Snakes and Tomatos

I've been playing with clay all week this week. Lots of fun things to share!

Monday was mass producing tomato and "Not Tomato" teapots.

Tuesday marked the beginning of a new sculpting and painting challenge. 1:12 scale ball pythons! They've taken up the rest of my week for the most part. I've been studying up on the different color morphs being bred into/from captive balls and they're quite numerous and even pretty. Thanks to some advice and education from a friend a fellow streamer, I've found myself down an extensive rabbit hole of information.

On Thursday it became apparent to me that I'd lost my mind. These are 1:12 scale ball python hatchlings! Their eyes are 0.5 mm glass beads. Happily I used beads that were already colored. No painting required!

I briefly detoured from snakes long enough to gather up prizes for a giveaway I held on stream Saturday.  I don't normally stream on Saturdays but this was special to celebrate over 200 followers on my Twitch.tv channel. It was so much fun! Instead of only one giveaway chance, I decided to surprise my viewers with a second chance at a prize. Both the plush elephant and the "Not Tomato" teapot will be off to their new homes next week!

On Saturday's stream I started painting the pythons. First up was a gravid (full of eggs) female piebald morph. I say she's gravid 'cause I made her a bit tubby. It works. Photo reference here.

Next up was a smaller male Super Pastel Lesser. (Snake genetics is weird but fascinating!) I'm not super pleased with how his markings turned out, but given this was only my second attempt at painting these types of markings, it's not bad. No, you're not imagining things. Yes, the snake IS pink! If you'd like to see the photo I used for reference, click here.

That's all for now. It's almost 2 am and I'm still winding down from all the excitement.See you all next weekend. I'll probably have a few more pythons painted. Maybe I'll get to a few other things too. Until next time!

Technical Difficulties

We've been having issues all week with the internet. It was assumed the reason I couldn't stay connected to Twitch for live streaming was due to the big E3 conference last week. Mnay other streamer friends were having similar issues. However, E3's apparent bandwidth requirements weren't the only culprit. The modem is dying.

As I type this, I don't know if I'll be able to hit "Publish" and actually get a positive result. I'm keeping this short and sweet for that reason.

Since I couldn't stream, I sat with my foot up and sewed tiny plush elephants. They'd been cut out years ago and some of them were mostly (and poorly) done. I say poorly as I was under tremendous stress when I first started these pint-sized pachyderms and it shows in my stitching.

The three on the left are the originals. The four on the right in various states of assembled are the ones I started playing with on Tuesday. They all have eyes, ears, and tusks now but for the sake of expediency, I'm not taking a newer photo.

I did make two pairs of fat quarter bundle earrings on Monday before the stream crashed 6 times. However I don't have a picture of them. They will have to wait until next week.

I'm cutting posting this close enough as it is. FH and I will be replacing the modem after the sun comes up and hopefully we won't have more connection issues. I really missed streaming this past week. It just wasn't the same.

So see you all next week! Until then, take care!

Lazy Week

I wasn't feeling very well this past week, so I worked on some things for The Patchwork Peach quilt shop.

I started off making a few bolts of fabric and fat quarter bundles on stream.

Off camera, I cut more fat quarters. Lots more. Apparently I hadn't cut all the fat quarters from the last time I made bolts. There are still more to cut. *sigh*

The rest of the week on stream was dedicated to working on fat quarter bundles.

On Friday I took a tally of bolts. There are 634 in the bin in this picture!

I also cut more bolts and fat quarters from the new fabrics I bought on my last shopping trip.

With the addition of these mini bolts, there are now 664 miniature bolts of fabric for my quilt shop.

There are still more fat quarters to cut and LOTS more bundles to make. Depending on how I'm feeling this coming week, I may keep working on them. I could also make more fat quarter bundle earrings.

In other news, the weird pain in my right foot that I've been dealing with for weeks is apparently a stress fracture. I'm in a walking air cast thing for the next 4 weeks and then get to go back to the orthopedic doctor. I swear if it's not one thing, it's another. At least the air cast is easier to deal with than a real cast.

I need to clear all the fabric fun off the table now. We're having friends over this evening. See you all next week!

Fuzzy Bunnies

Between the holiday on Monday and Thursday being mini club day, I didn't get much done in the way of streaming or projects. But the three bunny sculpts are no longer "nekkid." This is what they looked like before I added the flocking. The paint was there as a placement guide, not necessarily a color guide.

The grey and white bunny went first. He had the least complex coat. His flocking was cut from DMC 5200, 414, and 415. Some of the colors were blended as I cut.

The seal point bun was next. His flocking was DMC: 5200, 437, and 938. Again, I blended colors as I cut the flocking.

And finally, the mini version of Jackson, my friend's bunny. His flocking colors were cut from DMC: 5200, 433, 434, 801, and 938. All of his brown tones are blends.

Jackson was the hardest to do because he's a mini copy. The other bunnies' coats let me use my imagination. Mini Jackson is now residing with my friend. She loves him, which is what I was hoping for. She didn't know I was sculpting him.

I also made her some mini fat quarter bundles using bits of fabric from quilts she's actually made.

On Friday I managed to squeeze in baking a cake. I"ve made this one before. It's flavored with orange juice and zest throughout. Very delicate flavors and nice on a warm day.

But the rest of my week was spent cleaning. And cleaning is boring, so I shall spare you the details. For now, laundry beckons and I need to figure out what projects to stream this week. See you next Sunday!