Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Welcome, Little Peanuts!


Just finished this piece for a friend of mine. She had twin boys, and their nursery is all decked out in elephants (...only with their trunks UP--that's good luck, she says.)
PS: I hope you're not checking my blog, Vanessa! You don't get this until Thursday.

If you know me, you know I love making EPIC blog posts showing my creative process! Enjoy.....


Here's the basic sketch I settled on. I got really frustrated just sketching new layouts, so I cut out each of the elements I wanted to work with & taped them into new positions on the page until I was happy with it all.


My collection of wool roving. I wish they'd sell more colors. (This is 100% wool, basically right off the sheep...cleaned & dyed.)


This is where it all starts! Poking the wool with that barbed needle forms it into sturdy shapes. ( Similar idea to dreadlocks?) I poked my fingertips way too many times doing this >:~o


Connecting shapes together....


...creates a basic elephant.


Next day! Here's my Mama elephant.


Seeing how they will look inside their frame. I've added more colors of wool & beads for eyes.


Sculpting little peanuts from polymer clay! I originally wanted to use real peanuts, but couldn't find any for sale with shells. ???


Placing all the elements together.


Starting to cut my banner.


Gluing down letters. (Not fun!)


The finished banner.


Cut baby names. Should I leave them in the negative or back them with another color?


Gluing foam-core and cardboard to the backs of those hearts so they'll have a tiny bit of dimension.


The finished piece! (Sadly, I made the sculpt too thick to fit behind the frame's glass. Oh well, skip the glass. Just the frame.)


A close up.


Close up of the Airedale!


.....and now I get to clean up my messy desk.

Hope you enjoyed the process!
~Paula P.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

This girl has talent. Some agency is missing you and they don't even know it.

Paula Nelson said...

Awwwww, thanks James!

Shannon MacGrogan-Ellis said...

It's beautiful! When you said you were making something from wool and clay I couldn't picture how. You are AMAZING, my friend!

Marjorie said...

Your creativity amazes me! Everything about it is so cute and perfect!...and you needle felt too...wow!

Karen said...

P, This is wonderful! It's just so cute and artistic! I enjoyed learning about how you did it too. You are really talented. Maybe you should sell these on your etsy site. I bet you'd get a lot of orders for these. So glad you shared this!

Brian said...

Looks incredible. I love the process pics too!

Thanks!

Nessy said...

Awesome! I love it...espeically the process pics.

Cara Jane (surfingcat) said...

That has got to be the cutest thing I have seen in ages!
Thank you for sharing your creative process.

Ra Ra Bazaar said...

absolutely fabulous!!

Jennifer DeDonato said...

How wonderful is this! I can't get over how amazing job you did.

sophie said...

Very well executed piece of work and also very creative. Well done, i'd love to learn how to do this.