Sawdust Bear Makes Things

I’m getting gently nagged to put things up in my store for sale, which I admittedly haven’t done in a while, since I’ve been hoarding things for future cons.

BUT, I realize I might be turning into a crazy monster hoarding lady(only one cat, thank you very much) and it’s good to have goals and deadlines anyway, so I’ll be putting a tiny series of stuff up for sale…in 10 days. February 15th. Day after Valentines Day, so you can plan to put some of that leftover chocolate cash aside.

Here’s a preview(they’re mostly done). They’ll be a series of handsculpted and handpainted(my hands, in case there was any doubt) rockbeast specimens with awesome little real semiprecious stones embedded in them. They’ll all be under $100 too, including some cute tiny things for $20 or so.

Yay, self imposed deadlines(like I don’t have enough of them already)!

This pinned squid is week 3′s finished sculpture. Honestly, it’s very easy to finish a sculpture a week, but I like having a couple of achievable goals.

I’ve reached the point where I have one very comfortable corner of my studio, and a pile of shelves and other assorted messes scattered in the other three corners. Cleaning is now a really high priority, but I’m glad to have at least one corner of awesome workspace. Jason bought an intercom system so we can communicate about things like dinner and that cat. Mostly, it’s just been him saying hi, and me responding with monster gurgles.

I also finished this little pinned bee.

Most of the work I’ve been cranking out lately has been writing – but more on that soon.

Week two in my studio, and I’ve got to admit that I mostly only worked in it on Saturday and Sunday. I sent in my pieces for a couple shows, and the relief of not having any deadlines for a couple days turned me into a useless grumpy piece of mush. I did sweep the studio floor, though. It was pretty disgusting.

Fortunately, I have an early February deadline, so my ass is being re-kicked into gear.
That work is mostly Sawdust Press related, but doinking about in InDesign isn’t all that interesting(it’s not THAT interesting to me, either).

This week, my finished sculpture is a pinned monster.

I also tried my hand at some stop motion animation! I’ve decided that it’s a lot of fun, if hard, and I really hate plasticine. That stuff makes my hands feel icky. That ickyness is really inspiring me to build some puppets. Anyway, watch this – you get to hear me talk and make monster sounds!

Doughnut from sawdustbear on Vimeo.

I hope you like it! I think it’s cute and it’s pretty fun to see clay move.

Here are some pieces in progress. I cut up a pile of wooden blocks to play with – I meant to route all the edges, but lost motivation to do so.

I also greatly pared down the Marlowe website, mainly because I accidentally deleted its database(don’t ask).

Inspired by Johnny Lopez’s/clayalchemist‘s 365 sculpt project, I’ve decided to to try and finish a sculpt weekly, because maaaan, while I do sculpt pretty much everyday already, the idea of *finishing* something daily makes me twitchy.

I also would like to update my blog more often – in this case with whatever is happening in my studio, finished or not. So, here’s week one, and hopefully I’ll make it through another 52 weeks!

Here are the sketches on my wall right now. You can see several versions of Anemone Jones, as well as a couple other things I’d like to work on in the future.

The rock tentacle beast thing on the top right is in progress and going to be pretty big! Right now, it looks like a giant pile of foil and clay, but hopefully there’ll be enough there for a decent progress picture soon.

I finished a couple things this week for an art show that I was invited to do about a week ago. It opens this Thursday, so yeah, it was a bit of a last minute thing(they were waiting to hear back about the space). It’s called Creatures of the Black Lagoon, and is about creatures that were, and still may be in the La Brea Tar Pits. Obviously, I went with a more monsterey interpretation, as usual.

Tarbeast Specimen #1

Tarbeast Specimen #2 (with Sabertooth)

These two are in progress, but they’re the third and final piece for the show. Tarbeast Specimen #3 and #4 (the Bone Collectors)

See you next week!

I’d say that one of my year’s resolutions is to keep my studio organized, but that would be a lie.

Actually, most of my resolutions are a lie. They change around every time I list them. I’m not very good at resolutions. I’ll probably make a lot of art, because I usually do anyway. Hopefully I’ll make better art, not just more of it.

I am finally moving my studio space into a room of my own, and I’ve seriously gotten so much more productive having a space that is not also populated by my cat. The cat-hair-in-clay issues remain unresolved since I still track it everywhere.

Here’s a picture of my current work area. There’s an annotated version with notes on Flickr, in case you’re wondering where I obtained a table that garishly green (my dad made it in woodworking class. I love it.).

Here are some progress pictures of things I’m working on right now.

Little Bear Girl. Those cones next to her are legs, or will be eventually. I thought it’d be nice to sculpt something that wasn’t a monster for once. A bit inspired by Doubleparlour, who’ve been my awesome con neighbours twice now, even if they make fun of my dancing. Okay, “dancing.”

The first coat of colour for Tarbeast Specimen #1. This is for a show in about 2 weeks with the Zzyzx Gallery of Natural Science (at the Hive Gallery, LA).

Anemone Jones and Abalone Smith. For an exhibit in conjunction with the Center for Otherworld Science in March. Until people think I’m awesome enough to give me shows, I’m going to go ahead and hold them in the fictional museum I’ve been developing for years. I’m sort of obsessed with abalone now. The Monterey Bay Aquarium was gorgeous, as always, and being in love with gorgeous anemones is easy to fathom, but I seriously spent 15 minutes hanging out with an abalone. They’re interesting creatures, really.

And that’s all for now! I’ll try to update this blog more, but I’ve been mostly using Instagram and Tumblr. Follow me there if you like lots of progress pictures – otherwise, I’ll try to distill the most relevant parts into this blog!

“but i loved you so much”

another depressing monster diorama.

“The portals in Lumpville opened after fires, but they were usually benign. Upon further research, we could open them ourselves with a 45% success rate.” -from the journal of Edna Lee Ellis, widow of discredited otherworld scientist Charles Ellis. It is generally believed that she was instrumental in assisting Dr. Ellis to perpetuate many of his infamous hoaxes.

I made this for this fantastic little girl Stella to replace this other one she wanted but that I accidentally sold (it’s a tragic story). She’s super smart, and talented, and a total ham, and she’s probably going to be famous someday. This one’s named after her – it’s Stella the Star-topus.

And then when she’s famous, I’m going to be all like “Hey, Stella, remember me?” and she’ll think I’m old and weird, but I’ll remind her that we collaborated on this AWESOME drawing when she was eight at a crab boil place.

In blue crayon, Stella. In red, me. In green, the fabulous Space Pirate Queen of DefectiveGeeks. We covered the drawing in crab and shrimp and clams pretty immediately after.

Another unhappy specimen under glass. Why? Probably because they’re under glass.

I’m working on a bunch of longer haul projects that will hopefully finally mesh playing with wood and steel in with more clay sculpting things. I’ve felt like those two crafts have been running in parallel but not really overlapping.

But I needed a break from grand plans, so I made this little guy. He’ll probably be my contribution to a White Elephant gift exchange thing I’m obligated to do.

OH, ONE MORE THING. Everything in my store is 20% off until December 8th, which means that the Marlowe book is only $12. It’s an awesome holiday gift for your friends that like…neurotic monsters.

I’m trying out an alternative to Etsy, Storenvy.

For now, I’ve uploaded my DesignerCon leftovers to my new store!

Like this little purple guy.