The Making of Folklandia, part 1

From pieces of vintage wood, sketches are made, then I set to work, tying to uncover their personalities.

Here, after months of carving shaping painting and finding proper bases, the busts are ready for their close up's.L-R Queen Anne, Shopgirl, White Ace 21", Indian Girl and Talking Head

A very rough early sketch, one of many on scraps of paper, found around my studio, A lot that I had planned on making never made it in the show...perhaps next time.

L-R Hipster Bat, Handeye, Bark Bark, Heart in your hand,, Meow, Play nice, Fedora hat

the old baseball bats were carved and painted before they went on their welded metal stands

 

Sketching on the wood, I use the lines as a guide, re drawing as I carve.

The wood is carved and shaped

Old photos of Indian maidens for reference

Window sizes considered

Potential bases auditioned

From a scary looking carving, he becomes refined once his eyes our set and he's painted. His hat is carved from bass wood. he stands aprox 21"

F

 From salvaged wood canvases and old photo booth photos, to paintings.

Muskie Fish is 28" x 20 Carved from Tupelo wood, bicycle reflector eyes, rusty fan blades,vintage foundry mold base.

Indian Girl and Shopgirl Carved vintage wood , glass eyes horse hair,found objects 21"

My primitive Folk art show has a Portland twist. This 6 ft wool banner, with vintage varsity letter and ephemera seemed like a good fit!
Stay tuned after my opening on Thursday April 30th , I'll share the rest of the show, Over 30 pieces, 3 fish,  a horse, and photos of the Guardino gallery all set up

How to make a Puppet !

Zippy is a 38 inch marionette, you can kind of make out the eye hook on his top hat, tied to another eye hook on a stick and then again on at his shoulder.......

Here's a closeup of the two new guys I talked about, in the last post , "Zippy" and "Mr. Sparkles"respectively
Zippy can also sit independently. The sticks he can hang from are at his side.



Mr. Sparkles isn't a puppet. I mounted his carved head on a old tool box
but since I made them at the same time,
I didn't want him to feel left out





They started as a old wood fishing float and a large finial respectively, I carved them with both knives and a power carver to shape . I have some inspirational photos out.

I then started painting them a off white color. For Zippy's nose I doweled and glued in a old green handle for his nose

I put the bright white on their eyes and teeth, and fill in some red for their lips and features. I dry brush their faces leaving some of the wood expose, don't want them to look to new and loose that vintage/ creepy factor.

I audition various items from my wood scraps, in this case, table legs, baseball bats, drumsticks etc. for limbs, and figure out what will look good, just eyeballing what seems to work, not worrying to much about scale, which I think is more interesting

Having chosen a body and legs, I then carve out a niche for the legs to sit in, that way when bent he can either sit upright by himself or hang.

I keep checking to make sure the legs sit nicely and carve out till they fit in flush when sitting.

I then drill a hole through both his body and arms, a hole the same size as the wire, to thread through. I roll the ends with a pliers to hold in place.

I do the same for the legs. Drill a hole in the legs and body. Here you may notice his hat, a cut table leg, that I will stain to unify the color where the cut was.

He's starting to come together

A close up of threading the wire in the leg.

Here is Mr. Sparkles, I'm working on his accessories.

Mr. sparkles head was then but on a tool box and two staggered wood pieces

I build up the box with old moldings and if you go back to the 2ND photo I added old mirrors and wood cut stars for a little pizazz. These can currently be seen HERE @ Flutter until Sept. 9Th.

......Next up some vacay pics from Montana

Coming Soon! April 28TH

Sneak Peek of my Showcard!, it's at the printers. Now lots of details to finish. I WILL update my blog with lots of photos in the coming weeks. Trying to finish up all characters. My acrobatic girl, that will hang from the front window of the gallery, she's being a little finicky. The learning curve has been steep, figuring out how the puppets will move with a simple lever, for gallery patrons....Stay tuned. Got my art posse coming over to give me some much needed feedback this week.

EXPO-SED

The pdx Expo is in full swing. Lots of people come dressed vintage-y. In addition to decorating our shopping carts, I apparently need to have a costume! This beauty above did not disappoint.

Not the best photo, but this couple were right out of the 50's!

One of my missions: yes I had a shopping list! Was to get old tool boxes to stack up on a high ledge in the entry way... I may paint one an off white...we'll see.

There were the usual clowns hanging around, or in this case rolling around. I have such a love for these creepy fellows, that I could never afford or justify the price. So it's kinda fun to think , I can now make a folk art clown of my own that, I would love just as much.

Monkeys riding on horses, just like nature intended....

And then there's the child size manikins hanging from hooks...didn't even ask the price...

And a fun discovery, a globe painted with chalkboard paint , brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? I'll have to borrow that one for sure.

This Vaseline glass has always been a favorite to see. Did you know it's made with Uranium? Read about it HERE

Little toys, without Cracker Jacks

Here's a photos of my Haul, 5 Old Velvet jewelry boxes, 25 gold wood stars, polka dotted Doll clothes, feathers, striped cloth covered wire, a ruler and a wood masher I was gifted..

And finally posed, inside one of the shell shaped old velvet boxes, is a bag of beach glass, scooped up last week on Kauai, by one of my best shopping/ art buddies , Dayna.
I was telling Dayna, I will put it, in a specimen jar and label it like dispatch from L.A.
Click her link above and see what she did , you will not be disappointed!!