Only one of these items was an impulse buy, and neither is quite as destructive as Mouse:

He has a drinking problem.

I hope to be melting army men & generally making a mess of things in the near-term. Although, I’ve already told Journeyman Protector he can babysit the heat gun for me. It’s not as I have stacks of ABS lying around anyway.

I’ll be molding clay onto the styrofoam head in the coming days to sculpt a clone trooper helmet. I’ll use that to make a mold. Maybe the guys in the 501st could use some extra helmets.

It’s obviously not a one-night project. I haven’t even gotten all the materials together. I heard that Artstuf is the place for what I’m looking for, it’s just too bad the site search isn’t very refined.

Once & some time ago, while dreaming up other things, an image came to mind of very little folk living in a damp and ancient wood. I wondered about the sort of ways these tiny forest masters might make their homes, and how they would spend their time.

I did a few quick (and now lost) sketches, imagining these little gnomish fellows at a variety of tasks:

• Mending a mouse’s broken tail,
• Placing a baby finch in a grass-weave basket and carrying him back up to the nest from which it fell,
• Collecting wild berries and leaves,
• Helping possums to set up traps (presumably to ward off wild cats).

But there was one activity that seems to me both idyllic and daft. I thought, “Perhaps they may like a fireplace to gather around.” Yet, in the stead of perhaps more conventional building materials such as stones, I sketched them using something more unexpected: wood, by way of a felled tree’s stump.

I wanted to explore the concept, so I started with someone’s very nice drawing of a tree stump I found online:

Then, I added lines on top to visualize what it might look like:

I also made a small excercise of the idea in clay:

Click for full-size.

Click for full-size.

Now you’re probably thinking it unwise; or that it may be a short-lived actvitity to place a flame inside of a tree’s stump. I can only think they would not do so if it didn’t work quite well, so spare your naysaying should you happen upon such a chimney.

I really wanted to get some clay under my fingernails, and here is the result: a little ducky.

Here’s the concept art, a sketch of an existing design.

(more…)

Wombat's Nimbus, my Sorting Hat. Click for closeup.

I’ve got another animation, click below to view.

(more…)

A little something I made a few years back. I have a nice Sorting Hat to show you also, except (like ol’ Jack here) he’s unpainted as well.

Doesn't he look happy to see you?

You probably want either a close-up or one that sits still; I have both for you. Click below.

(more…)