Sawdust Bear Makes Things

Look at my desk! It’s full of monsters!

They’re all in different stages of completion – the two larger green ones are pretty much done, the big pink one is baked and unpainted and the one on the turntable is still squishy and unbaked. There are two small unpainted specimens in the back too. You can also see pretty much the only three tools I use, a mechanical pencil, an x-acto knife and this thing with a small spatula thing on one end and a ball-tip on the other. There’s another one sitting there too, but I haven’t touched it. The white box is what I take all of my pictures in. Eventually, I’ll get or make a lightbox.

I’m using taxidermy eyes for the first time and I think they look REALLY cool. They’re sorta muddied in the picture because I have clayey hands, but I think they’ll look awesome when I’m done.

I feel pretty productive. I’ve already tinkered with the monster sculpt that’s sitting on the turntable, done most of my taxes and I think I’m going to go and make Jason breakfast in bed now. Not bad for 10:39am on Sunday, considering that I usually don’t even get out of bed before noon on a weekend.

I’ve been playing with organic shapes lately. I’ll be moving on to weird things in petri dishes once I figure out the best thing for fake agar. Meanwhile, there’s gonna be weird things in test tubes…once I get stoppers. No, I’m not sure why I can’t just order all my supplies at the same time. Also, I bought a whole bunch of 3x3x2 boxes instead of 3x3x3 boxes in my last supply order, which is annoying. Fortunately, it seems like the majority of my specimens actually fit just fine in the smaller boxes. But you don’t want to hear about my shipping woes.

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There’s a PostWarTrade webcast art challenge going on right now to create punk rock cabaret wedding toppers. Now, punk rock cabaret is totally my thing, but not really what I tend to sculpt. But I made some folky, creepy wedding toppers of Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman(they’re getting married! yay!) for it yesterday night!

They’re Other-Amanda and Other-Neil, complete with black button eyes. I actually burnt some of the clay and had to paint them white again, but it gives it a folk-arty look which is totally okay.

Also, if there is any sculptor out there who has successfully sculpted Neil Gaiman’s hair, please contact me. I’d really like to talk.

More pictures under the cut!

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Who figured out little jointed heads? I did! Yeah, it’s not that hard, but I got it right on the first try, and I’ve made three more that just don’t fit together right. I usually get things right on the first try. I just wish I could replicate that success more regularly.

He’s a Dorbal. It’s a really cute species of fictional animal.

I sculpted a simpler featureless head for this guy too – if it works well after I bake it, I may cast this in resin as a tiny DIY resin toy. My last intended resin cast was just not as awesome as I had hoped after I looked at it for two weeks, so I junked it. BAH.

I took a small break from Specimen 7 to deal with holiday fairs and corresponding excitement, but it’ll be back next week with an awesome update schedule that I will actually stick to! Yay, updates!

In the meantime, here’s another piece from my Adorable Monster project(cute D&D figures!), which was a Christmas gift for my friend Sean. It’s a Rust Monster. The figure itself is about 1″ tall(it fits on a 1″ miniature base), and I know there’s just not that much detail in it, but damn, detail is haaaaaaard when something is so tiny.

I think he’s pretty cute, though.

More pictures under “more”!

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This weekend, I dressed up like an elf, met a wet pony with reindeer antlers, wrapped a lot of christmas presents and cleaned my living room.

I also listed a couple new specimens on Etsy, like this little guy.

Hello, Foofey. His name is Foofey. He is listed for sale here.

Another picture of a different specimen, and of me dressed like an elf under the cut!
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I’m a decidedly mediocre photographer and it takes me forever to take pictures of these specimens. This is my excuse for not having any new pictures up lately – but I thought maybe a couple of “in progress” shots might be rad.

This is the current collection of specimens in various states of finished. Many are unpainted, and the green lump up front isn’t even baked. As a bonus, Gus crashed the picture.

Here are some unbaked specimens. I’m a bit annoyed at the current batch of Sculpey that I got because it’s so inconsistently mushy.

I swear, just a couple more dissection/autopsy things and I’ll get back to making specimens that are still in one piece. This is an abandoned dissection. I’ve already sold it on Etsy, but I still have a couple similar ones up.

What’s next – well, I’m making a ton of specimens for a holiday craft thing at work…I’m hoping to have a total pretty close to 100…and they won’t all sell, so I’ll have a ton up on Etsy in late December. Way too late for Christmas gifts, but…

I’m also working on some classier home decor type items – things that don’t involve intestines or bug eyed monsters. A really fun year is coming up!

I picked up a pile of wooden plaques when I made my Monsters on Bikes pieces and now I’m making more hang-able art!

The Unfinished Autopsy of Rocky and Jeem, on Etsy right now.

“Blast! I have spent all day fiddling with these miniature organs, but they resemble nothing I have seen before! There is something that appears to be a small intestine, but I am fairly sure it is not used for digestion. Fortunately, I have many more of these specimens to observe – even if my dear Edna insists on naming them all. I hope she won’t be too disappointed when she finds these two missing. I believe she had named one Rocky, and the other Jeem.” – From the notes of Dr. Charles Ellis.

I’ve been into the creepy things lately.

Working on a series of woodland-ey wall plaques!

I love mushrooms. What sort of bugs live in woods, anyway?