Painting Matryoshka x3

Getting a headstart on Christmas presents for 2018, and since my niece and nephews love playing with two matryoshka nesting doll sets I brought from Russia years ago, thought I would paint each of them their own set. (For interest, here's a history of the stylish matryoshka.)

Painting those little 5 1/2" dolls on the woodblocks was a lifesaver. The dolls were easy to hold, turn and I didn't get acrylic on me while painting or setting them down, and I didn't spray myself with the shellac either. Really nifty. They were glued down with glue sticks which was easily removable after painting.

WILD CATS for the oldest:

TRADITIONAL DOLLS for the niece:

SEA ANIMALS for the youngest:

So come Christmas the kids will have their own matryoshkas to play with!

Horses in Watercolor Crayons

Yesterday picked up a package of 12 Mungyo Watercolor Crayons at Hangaram, a serious art store I'm seriously addicted to going to. Had never noticed that art medium before and thought for W4,000 (roughly $4) I could try out something new and share the new experience with my nieceling and nephew, who I'd be visiting the next day. They both love crafts ... and yes, the crayons were a smashing success! And so was the other craft I took them!

So out of the 12 color set, I only used four earth tones, but they were so much fun to use, and the kids were oo-ing and aw-ing about the vivid colors and how easily they spread across the paper. As they were working on another project, which they were excited about, and we didn't have a lot of time to play with my new crayons too, I've been instructed to bring them back next time ... with a hint of bringing a bigger set of colors. Well, that's certainly doable since they were so inexpensive! 

The kids project .... painting scroll saw cats, which I made almost 2 years ago! The afternoon was an absolutely success!

My nephew is very proud of his cat, which he named Leo.

The cats -- Leo by my nephew, Happy by my sister-in-law, and Sisal by my nieceling!

We transformed the kitchen into an art center ... with my nieceling even drawing messages
on the recycled pages of a large calendar that we used to protect the table.

Such creative kids!!!!

Labeling the Garden: Garden Signs

Friends are great! A few months ago some avid gardening friends moved to their dream house near water for kayaking and with space for a large garden. Their house is small because they spend their time outdoors (oh, we so connect!), so I wanted to give them an appropriate "housewarming" gift, well, actually a "garden warming" gift. The idea was born when one of them said, "I am so jealous of my sister for getting this really awesome garden sign that says, 'I live in the garden, I just sleep in the house'", so I knew I had to give her something really unique to make her garden fun and personal and totally unique. The outcome: labels for her primary vegetables and then, since they've been dabbling in herbs the last couple of years, thought I'd make her some herb labels as well.

Making the Vegetable Labels: scrollsaw work after free-handing the lettering

free-handing the lettering for the labels (notice my "new" and very first router! Had to put that in the picture because it promises new woodworking projects in the future!)

After cutting the outlines of the words out, had to drill holes to insert the blade to cut out the inner parts of the letters (erg, what a lot of time)

Labels cut and sanded, and ready for painting

The yellow and red should show up nicely in the greed of the garden!

"hot" colors for veggies, and "cool neutrals" for the herb garden

Tiger Woodblock Carving

The 2018 woodblock carving contest approaches, but this year instead of being held in October-November, the competition is in July ... of all things. Who can carve when the spring sun revolves into a bright shiny globe for warming the earth in the summer months?! I had to force myself to get this woodblock done. The only reason I didn't throw in the towel is that the opportunity only comes once a year, and I should never live with the regrets of having missed a meaningful opportunity and an artistic challenge ... and so I carved.

After many, many hours of careful designing, I had my picture
and then just had to transfer it to the woodblock. 

The tiger and its reflection in a pool

Once I had it drawn, I carefully shaded all the areas I wanted to be in well-defined bas relief.

With the faces transferred, I am ready to begin the first cuts.

If anyone says carving is not a messy activity, trust me, they LIE!

Oh yes, a very messy activity. At one point, me, my chair and my picture were very covered!
BTW, just got this chair and wow is it saving my back!!!

Those whiskers just about drove me nuts, esp because something just doesn't seem right about them.

Something felt missing to be an authentic reflection, so added a couple of ripple-rings.
Now the idea of a reflection makes more sense.

Just need a few more hours ...

And the finished woodblock!

And then the part I dislike the most about carving ... inking the block.
It didn't come out dark enough. I'll have to buy another scroll.

The whole process took about 37 hours to carve, and untold hours to design. Quite proud of it, but still feel that something just isn't quite right about those blasted whiskers.

Bird Woodblock Carving

Made my second weekend-long visit to the Gopanhwa (Ancient Asian Woodblock Prints) Museum and Temple-stay. In the program are three hands-on activities using woodblocks: woodblock printing on a t-shirt, carving one's own woodblock, and then embossing booklet covers plus printing inner pages with one's own woodblock and other woodblocks before sewing the booklet together. The highlight experiential activity for me is the carving of the woodblock. I don't know what kind of celestial bird this represents but the design is kind of cute -- not my design, by the way, just a small woodblock at the museum that appeared more interesting than the fish and the butterfly for beginners. As for the wild edges, that was accidental. I was under time constraints so didn't put much thought into carving the edges well and am actually impressed with the wild electrical force emanating from the bird. 

4 3/4" x 6 1/4" woodblock

Scrollsaw Christmas Tree Ornaments

Garage Workshop 

Patterns and paint

These patterns were randomly collected over several months, a medley of revised scroll saw patterns (the reindeer, angels, a couple of the birds, and maybe the snowmen), cardboard cut-outs (the ballerinas), or just paper images (the nutcracker kings). When I see something I like, I pop it into a picture file and later modify the images to make patterns out of the random collection. Painted with acrylics on scrapwood pine, and some cedar (the birds).