Christmas Cookies 2008!

Hello everyone!
I hope you're enjoying the holidays! This weekend I hosted a First Annual Cookie Decorating Extravaganza with some of my girlfriends here in Charleston, and thought I'd share some pics.


Busy rolling out the dough!
I purchased 5 orders of raw sugar dough from a local bakery (The Cake Stand, and the dough was fabulous by the way!) so that way all we'd have to do was roll, bake and decorate.... leaving the tedious mixing to the pros. We only used 2/3 of the dough, so the rest is hiding out in my freezer until whoever's birthday is next.


This cactus cut-out is my favorite! Reminds me of New Mexico.


Shannon brought her cookie-spritzing machine and her amazing cream cheese & orange rind-flavored dough! Yum.


A messy messy table...


Some spritzed cookies all decked out.


So many cookies! ...some more anatomically-correct than others! (yikes, I'm sure all the wine was an influence on the sillyness...)
These were dipped in white and dark chocolate, which is the usual way I decorate. (My chocolate of choice is Merckens, but that was unavailable to me this time. I used a grocery store substitute, but the results weren't as good. If you're going the chocolate route, use Merckens only!)


Snowflake action.


These I decorated the day after my party. We had soo many cookies rolled and baked off, we were unable to get to them all! I wasn't happy with my chocolate, so I tried a different approach with these: icing. I think I agree with the reviewers here, this is the "Holy Grail" of icing recipes! Check it out: allrecipes.com
...although, I will admit, these are SO sugary, you feel that immediate JOLT of sugar in your bloodstream! Makes you only want to eat one, though :~)

Happy holidays.
~P.

Cut Paper Everywhere...

Long time no blog! Here goes.

I've been up the past few nights working on a paper sculpture for a magazine cover... not sure if I'm allowed to blog the final yet, but here are some tasty scraps hanging around my work desk! Enjoy :~)


A business man negative.


Some paper cutting utensils... sharp!


I've constructed a tiny paper "glue boat" for the Elmer's.


Jagged mountain cut-outs.


Here's part of the finished product. A road sign to indicate it's time to reduce your carbon footprint.


Merge, please!


Caution: Networking Ahead.


...and here's where I keep all my paper scraps I've collected through the years. I know it may look disorderly, but it's really not so bad. It's full of papers I've cut out of for several different projects, and papers that I think are way too pretty to ever touch!

I was lucky to be shopping at a World Market when they were stocking cases of this Bonny Doon wine: Domaine des Blagueurs Syrah Sirrah. It's label is decorated with one of my favorite Ralph Steadman illustrations!
(Yummy wine, too.) This artsy box was saved from the cardboard baler and has been admired for some time now ;~)

Hope you enjoyed my art mess before I clean it all up!

Beach Glass Jewelry!

I suppose I'm still enjoying 'Jewelry Mode!'
I've had a huge bag of beach glass that I collected on the rocky shore of Lake Erie that I haven't figured out what to do with... until a friend of mine recently taught me how to solder. (fun!) We sculpted some bails from wire, soldered them smooth, added a patina, and E-6000'd them to my beach glass to create some unique pendants.
Some photos:


These are all the bails before I glued them to the glass.


Waiting for the glue to dry!




I also found some beautiful pieces of old pottery on the beach that had been tumbled smooth the same way the beach glass had been.







My favorites are the pieces that have evidence of lettering.


One of my first necklaces! I don't think I'll be able to give it away ;~)

Jewelry Mode.

Hey everyone!
Here are a few pics of beaded jewelry I just sent off to a shop (the Artist Playhouse) in Sioux Falls, SD.

I'm quite proud of these bangle-y bracelets!




Those were so fun to make.


Lots-o-goodies.


Some jade lotus beads I used in a simple necklace.


Coinage.


I'm loving all the copper that's out right now!
I will have more clay to post very soon.
Cheers!

the Grand Re-launch!

Well hello!
I've finally gotten my new website up & running!
Please go take a look, and tell me what you think.

www.paulapindroh.com

...Is it too large for your browser window? I just re-sized the whole site, hopefully this is a better fit.
I'd love your feedback!

More Sunday Night Drawing Class!

Another figure drawing from the Redux group; this was a 40 minute pose. ...and the model somehow fell asleep like that!
I loved that chair.

Fused Glass Pendants

I met some friends for a class on making fused-glass pendants at Blue Heron Glass... what cool results!


These are my finished six pendants:

(now they just need some silver bails...)

How they looked before they were fired:


Close-up of my favorite!:


I'll definitely try this again! (and now I understand how the glass moves around/reacts with other colors a little better.)
Just what I need... another hobby!

Dogue de Bordeaux, Updated

I am asked to sculpt the most interesting dogs!
This is a Dogue de Bordeaux that lives in the UK. His owner was the winner of an online auction on bigdogsporch.com, to help raise money for a Malamute in need. I hope they like it!

(these photos look more red than the sculpt really is...)

Here's the dog in real life... what a face! :~)



Update!
I just got these photos today... this cracks me up!

Munny 2.0

Last night we went to a Munny show at Redux (a contemporary art center in Charleston.)
I guess these Munny dolls have a huge following! They're plain vinyl dolls that you can buy to customize any way you'd like. Many local artists and craftspeople created their own versions of the Munny, and Redux had a big art opening/auction. Very interesting!!
www.kidrobot.com/2008/munny

Here's my little interpretation of my pooch... I wish I could've seen all these blank Munny's filled in. We left somewhat early... hungry hungry!

(I totally should've drawn a cyclops-zombie instead of my dog, but the little 8-yr old girl next to me beat me to it!)

The outside of Redux.


...a late dinner at the "Fast & French" on Broad street.... Yum! (It's not really called that, but their name is a tough one to pronounce for the non-French speakers! --->Gaulart & Maliclet.)


...and here's my Charleston Food + Wine Festival entry for the poster contest, all dolled up & mounted on some serious foam-core. 75% of the people who have seen it didn't really know what it was supposed to be, so I'm guessing it's a little too vague. I still love it, though!

Poster Contest!

Hey everyone!
Here's my entry for the 2009 Charleston Food + Wine Festival!

The wine glass stain was a requirement for the contest.
Wish me luck ;~)

Here's the official site:
charlestonfoodandwine.com

Here's the source of my inspiration:

They're called shutter dogs or holdbacks, and they're all over those gorgeous historic homes in downtown Charleston.

My sister thinks I should've incorporated some of my oyster sculpts into the poster... I didn't even think of that!

Looking forward to the festival next year!