She's about a mover

Here's Auntie Pearl's video for the Ebay auction. Take a peek at her shameless attempts at companionship. Yep, she's for sale!

From Pasadena?

I'm not sure this is actually the little old lady from Pasadena, but she might be from Glendale or Rancho Cucomonga. This is Auntie Pearl (the 34" tall variety). She's a sweet old cougar, ready to chase after the first good lookin' feller she sees. She might catch 'em, too, with those Nikes she's wearing. Pearl will be on the hunt soon. (She's looking you over as we speak).

Now where was I?

Though there have been many distractions (travel, music, TV, baseball, cooking, daydreaming, coffee, football, laundry, Facebook, beer, email, blogs, YouTube... just to name a few), I've managed to give Otis some eyes.

I dab some Vasoline on the bottom of the eye tray. I line up the eyes as the eye tray sinks into Magic-Sculpt on both sides of the head's interior. The Magic-Sculpt partially hardens to become eye tray ledges. Then I pull out the eye tray (which is easy because of the Vaseline). Now I can do some more work on the eyeballs in prep for synchronizing and making the eyes cross.

I also managed to mangle (and ruin) a gray Grandma wig that I intended to give Auntie Pearl. I think I have one more. Hope I don't ruin it. too.

Dying to start work

I'm still in recovery mode from my trip. I'm the family cook, so I've had to re-stock the shelves and fire up the kitchen. But I will get back to dummy work soon. Meanwhile, enjoy Part 1 of my friend Chuck Lyons' interview with Tom Crowl. Check out the other episodes, too.  Chuck is a ventriloquist AND a funeral director. (Insert joke here). 

Sunday

I just returned home from a week-long trip to California. The travel was unscheduled. We had to leave rather suddenly to address some family issues. I had just gotten back into the dummy-buildin' routine after a trip to the Northern California Gretsch Guitar Roundup when this unexpected  trip became necessary. After a grueling 12-hour drive home yesterday, I'm taking it low and slow today to recover. I'm watching football, answering emails, browsing Facebook and doing as little as possible. Hopefully you'll see something more interesting from me tomorrow.

On the road

On the road

On the road

On the road

On the road

Workin' it

Again nothing new or Earth-shaking to report today. Except that I've decided I need to work a little harder. Auntie Pearl needs a wig and Otis in the back needs some mechanics.

They're waiting patiently.

Back to work you slacker

After a summer of intermittent travel, I'm back in the workshop to complete two figures. The fellow at left is a 34" Otis the Moonshiner. He's in the process of face painting. His wrinkle lines have been laid in and narrowed. Next comes the shadowing. 

I'm also in the home stretch of a 34" Auntie Pearl. Not much more interesting to report today, but at least I'm gettin' back to work.

Spoonful

John Sebastian at the Gretsch Guitar Roundup

This past week I attended the Northern California Gretsch Guitar Roundup in Norden, California. The event is held in a rustic ski lodge near Donner Pass. It's an intimate gathering of about 40 guitar players who own Gretsch guitars.

John Sebastian, leader and primary songwriter for the great 60's band Lovin' Spoonful, was the special guest at the event. I had a front row seat as he performed tunes and told stories in the lodge's Great Room. He talked about performing at Woodstock. He shared songwriting insights gained from composing hits like "Do You Believe In Magic", "Summer In The City" and "Daydream" (just to name a few). He spoke about his childhood growing up among artists, poets, musicians and actors in Greenwich Village. (His godmother was Vivian Vance who played Ethel on "I Love Lucy"). And he performed a few new tunes, too. All in all, it was a memorable evening spent with fellow musicians and a member of both the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

That's why I've been "on the road".

On the road

On the road

On the road

This will be quite a feet

I discovered very quickly that I need to sculpt one toe at a time, let the PaperClay dry, then move on to the next. So far I've got two very rough big toes and two big toe mounds (the bumps on the side). I also discovered that I should put the toe nails on after all the toes are sculpted.

I'm using some cast feet Buzz James of Braylu Creations sent me as an armature for the new feet. I think these cast feet may have originated with Clinton Detweiler. I'm sculpting larger feet for use with 2T figures. These will eventually look best (assuming I'm able to sculpt well enough) with my 2T Otis the Moonshiner figure.

If I'm successful making these look good, I'll sculpt some larger feet for the full-size figures, too.