, feet and head can be sculpted and baked separately....eliminating the possibility of having thin parts overbaked. They get "glued" back afterwards.
Now to figure out how to translate that into a "turnip" and as I intend on fleshing out and strengthening the wire with Magic Sculpt (Magic Sculpt is a two part epoxy that hardens to a rock hard finish), I'll need to add the coin in a sort of basket to hold it in place. .....I'd hate to have to grind that in order to make a change.
This is what I came up with. That clay pot is certainly large enough to handle a turnip...