The More Stoned I Become The Boulder I Get

I can see the rocks! After all this time, I finally see the rocks!

I should back up and explain that huh. It does sound a little bit odd.

The theory that art is created by removing the space around a shape is something I know. I work with that theory quite a lot actually. But when it came to paperclay I'd always had a hard time finding the shape. All this time I've been carving lines into the clay to create a shape instead of removing the space. The fireplace is one I did a long time ago and it came out so-so but when I compare it to what I've done this week, I can see a huge difference.

It clicked with me a couple of days ago and I finally saw the rock shapes in the clay! Wooooohoooooooooo! It's not exactly a life altering experience, but it's certainly an art altering experience! I've been working with paperclay for the past three days and it's a delight every time I pick it up and start removing the space to expose the rocks hidden in the clay. The results are very pleasing too.

The most surprising thing is what brought about this little mini-miracle. It was a blunt pencil of all things. I was digging for my usual carving tool when I thought that it might be a good idea to try something else. I dug thru all the wood carving tools and didn't find what I wanted. It finally occured to me that the point I wanted was something like an old carbon stencil stylus and I don't have one of those anymore. When my hand fell on a blunt pencil, I decided "oh what the hell" and gave it a try. Not only did it work, but something about the way it worked brought the stones to life. Who'da thought that all it took was an old pencil?

I'm having a bit of a hard time seeing the monitor screen tonight after a few days of working in 1:48 scale. I do love the tiny houses tho! They're just so darn cute! I have five of them on the work table right now in various stages of completion and anticipate having all of them done by the end of the week if I don't go blind first. I think the eye strain today is due to making teeeeeeeeeny tiny little rose vines. Think about it for a minute.........roses in 1:48 scale. Oh, I'm not making individual petals or anything! I may be crazy but I'm not nuts! But even the vining roses require a couple pairs of tweezers and a magnifying glass.

1:48 is probably the smallest scale I'll ever work with (famous last words but for now I really mean it) I look at 1:144 and get a headache just thinking about what it would be like to work in that small scale. A 1:144 artist once told me that she sneezed and lost half a house. I don't need that kind of stress.

That epiphany I had this weekend? It's going well. I had about two hours of fighting with something that didn't agree with my creative input, but once we gained an understanding of which one of us has access to a jigsaw, things progressed smoothly. Sometimes you just have to show them who's the boss.