My Stamping Obsession: October 2013

Some of you may know Guy Gondron, A fantastic Artist and friend who beat Stage IV tonsil cancer last year.

This year has brought a new challenge and in his words describes his condition: “On Sept. 11, after months of minor and major symptoms, I was diagnosed with Autoimmune Dermatomyositis, a muscle disorder related to my cancer. The symptoms include muscle wasting, muscle and joint pain, and, if untreated, will lead to life in a wheelchair or bed. On Sept. 17, just a week later, I was laid off, despite having started the application process for the Family Medical Leave Act. On Sept. 19th, I found out that Arizona has zero Medicaid coverage for adults without dependents.”

I was devastated to hear this and I am hoping you can help. Without financial support to get the health care he needs (and since his employer basically fired him for being sick), and to meet his basic needs, Guy will become permanently disabled, possibly to the extent of not painting again.

This wonderful artistic genius, who has blessed us all with his digital stamps, over and over again, could really use our help. I cannot help Guy on my own, but we can all do it together.

Because he’s THAT Guy, he’s not even asking you to donate your money without giving you something in return. If you go HERE, for $5, you can have Halle’s coloring book, filled with wonderful “Stinky” images, so you can make really cute cards like this one:

Hello and Happy Hallows Eve!

I had so much fun making this, I can't believe how easy it is to mold this clay

and how fast it dried.

I was able to paint my clay the next day.

I did this process in stages to let the clay dry.

I started by making my little black kitty. I rolled two balls, one smaller than the other. (head and body) I added some ears and I used skewers to hold my head and body together. I also used skewers for the legs and added some feet so it could sit upright. After they dried I glued the skewers into place.

I experimented with different coloring mediums, here I used a black copic marker,
however, I did find my clay to be porous and retouched with black acrylic paint.
At this stage I stopped to make additional pieces.

Next I started with my pumpkin man and instead of using solid balls I used tin foil rolled up in a ball and covered my tinfoil with clay. This method saved me some clay. Again I used skewers to attach the head to the body. When I was forming his head I used smaller balls of clay to attach to his face to form cheek bones, nose,chin and brow. I used wet fingers to make it look like all one piece and smoothed edges. I put this aside to dry

Next I created two eyeballs for my black kitty and one for my door.

After I painted them I assembled my kitty and glued her together.

I couldn't quite get the mouth right with paints so I drew one out and cut and pasted it on my kitty.

Here I made a little bat and let him dry before painting.

Next it was time to assemble my pumpkin man and add details with paint. I did start this process of paint with a coat of white Gesso. I also added floral wire for arms and hands as well as the curly q's on top of his head. I made his stem a bit bigger to emphasize that he is a pumpkin. I did not go with traditional colors as I wanted him to be odd. So I went with grey, orange and white. I watered down my acrylic paints to be more translucent.

Setting this aside to dry I went on to make his leaves for the top of his head with

stamped images into the clay. I trimmed around the images and let them dry.

Here I started on the sunflower. I flattened out a piece of clay onto an acrylic block. I took my hook tool and dragged into the clay the shape of the flower and picked at the middle to make texture. Then I cut out the edges with a spatula and let it dry.

Next I decided to make some molding paste out of the paper clay.

I spritzed water into the clay to make a muddy paste blending it with a spatula .

So I used a stencil from Crafters Workshop and applied my Paper Clay paste.

It worked like a charm! I dried it with my heat tool and I was ready to paint. I decided to try out some Distress Inks (aged mahogany and black soot). I placed some ink on my Teflon Craft sheet and spritzed some water on it and painted with a water brush.

I set that aside to dry and started to paint my sunflower with acrylic artist paints.

I also added water to my yellow paint to give it a transparent look.

I set that aside to dry and started working on my "witch who hit the pole".
I rolled a ball for her head and knowing I was going to cover up her body I roughly shaped her so she could wrap around a pole. Again I used a skewer to attach her head to her body and used them for legs. I molded out a hat and set them aside to dry.