An Angler and his Bride

First things first, we have to have a body and that body has to have trousers, waistcoat, shirt and tie.

 

 
Next he gets his jacket and accessories.

He is an angler so he needs his fishing rod and if he has been lucky a fish on the end of his line. A few maggots crawling out of his pocket! and the compulsory camouflage hat.

Got a bit carried away with the bride and forgot to photograph her in stages. She is sitting on a tree stump.




Frying tonight! she is cooking the fish that her Groom has just caught. Need to hurry and get their eyes in before they have an accident!



This is the view from the back, I added flowers in her hair and she is sitting on a tree stump that is surrounded by grass and flowers.

Fish supper anyone! I think it is more of a skillet than a frying pan.

Here they are all done and ready for their tea, after they get married of course.

Hope you like them.

A Wedding Topper Cyclist



My consignment of clay arrived and this is the result. Hope you like it. Please feel free to leave any comments concerning anything on my blog. Thanks.

A wedding cake topper for the cyclists among you. I must admit this bicycle took a bit of doing, trying to keep it upright while it was cooking.



Next came his legs, feet and body.




Then his waistcoat, jacket and head.




He is holding onto the back of the bike (this also helped to steady things), he now has his hair and a flower in his lapel.




Handsome!




Now for his Bride, with her cocktail stick neck.



She has a bouquet of lavender and white roses and very small pearl buttons on the back of her dress. She also has the same flowers in her hair. Now all that is left to do is give them both eyes to see the world, hope you like them so far.



Now they can both see, shoes polished, tyres washed all ready for the big day.



Gazing up with adoration!



The back view, I only put a pedal on this side as the other was hidden by her dress. Hope you can see the pearl buttons down the back of her dress.


And this is Fido .................... waiting for a game of ball. Little accessories can be added into the mix.

The Happy Couple. First Wedding Topper

These toppers can be placed beside the Wedding cake. Smaller versions can be commissioned for on top.

Bride and Groom, they look a little like aliens at the moment but all that will change........... I promise!



I started to dress the bride, I had an idea what I wanted it to look like but by the time I finished the dress it looked nothing like the picture I had in my mind and sketched. I added small seed beads for detail over the bodice, around the bottom and on the back of the dress. She is armless but getting there.



Next it was the flowers, a bouquet of red and white roses.



Then on with the hair, hairstyles are not my strong point, never let me loose with a pair of scissors but with clay......... I don't think it looks too bad.



and here he comes ...............



A snazzy suit



No hands as yet, but not a problem.



All I have left to do is his hair. The bride has a carrier bag by her side and he is playing on his Wii with the controller in his hand and the console by his side. The people behind these two models are my eldest daughter and her soon to be husband. He is an avid game player, hence the controller and the Wii console and my daughter used to be an avid shopper who loved designer labels but now they are saving for the wedding she shops for bargains at Primark.

The finished happy couple, all ready for their big day.





I can build into any model, hobbies, occupations etc to add that little bit of humour and individuality.

Please drop me an email on claggybitz@yahoo.co.uk to discuss your needs and prices.

Thanks for looking.

New Venture

Thought I would show you my new venture.

I am trying to concentrate on the Fimo Clay, I think it is what I do best. I have made models from clay for a few years now and if you should look back to some of my earlier blogs you will find them there. It is something I enjoy, I can get out my little table and my clay box and plonk myself down in front of the T.V. The only thing I have to worry about is Bert running off with a piece, I don't know what it would do to his digestive system!

My first piece of the new decade is a jockey and this one is destined to start his life at Haydock Park in St Helens, Merseyside. Hopefully it will start a trend with jockeys and trainers, the idea is to make the models in the jockeys silks so it is personal to them. Time will tell but I can but try.

Hope you like the photographs, The first one is a jockey I made a few years ago and I think you will agree that I have developed more of a technique with the latest. Please feel free to leave your comments I would welcome any criticisms or feedback.

This is the first one I ever made and at the time I was pleased with it, however I think there was room for improvement.

Faces are always something I have found slightly difficult but it has worked quite well, without eyes it looks spooky.

This is him minus his proper hand and his boots but at least you can tell what he is supposed to be.

The finished item, I have to tell you that this is a prototype, because he is standing I had to develop him around a wire frame and in hindsight there are things that I would do differently on the next one but if you don't try you don't find out what the problems can be. All in all I am very proud of him.

He is 24 cms tall including his base.

Hope you like him.

I am also going to try and develop a range of Wedding Cake Toppers, I am cutting my teeth on my eldest daughter who is getting married at Christmas. So I thought I would give it a go and see what happens. Watch this space!

Pyrography

I began by stamping the Butterflies onto the back of the wood icon, got my tool up to heat then promptly burned my arm. I still bear the scare.

With tongue hanging out for concentration I eventually managed to burn the design into the wood. I did find it a bit off putting when you hit a knot in the wood and you 'skipped' somewhere that you didn't want to be.  The tool did get a bit too hot and you had to switch it off every now and then.

I coloured them using Promarkers then gave them about five coats of a water based varnish.

I intend to put photographs on the other side eventually.

Wire Wrapping

I have been trying to master the art of wrapping a stone without a hole. A few weeks ago Lynn and I went to the Bead Show in Harrogate, armed with plenty of money we went on the rampage!

What a lot of great choice, I came away loaded down with goodies plus a very good book on wire wrapping. I had tried this technique before but did not get the look I wanted. This book gave some very good tips that helped to make it just that little bit easier.

These stones are beautiful and the pendant is actually reversible so I get two looks in one.

I used three lengths of wire and wrapped these in three places with a thinner wire and teased the sides out so I could pull them apart later and twist to hold the stone.  I have tried this with a smaller stone but so far I have not succeeded in holding it tightly enough and it keeps dropping out.

                                        

These beads are a perfect match for the pendant and with the addition of some bead caps and spacers it makes a very striking bracelet, simply done, threaded onto elastic.



                                        



Flash & Corfu

We went to Corfu for 10 days at the end of September (was it only then, it seems like such a long time ago). We had seven days of glorious sunshine and three of torrential rain.  It was a lovely break and Steve made a very good friend. Flash, (because of the little flash on her head) that's what we christened her. We stayed at the Palmar Corfu Apartments in Sidari and if you ever visit we would thoroughly recommend you stay there. The owners are so friendly, the bar stays open till the last man drops and nothing is too much trouble. The cat apparently wandered in one day and has stayed there ever since.

Steve is not a cat person at all and I found it very surprising that he made such a fuss over her. Every time he sat down she would jump onto his lap and purr very loudly, she followed him all over, if Steve went for a snooze, so did Flash, curled up beside him. She stayed with us for the 10 days. It was quite a wrench to leave her. The morning we packed to come home she sat in the middle of the kitchen and just watched us filling the cases and occasionally she would wander over and jump in to have a look, we discovered when we got back home and unpacked that we had brought quite a few souvenir cat hairs back with us. I have no doubt that once we left she wandered away and found someone else to transfer all the affection too but if there was any way we could have packed her we would (don't know what Bertie would have made of her if we had!) She really was the most adorable cat and so affectionate.

The temperature on our balcony one day hit the 50 degree mark. My little travel clock has a thermometer so we sat it on the table, once it hit the 50 it hit an error and went off.

We took a trip into Corfu Town one night and wandered around the old part, with it's small bazaar like shops and I bought some lovely amber jewellery.

Sidari had a really nice beach and because of the time of year it was not packed with people. The season only had two weeks to go when we left and apartments and businesses were closing down for the winter.

Apparently the whole of the town closes from around 15th October and opens again in April, the place must turn into a ghost town.

I think we may have to go back next year at some point, if only to check on Flash and see how she's doing. Do cat's have long memories?





The view from the plane window coming home, it always reminds me of snow.

Home again, back to the cold and the wind. Never mind, I will keep looking at the photograph of the 50 degrees and sigh with longing.