I love a challenge!

I really love a challenge! My sister asked for a "Gourdgeous Girlfriend" done like a monkey for a friend of hers. I said "sure, I can do that". Well, I did it and I love him! She liked him, too. A few months ago my daughter in law was looking at the gourds I was playing with and she thought one looked like "Mr. Peanut" and asked if I could do that. "Sure, I can do that". Well, I finished him today and I really think it looks like Mr. Peanut! The body is the small gourd she picked out and then it is covered with polymer clay. The arms, legs, hat, are all polymer clay. I painted him the yellow color and painted on his eye, nose and mouth and the Mr. Peanut on his hat. I couldn't seem to get the monocle chain-thing right and the clay kept breaking and ended up using a piece of very small cording. Worked like a charm. Anyway, she will be getting this Friday night as one of her Christmas presents. Shhhhh....don't tell her it's done! Merry Christmas to everyone and hope you have a wonderful, creative 2011!!

Here is the one we did for our Mom. It is a little larger, so Lisa added another sheep and an adorable donkey! Way too cool! I am showing it out of the gourd so you can see the detail. It is hard to get a good shot of it inside the gourd! We are giving it to her tomorrow. Can't wait to see what she thinks!

It has been sooooooo busy! I didn’t blog as much as I should have during November, but I can assure you, I did create every single day! Thanks so much for the challenge Peggy! Same days were harder than others to find the time, but as the art/craft shows came up and we needed the items done, it seemed easier! The newest project I have been working on is for Christmas. I got some gourds out of my stash, three smaller ones and one larger one and with my sister, Lisa, came up with an idea to collaborate on a project. I cut an opening in the gourd for the front. The outside was finished with gourd inks in various colors. I added silhouettes of the three wise men on one side and shepherds and sheep on the other. When I was done, I gave them over to my sister for her part. She is a polymer clay artist and does wonderful, very small figures. This year she has been doing these wonderfully small nativity sets. Some have animals, some do not. Well, she just sent me these photos of what it looks like when it came together. Amazing! They are so tiny and really make my gourds look good!!