The Feast of St. James

I really love my saints. They're like my best friends. The only difference between my flesh-and-blood best friend here on earth, and all the saints in heaven, is basically that. They are in heaven. The nice thing is, they're rooting for me to get there, too. :)

Today we celebrate the feast of St. James the Greater, one of Our Lord's twelve apostles. He was a fascinating saint, full of fire and spirit. He is usually called "the Greater", because of the twelve apostles two were named James, and the other was known as James the Less. This was not because the James of today's feast WAS greater. No. He was called that simply because he was taller, or "greater" in stature, while St. James the Less was shorter, or "less" of stature.

He was the brother to St. John the apostle. They were collectively known as "the sons of Zebedee", and later, Christ nicknamed them the "sons of thunder", for they were very, very quick-tempered and impulsive.

St. James the Greater was the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred.

You can read more about him at this lovely blog post here: Roman Christendom, and also at this site: National Catholic Reporter.

For a little exciting news, stay tuned, 'cause there's going to be a contest here! You know my little clay critters? Check out the fellow below:

 

Yep, he's going to up for grabs! Do you want him? Huh? Do you? You know you do!! He's the Writing Buddy.
I'll post more contest details later. For right now, drool. Just drool.

Here's a napkin. Don't forget to clean up after yourselves!!

Saturday - MORE clay!

"Hallo There"

Yes, I have to admit, I have a weakness.

It's clay.

But really, how could I refuse this face? I mean, look at those eyes, that posture, that complete sad cow look? Isn't he adorable!

This little guy came to me at work. I was taking break in between pictures, and I drew a quick diagram of this fella on a piece of scrap paper. I wanted that cock to his head,  that sort of shy helplessness with his front hooves, and that all-around lovableness.

See his cute little bow? I
thought that was a cute
addition.

I'm not entirely sure what to call him. He sort of looks like a Monty to me. What do you think? Thankfully, since I gave him to my mother, who is a cow fanatic, I do not have to worry too much about naming him. I can just gloat.

For this little guy, I used a lump of white clay and mixed it up really good with the leftover clay that I used for my dragon critter previously. It created a really handsome aged white look. I took a lump of clay about the size of an olive, rolled it smooth, then formed it into an elongated teardrop. I pushed the bigger end down on the table, to create a flat surface for him to sit on. :)

Then I took another bit of clay about the size of a smallish marble and rolled it so it was just the teensiest bit oval. I angled it on the thin upper point of his body, and used my sharp clay tool to blend the neck and head together. For his wee bit snout I took a ball of clay that was about the size of a rosary bead and flattened it just the tiniest bit. With my sharp clay tool I blended that into his head, making the little snub-snout look.

Even his back end is cute!

I wanted to make sure he had a suitably round shape, so I worked at the clay for a little at this point, trimming off excess and rolling him in my hands until his upper part was narrow-ish and the "weight" sank mostly to his hips and belly. Then I took and formed a long snake of the white clay for his forelegs, with a small ball of black clay at the tips for his hooves, and smoothed those right onto his front, where it looked like his shoulders would be if he were standing. (Ignore that run-on sentence, 'kay?) Once those were positioned to my satisfaction, I took two balls of white clay, each about the size of a rosary bead, and rolled them out so that there was a snake of clay on one end, and a ball of clay at the other. I took the ball side, flattened it a little, and attached it at an angle to the back end of his body, so that it formed what looked like haunches and a back leg. I smoothed those legs in pretty good, until all the creases were gone. It took a pretty good while, but at last I was satisfied.

How'm I looking?

Once I got all his legs attached, I went to work on his face. For his horns, I mixed together orange and white until I got that nice woody sort of colour. Then I rolled the orange/white into a stubby snake, cut it in two, and rolled the separate snakes until I formed a point at one end of each the snakes. I curled these snakes gently in my hands, and with my sharp clay tool I positioned them on his head, and blended them on. For his eyes, I used my sharp clay tool (remember, I mentioned last time that this was my fav'rite tool!) to gently roll eye sockets into his face, then inserted two minuscule black balls into the sockets for his eyes. I rolled two white bits of clay into very very thin, fine snakes, and used those to form his eyelids. Then I used the sharp clay tool's point to form his nostrils and shape his snout. Next, I took a bit of black clay, flattened it really well, and cut teensy little strips off it. I twisted the strips ever-so-gently in between my fingers so that they made curls, and used my sharp clay tool to position each separate curl on his head, for his hair.

Ta da! Aren't I
aDORable?

After that, I rolled out some white clay into a snake and attached it to his bottom for his tail, and cut little teensy flat white strips of clay, which I twisted and then fastened to the end of the snake to form his tuft. Then I flattened two little balls of white clay into small circles, and pinched one end of the circle closed to fashion his ear. Again using my sharp pointed clay tool, I affixed them to his head under his hair with very careful blending strokes. For the last touch I mixed together crimson and white to create a very pale pink colour, and rolled out a long thin snake of that to tie about his tail, and give him a bow.

Then I baked him at 275 for about 35 minutes. When he came out, he looked just so pleased with himself. My mom was pretty pleased, too. In fact, all my little sisters are placing orders. Jacinta wants a Panda, and I think Annie said something about a puppy. We'll see. For now, there's the cow.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me gloat! I will see you all later.

God bless!

My Clay Critters!

So, I promised you that, if I was able to get some clay critters done, I'd post them.

Ta da!

And here he is from the side. I used
wire for his antennae, and I used a flat
clay tool tip to flatten the black spots to
his "elytra". You can't see too much of
the detail here... it's just a cute shot.

I started off with a nice, simple ladybug. I used a little bit too dark a red for his wings, but I know better now. Next time, I'll lighten it up a bit.

Here is my little lady bug fella
from the front. Isn't he cute?

And this is him from the top! Those
are wee gears that are decorating
his little back. I wish I'd made his wings
a little lighter! Oh well. First time. :)

 Aside from that minor flaw, he looks pretty darn cute. I used black clay to create his body. I formed it into a little pinto bean shape, then I took a little dab more of black clay, rolled it into a ball and then flattened it just a little, and pressed it to the front of his body shape. That created his protonus, the shield-shaped frontal piece that looks like two white eyes with black pupils. For his face, I took the merest dab of black clay, rolled it into a ball, and pinned it (literally) through his protonus and abdomen. For his underwings, I used some ecru clay, rolled it into an oval and flattened it flatter than flat, then cut it in half and carefully lined his back with it. After that I made a coin-shaped red circle, pressed it until it was about two nickels thick, and with my flat clay tool pressed some little black balls onto the clay to create his seven-spotted "shell" or "elytra". Then I split the red elytra, pressed it to his back, stuck the gears down his back, shoved the twirled antennae in, and baked him at 275 degrees for 45 minutes. Ta da! Ladybug!

Here's my second critter.

My clay critter from the side. Don't
you love all the gears and nails in his
body? It adds a nice touch, I think.

 He's my dragon critter. I love how happy he turned out! He seems to be grinning quite cheerily at me. I love that.

This is him from the back. From this
side you get a good view of the nail
in his leg, and the armoured look of his
tail. Isn't that COOL? :-)

This little fellow I made out of silver and orange clay mixed together. It created a really lovely browny colour.
I rolled out a ball about the size of a largish marble, then rolled it so that the middle was thicker, the top tapered to a thick point, and the tail stretched out into a long, thin point. I used a pointed clay tool to crease his neck and create the bend in his body for his head. Then I just worked the clay with my fingers until I got a nice liquid-lizard shape to his body, with a rather nice curl to his tail. I used a thin bit of silver, flattened a bit, and

See all his lovely gears! He's just now
clambering up onto a cork. :-)

Hopefully, you can
see the detail on his
armoured tail. Love it!

wrapped it around the end of his tail. That created the almost armoured look I was aiming for. I had to use my pointed clay tool to push up the clay so that it had that overlapping look to it.
For his spines I took little tiny balls of silver clay and shaped them into pyramids. Carefully I pressed them onto his back, and with my ever-favourite pointed clay tool I gently blended the clay together so that the brown and silver clays joined up. For his legs, I just took little snake bits off the silver-orange mixture, flattened one end for his paw, and then attached the other end to his body and smoothed and blended leg and body together with a combination of pointed clay tool and flat clay tool. I cut little finger-like mandibles into his paw with a razor clay tool, and made his eyes out of flattened pink clay with a spot of black clay atop the pink, and used thinly rolled strips of orange-silver clay to make his eyelids.
I used the point of my pointed clay tool to add a little detail into the clay. (See the tail for insight into the detail. Doesn't it look as though that's plated steel?) After I completed blending, detailing, and adding gadgets (I LOVE the key that's poking out of his side!) I affixed him with a pin to his cork, disguised the pinhole with blended clay, and baked him at 275 degrees for 45 minutes. Voila! The cork didn't even burn! How's that for cool? After he was done, I pinned four little brown-coloured beads to the bottom of the cork, so that it would stand on its own. Finished.

Isn't that such fun? I just LOVE clay. It's one of the most soothing things in the world to work with.

If you want to see what I'm talking about when I say "pointed clay tool", "flat clay tool", and "razor clay tool", (all of which are my own very inventive names for these things) go to this link here: http://www.multifilla.com/images/Product_highlights/11piece_clay_tools.gif
The razor clay tool is the top part of the second tool from the left. The pointed clay tool is the top part of the fifth tool from the left, and the flat clay tool is actually the bottom part of the fifth tool from the left.

I hope you had fun looking! See you around later.