New Baby Rat Sculpture

I had intended for this to be part of yesterday's blog post but I still needed to put a few finishing touches on this new sculpture. Actually it's more like 3 sculptures in one setting. If you've seen my baby rat sculptures before you'll know that I like to take a realistic life-sized sculpted baby rat and put it in a cradle made from a household object like a tea cup or an altoids tin.

The latest one is an idea I've had floating around for a while, to nestle several inside a hollowed out book. Part of the problem for me is that I love books and the idea of destroying one is difficult for me, so I hit the local thrift store to find a book that I could feel okay with rendering unreadable. I found the perfect thing: Readers Digest condensed books. I have a strong aversion to abridging literature so these were perfect, they are plentiful, cheap, fairly thick, and hardcover. It's available in my Etsy shop.

Baby Rat Book Nest

Holiday Preparations

I'm ramping up production for the holidays and I'm asking for input. Every year I add to the roster of animal ornaments than I make, like the platypus and ceolocanth. Last year I added a beaver thanks to my brother mistaking on of the platypuses for a beaver.

This year I'm letting my fans pick. Go over to facebook and vote on which animal you want to see me make this year. If you don't like the options you can add your own. I'll use the animal with the most votes by Sept. 26 (in the event of a tie, I'll be the deciding vote).

New Perma-Pets

In the past couple weeks I've completed 4 new Perma-Pet sculptures. Go check them out on Etsy.

Animal Ornaments

Put together a little video on my animal ornaments. Hope your enjoy it.

Xmas Beaver Ornaments

I actually started making these and listed them in my Etsy shop last week but neglected to write a post. Every year I try to come up with a different animal Christmas ornament to add to the seasonal section. I now have platypuses, ceolocanths, frogs (discontinued as a regular item but available by request), and this year's addition: the Xmas Beaver!

Yes, I'm having a very juvenile glee at showing people my beaver. I apparently have an inner 12-year-old boy despite never having been one.

So why a beaver? Rude jokes aside it actually is because of a misunderstanding by my brother. He had seen one of my platypuses briefly looking at my website and he asked me if I still had beaver ornaments. I said no, I have platypuses, but the idea stuck in my head the rest of the day and finally I just decided that I'd have to make them. Seeing that beavers and platypuses have very similar shapes since they both live in freshwater environments it wasn't hard to figure out how to sculpt one. The heads are a bit different and the legs of beavers don't have webbed flipper-like feet but the bodies are pretty much the same and the tails are the same shape though they have different textures.

Behold the Xmas Platypus

This idea has been floating around in my head for actually a couple years now and I just never found the time to do it. I was thinking this week that I should start getting ready for holiday sales and what better way to start? I don't take Christmas or other holidays seriously so I like strange and silly stuff. He's sculpted in polymer clay and painted in acrylics with holly leaves and berries on his tush.

This is up for sale, you can find it in my Etsy shop.

Happy Cephalopod Appreciation Day

Today is the 2nd Annual International Cephalopod Awareness Day!

You all know how much I love cephalopods so I'm celebrating. So where has my obsession gone since last year? Well I'm still making Perma-Pets and now I have the Cuttlefish Jewelry to add to the mix as well as Ammonite Jewelry celebrating fossil cephalopods.

So since people ask on occasion why I like cuttlefish so much (everyone knows squid and octopus) here's a list of the cool things about cuttlefish:

• Cuttlebones for buoyancy
• Many species have amazing skin changing abilities
• Some cuttlefish even hypnotize their prey with a flashing skin pattern
• Green-blue blood
• W-shaped pupils
• Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish's muscles contain a powerful toxin

More on Cuttlefish from Wikipedia

You can find my cephalopod art and jewelry both on my eCrater StoreEtsy Shop.

Finally made up my mind.

It took a while but I did finally make up my mind about what to sculpt for the center of that lavender necklace: a seahorse. I managed to match the colors quite closely with premo (didn't paint this one other than the eye and clear coating it) and added some pearl ex powders in micro pearl, misty lavender, and interference violet.

I also made a small pair of matching earring with two more of the briolette beads. It's up for sale on Etsy.

Big Eye Dummies

Well I had been planning to write today about preparing for the Norway Sidewalk Art Show but I got a surprise in the mail today.

A while ago I came across this Squidoo lens on these really cool designer plush animals called Big Eye Dummies. I thought they were really cute and I left a comment saying so. The concept is great, they are cute, comical, plush animals with interchangeable magnetic eyes and mouths.

Today when I checked my mail there was this package for me. I wasn't sure what it could be, I haven't ordered anything recently. I open up the box and there's Hanna Hopper and a very nice letter from the designer thanking me for my kind words.

Also this cute robot drawing.
Big Eyed Dummies Official Site
Big Eyes Dummies Blog

YouTube Video about the Dummies

Tentacle Bug WIP

Finished sculpting this little tentacled bug Monday night. It's sculpted from super sculpey and is about 2.5 inches long. Turned out kind of cute actually. He still needs to be painted and I want to make little terrarium of his "natural environment" as a display.

Fun with Perma-Pets

I had a little fun with my Perma-Pets this weekend. I created a Squidoo lens about them in the style of old fashioned advertisements.

Perma-Pet Sculptures by Noadi's Art

Pondering

I've spent a good chunk of the past few days editing cuttlefish jewelry pictures which is quite repetitive and I've gotten to the point where editing photos is pretty automatic for me. This gives me plenty of time to think and come up with new ideas. I don't know how many of these I'll actually make but they're all pretty fun (my mind starts getting silly after a few hours of any repetitive task).

1: Jellyfish necklace. I picture a transluscent bell with beaded tentacles coming out and wrapping around the neck.

2: Salamander sculpture. I'm craving sprign and one annual sign of spring here is when the spotted salamanders start emerging an migrating to water to lay their eggs.

3: Steampunk cephalopods. I'd need to get some gears and other mechanical bits and sculpt a squid or octopus with a panel that opens up to reveal clockwork inside.

4: Dance figure studies. I've found some great reference photos of dancers and contortionists that I'd like to incorporate into some sculptures. I've had the idea of a fire dancer for a while so maybe consinue the theme with different elements.

I think I'm done with creating cuttlefish jewelry for a while. I love making them but I've got a pretty good inventory of them right now so I need to move on to other projects. Here's the most recent additions.

All my Cuttlefish Jewelry.

Lots of Itty Bitty Cuttlefish

I don't know why but I haven't had the patience to work on any big sculpts lately. I blame my brother, he's home on leave from the Air Force for a month so it's been a lot busier here than usual. I love having him home, I've missed him a lot but my ability to concentrate has gone on vacation.

So I've been working instead of lots of little projects, mostly jewelry. The past couple days I've been making these adorable little cuttlefish earrings. I like them so much that today I'm making a pair for myself to wear that will look like the green ones. Of course they are up for sale here: Cephalopod Earrings

I think these guys are probably too cute for anyone to call baby Cthulhu like my Perma-Pets have been.

Trilobites and Turtles

I was playing around with some ideas this weekend and came up with these. First of couple cute little turtle pins. I'm not 100% satisfied with these but I really like the little gold glints I added to them with some Pearl Ex sparkle gold powder.

Then the ones I really love, two trilobite necklaces. I'm definitely going to make some more of these. They are black premo with some silver Pearl Ex powder brushed on the high points.

These are up for sale at my webstore.

Sculpting Resources - Part I

I'm always searching for new reference material online so I decided to share new finds with you periodically.

My first installment is goodies from the Internet Archive.

• Constructive anatomy - Bridgman, George Brant, 1864-1943.
• The Human Machine The Anatomical Structure & Mechanism Of The Human Body - Bridgman, George B., 1939.
• The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization (Volume 1) - Cuvier, Georges, baron, 1769-1832
• The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization (Volume 2) - Cuvier, Georges, baron, 1769-1832
• The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization (Volume 3) - Cuvier, Georges, baron, 1769-1832
• The horse in motion as shown by instantaneous photography, with a study on animal mechanics founded on anatomy and the revelations of the camera, in which is demonstrated the theory of quadrupedal locomotion - Stillman, J. D. B. (Jacob Davis Babcock), 1819-1888

For all my finds, check out my Squidoo Lenses:

• Sculpting Tips and Techniques - Links to sculpting specific sites
• Resources for Figure Artists - Human anatomy, proportions, and reference photos.
• Resources for Animal Artists - Animal anatomy, proportions, and reference photos.

Dollar Store Find

So I was with my best friend Thursday night and on the way to her house we stopped at the dollar store. She's cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time for her crazy in-laws and the dollar store had a bunch of cooking stuff in for the holidays, she needed some pie plates and a turkey baster.

I wasn't planning to get anything until we got up by the checkout and saw these. For $1 for 4 ornaments I had to grab a package. I figure that even if my decorating fails I'm only out 25¢, some time, a bit of clay and paint. I'm thinking that the first one I do will be based on how much these look like clear bubbles. On the outside I'm going to sculpt a frog and inside suspended on some clear mono-filament will be a few little tadpoles.

Kitty Approved

Usually my cat Duchess isn't the most cooperative feline, but I managed to get her to stay still long enough to take a photo of her with one of my cuddlefish perma-pets. I think it's cute.

Random News

Been a busy couple weeks so I thought I'd catch you up on all the happenings.

New Artwork

So first up I've completed some new stuff. Biggest is completing a commissioned sculpture, it's a mermaid bust based on the lionfish holding a blue-ringed octopus (both are highly venomous). You can check it out here: Lionfish Mermaid

Also a new series of pendants based on my favorite sea creatures, octopus and squid. Click here for my Cephalopod Pendants.

Buying My Artwork

Since it's coming up on the holiday season I've launched a new section of my website that I've been thinking about for a while. You can now directly order some of my smaller pieces such as my gargoyle pendants and ornaments, cthulhu's gems, and cephalopod pendants. Soon I plan to add Perma-Pets as well. Please check it out: Little Gifts by Noadi.

Gawker Artists

Recently I was accepted for inclusion in Gawker Artists. Gawker Media uses their spare adspace on blogs like Gizmodo and Lifehacker to display a rotating gallery of artists and other website can also choose to display Gawker Artists as well. Now I'm all for promoting both myself and other artists so as you can see to the left I'm now displaying Gawker Artists here.

Turtle Video

So I took my little turtle sculpt outside today and shot this quick little video of it. If people like these I'll do some with my other work too.

Selkie Emerging Concept

This is a concept I came up with in the last couple days. So far it's still in the planning stage, I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the armature right now. Please pardon the wierdness of the sketch, I'm a 3d person, perspective and stuff like that I just don't get.

So here's the basic idea. Selkies in celtic folklore are women (if there are male selkies they just don't appear in folktales) who live below the sea and take the form of seals. They can take excursions on land where they remove their seal skin, if a man wants to marry a selkie he must hide her seal skin because otherwise she'll leave to return to the sea. Some tales tell of selkies living on land for many years and having children with their human husbands only to find their hidden seal skin and disappear leaving her children forever.

This sculpture will be of a young selkie rising from the sea, pulling away her seal skin.