The best is when you see them touched by your work.

I met some new pirates that have joined the same Pirate Ship around the same time as we did. One of the young lads has been going thru a challenging time with his life. As he was leaving our get-together at my home, I suddenly thought to give him one of the Metrobians sculpts. The look on his face was so warming. He saw sadness in the little sculpt and just stared at it. The connection was exactly what my brother told me about last year. That I needed to sculpt what was on my heart and IT will touch the one person it needs to touch.

*sigh*.... art is so awesome that way!

When I am able to get over this low-thyroid fog, I will be sculpting again. Right now I've been starting the sewing machines for costuming. We will be working a Revolution period event this summer with some of the Pirates and I don't want to be sewing like crazy at the last minute! LOL! My girls are asking for help in creating little pirate outfits for their brother's teddy bears for Christmas gifts. *squee* it is sooo much fun to see the made-up patterns actually work! LOL! We will be putting together a bear & outfit to copy our Captain Rosabella's outfit for a gift for her... *shhhh* don't tell! *squeeee*

I've found so many inspiring costuming blogs, my brain is spinning! These gals are living my dream! I have always loved & studied historical clothing in highschool & college, but didn't have any support or resources to lead me down the right path. Then motherhood and life stepped in and got in the way. I am so intimidated by it all though, and working on the whole 'fear of failure' issue too. So far, I'm more excited than afraid!!

I bought 11 yards of natural silk just a little bit ago. I had some paypal $$ saved up for such an occasion as this. Seems the price will be going up soon with all the changes happening overseas. Silk is an awesome natural fiber that is like wool: keeps you warm in cool temps and cool in warm temps. Some people use silk inside their cloth baby diapers, I think because it is also anti-bacterial as well as wicking. I'm excited to make pirate shirts out of it so we don't die of sweat in the summer's heat. Typically, silk was used because it won't burn after you fire a flintlock and wounds don't get as infected if you do get shot. It was also used as sashes around your neck or waist tied each end to a flintlock. You would fire, then drop it to get to your sword or other gun. The flintlocks get hot and the silk would not burn. Kinda neat, huh!

Pirates!

Our little family has joined a re-enactment group of the Pirate persuasion this fall and I've been busy with sewing for the crew. I purchased my corset from www.damselinthisdress.com

Here's some pics of my work! I will add more to the slideshow as I get the pictures taken.

As the winter progresses, I will be adding colonial civilian clothing because our group will be working with a local library as the touring John Adam's papers pass thru. Very exciting and BUSY times!!

Off topic a bit.

Since I somewhat un-school, I like to create life-application projects for the kids to do. A couple years ago they had to create something to sell at a local Farmer's Market and learn all about buying & selling. They still talk about it to this day! This year we've decided to write and publish a magazine to get them to further develop their writing and creative skills. The goal is to get other kids, esp homeschooling kids, to find a new interest in writing and sharing. Maybe even write articles about things they've learned so other kids can read about it and learn too. There's just something special when a kid learns something and teaches it to another kid as they play together.

So here it is:

Click on the image and you can get a small peek at the magazine for those that are interested. The kids only get $1.55 for each magazine that sells so this is not about making money. Right now the publisher has a 25% discount sale so it will be even cheaper for those purchased now. This is a good diversion for our family as we've been dealing with a lot of seizures with the middle child and this past week our eldest has had several night ones! Add a broken leg to the mix and well, we've had one heck of a summer already!

Until the kids fully understand the graphic arts and putting things together, I help them in those areas. Otherwise they've written pretty much everything else in the magazine! They are hoping kids from everywhere will start participating. I am so proud of them!!

So please pass this on to anybody you think may be interested!

Granny and Baby!

The mohair was not what I expected and am not sure it is sellable. On the good side, I am going with a friend to a place to learn to spin, so I'm going to use the mohair for spinning and see what happens. I am SO excited!

Here's a couple pictures of my newest sculpture to add to the Metrobian Clan: granny & baby. Granny sits less than 2.5 inches!

My other finished sculpt:



The baby is sitting on my wedding ring (size 8). Then I nestled him inside a glass teardrop.

YAY! mohair is on it's way!!

I ordered 2 pounds of mohair the other day. My paypal account finally had enough money to get it in. One pound is probably not going to be in enough locks to dye & sell for sculpts so I intend to dye it and visit a shop nearby that has a spinning wheel I can try my hand at spinning the hair into yarn. Squeeee! Sounds like FUN!

The other pound I will be dying and selling. I prefer to sell off ebay so if anybody wants some, lemme know! I'm trying to remember the price I've sold before because it was usually a bit cheaper than the 'normal' price on ebay. This is a first shearing on a kid, so it is EXTRA fine and silky. I will have to wait and see the quality when it arrives, so stay tuned!

Also if anybody has any color needs/preferences please let me know now so I can customize it for you!

Hopefully, I'll have my latest sculpt finished. I just need to put hair on the granny & baby, but it is pretty neat! I can't wait to see it finished & photographed!

NEW VIDEO!

I finally got it edited and uploaded!

Sculpting Tips on YouTube showing my sculpting process and tips while I create this baby:

New one in blue

2 more sculpts. The little one in blue is my new favorite!! Such a CUTIE!!

2 more in the clan

2 More additions to the clan. After sculpting and comparing to the first 2, I realize some of my sculpting issues: the beads for the eyes were smaller for the 2nd sculpts, giving them a much different look! I was highly frustrated with these 2 and the little sitting one got an eye patch because the super glue for his hair ran over his eye. A definite casualty! Everything seemed to go wrong with his painting. sigh. oh well. sometimes I get in too much of a hurry or distracted with the kids.. who knows. All is well and I'm glad I'm able to sculpt a bit more lately.

Little Dudes

I'm not sure what to call these little guys, but here's 2 I've fully enjoyed sculpting! It is a blast sculpting something that is not a baby. They are less than 2.25" tall in their seated position. Their hair is mink from pieces of a cut up coat.

I need help in what to call this kind of critter tribe so if anyone is inspired, let me know!!