Today I prepped and finished sanding of two of my sculptures. I have been using Renaissance Wax Polish which looks great and was recommended for Alabaster. I’m more excited now for the shows that these are finally ready. I kept precrastinating on the one piece. I started it probably about 4 years ago. The 2nd year I worked on it, I brought it to the 2018 California Sculptor’s Symposium. I worked on the piece the entire week but still had it nowhere ready to be done on the sanding portion but I entered in in the show anyhow titled “Work in progress.” Later that week at the awards ceremony I was competely stunned when I won 1st place in stone carving. There were so many advanced carvers and people who knew more what they were doing certainly than me. I’m proud to say it is finally done and I’ve named the piece “Duality of Life”. I’ve put it on a tree round base which I finished with a Polyurethane (4 coats) as I continue doing sculpture I’m realizing I’m not so much a square base kinda gal, I really enjoy more natural bases or unique flowing ones that compliment the pieces. I’ll hopefully post some updates next week of the show and how it’s going. I’m super excited and still having the hardest time deciding on how to price my items but I think once I’m there and can see how others are priced I can hopefully make a more accurate decision on it. I have selected my pieces and now will hope they all fit well in the space I have for the show.

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Okay so I worked on sanding my other stone sculpture all day Sunday and hit a point of exhaustion followed with the dumb idea to go on a hike then put together some furniture. I was in bed by 7pm that night. I’ve recovered but as you can see in the one image there are a few tight spots I was having a lot of trouble sanding so I will need to spend a little more time on it. I ended up putting the finishing wax on it so I can at least see where I need to focus next time. Once that’s done I will re-oil and then buff it with the little wool felt pads I have on my rotary tool. Not really sure if buffing will do much but will see. Here they are:

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So today I sanded my most recent sculpture to about 600 grit I was going to go to 800 I purchased this great wax that was safe for alabaster and added a nice finish to the piece and got it on the base. Feels good to be done and now I need to come up with a name. I titled it Arc temporarily and coral wave elsewhere but not sure either feels right. Maybe something more like blush wave or something having to do with a storm as there’s a lot of movement in the stone that looks like lightening. Here are some pictures I took after mounting it on the river rock base. The great thing is you can move the base since it’s a pin and sleeve. Makes it a little bit adjustable. I actually like seeing both sides of the piece and it looks great in the light.

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Unfortunately I tried doing testers on resin the other day and both kinda poured out but the clay did work better I’m just concerned with if the clay will leave weird lines and such in the sculpture if I use something like that for the paper mache piece. Will take a better look and try to decide I should start those pours soon since it may be a week or so of small sectional pours if so. Thinking maybe I should do a tester on the bottom and keep the pours very shallow. Was kind of bummed because I watched a video where someone recommended the tape for canvases and resin pours and it prevented spillover but maybe due to the curves? all that leaked out and I’m not sure if it was just one weak spot. But clay seems a million times better for resin.

Here is the last sculpture I need to finish sanding. I know it’s got lots of scratches on it but I’m hoping tomorrow I can get presentable at least because 600 grit and the polish seems to make alabaster look great. The base is done and I will be doing a board under the oldest stone sculpture for presentation purposes I just don’t care for it on a base.

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Okay so over the last weekend I did some more silhouette mixed media pieces so I have samples for the shows. I also was able to finally find a drill bit that was diamond tips that made the hole in my river rock deeper and almost there. My drill keeps dying (shitty Ikea one) But I can resin that piece in once it’s deep enough which should be today. I also realized that pieces is very close to being finishes. Once I sand it to the right grit I’ll test out the polishing wax I got for my sculptures as they should seal and protect it a little (hopefully).

The other sculpture which I created a new base over the old one with resin I have also tapes with the stand out as high as it would go and I need to spray paint that tiny section and resin a few spots on the piece. I was going to do another pour but I’m starting to realize I need to maybe just touch up spots that have drippage etc. I’m really debating about making little sections with slay or HVAC tape to have each area really smooth but I worry that certain sections may accidentally turn out with lines or clay trapped etc, so really hesitant but I don’t like the way it looks I prefer a flat resin surface. I may have to test my idea on another curvy object and see what actually works. Otherwise I’m going to not be happy with the surface.

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Here I’ve gone ahead any poured some resin into curvy surfaces one with clay and one with tape will see how they look once they dry. I actually spilled some of the resin on my surface while mixing the two and I forgot to mark which cup was hardener so there’s a chance it won’t cure correctly if it wasn’t an even solution but fingers crossed it’s okay.

So I’m working on my larger sculpture as it’s been a little prone to tipping over as one side is a little off balanced with weight. So I testing pouring resin in a small pan I that was slightly larger than the current base with mold release. It very easily released from the pan so today so now for the real thing. I taped ceramic tile for weight to the bottom of the stand and did a black resin pour (adding a bit of black acrylic paint) Here are some images of that piece right after I did the pour. Tomorrow it should be a little better balanced with the extra weight (fingers crossed) and I even touched up the legs with a little spray paint. The only thing the sculpture needs is a little bit of touch up on the resin as it’s little uneven in some places. Also I am almost done with the felted insert just bulking it up a little now.

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Another project I started this weekend, thanks to my lovely friends Melissa and Chriselle. I did profile outline of their face shadow from the side view so I could work on some paintings similar to my self portrait. Here they are below. I’m still working on the purple one as I need to dig a little deeper for more black beads so that the density of the color looks more vivid for the hair. The one I did of Melissa I had her keep her glasses on just to make it a little different.

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I also finished a mixed media piece that I had this cute little monkey on that I wanted to add some sort of vocal image to show the money was projecting onto the rest of the painting energy I had been thinking on this for some time and decided the best route was to curl wire kind of like how comics draw sound waves. Here is the updated piece it finally feels complete.

I just finished pouring a resin coat over 3 of the mixed media paintings I completed but am holding off on the purple portrait as I need to finish it and was low on space.

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Lastly I finally mounted my Alabaster sculpture on the wood round. Next weekend my goal is to take the sculpture at minimum of 600 grit sandpaper so it’s presentable if not finished by the Fort Mason show. I still need to drill into the river rock but was getting burnt out on it not working so I need to buy a quality diamond drill bit and see if that works a little better. I purchased some polish as well but I need to test it on the underside to see if it does any color change to the stone.

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Last night I was feeling a little discouraged as I have so many projects that need completed but I really wanted to paint something. So I decided to do some sort of landscape which quickly transitioned to a tree canopy. It was a fun little 16″ x 16″ piece and I’m loving how peaceful it feels.

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I’m also running into that dilemma of which paintings will I take to what shows? I think I will have more than enough but I’d like to keep going because ones the Art Span open studios events start who knows if things will sell and if so I don’t want to be rushing trying to get last minute paintings in for the next show. I think it’s best to have a good variety of work ready to go.

So a few days ago I finished the last layer of painting on my sculpture it’s in a nice light purple blue hue. The 1st layer was to smooth out some of the blemishes and fabric showing after sanding it. I did two layers of gesso with rabbit glue and then about 2 layers of the light modeling paint medium. Here are some images:

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Luckily it seems to be balancing okay but I unfortunately cannot keep the other sculpture up as it’s shifted a little in the last week. I took a little pause on felting but finally finished the middle shape. Now I just need to add more purple bulk to it to make it less flat. I’m thinking of having the inside come in further and then attach the backside of the felt so it’s flush and tight against the inside. I need to coat the sculpture at least one more time in resin as I’ve found a few spots where it’s missing. (Disregard my pillow in the middle of the image.) I have this sitting on my armchair as it won’t stand up on it’s own. I plan on resolving this by doing a tinted resin pour over the bottom stand into a small cake pan to help balance the base better.

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Here are two paintings I did last night. One is going to be a blue background with a face profile similar to how I did my self portrait with possible plot twist. The second may be a found object piece with some fun items as I ordered a few new things a few days ago that could be fun.

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Okay so I’ve received some bases for some of my sculptures which may or may not work. I decided to use a wood round which I need to sand up and finish that I thought would be a cool base for my alabaster piece that I started quite some time ago. Here it is sitting on the round. The sculpture needs a lot of finishing so hoping to start working on it a bit this weekend outside.

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This one below I had purchased and thought it was stolen since it appeared 2 days after the delivery date. It’s a nice piece of petrified wood and may work as a stand but I ended up buying a river rock slab so will see which looks best, the one below is a bit small for a base but I like the angle.

Here are the other resin paintings I worked on (just pre resin below)

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Last but not least I’m starting to get closer to the finishing touches on the large piece I’m doing. I am still waiting for rabbit glue to add to the gesso to make sure the piece is a little stronger. Hopefully it’s enough to protect the piece. Currently after this sanding phase I added a bit more drywall joint compound mix and will need to sand that once more.

Alright so I had a really tough day yesterday as I went to take the dog for a walk and witnesses a literal car explode in front of me as a car side swiped 4 cars about 2 to 3 feet in front of me. I was pretty in shock in the morning and was anxious all day so thought why not have some fun. Ona. super positive note I did find a local flower shop near me called Dasluz which can host a reception in September or October and offer a week long showing of my art for ArtSpan’s show. So I decided to do some of my resin paintings which are fun because I get to be very messy, which of course I love!

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Okay so the past few days I’ve added one more coat of resin my space sculpture and I’ve gotten the wool blending brushes and added the color and I’m liking it since it’s smoother. I’ll keep working on this as I’m struggling to get the resin to appear as smooth as I’d like because unless I had a way of rotating it, it keeps having drip marks.

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My 2nd Sculpture is starting to smooth out with the joint compound mixture, tomorrow I’ll have to get some more and then I may actually add another layer of the active wrap for strength since it’s very easy to chip that stuff off. Then I’ll apply a very thin coat to smooth out the active wrap and then add gesso and rabbit glue mixture to make it durable before painting the ending color. It’s definitely going to need it since it will not have resin on it as I want a matte finish on this one.

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Lastly I did another painting one which I guess kinda of expresses how I’ve felt lately, irritable lol. I’m getting to the point where I’m restless often and want to start new projects but I also need to finish several so after these pieces are finished I’m doing some simple paintings to sort of relax. After I’ll hopefully have some more funds to spend on bases and can focus on finishing stone carvings.

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