New on the Bone Tree - Pale & Bloody Coffin Pendant

a pale small coffin grew within the dying tree

as the tree opened to embrace the sweet dream of mortality
the sigh of a thousand moons rushed in
and the pale small coffin filled with drops of her precious blood
and swelled with  the joy of so many seasons lived and loved

In her appreciation the tree adorned the pale and memory-filled coffin
with her sparkling amber tears

You can find the pendant in my Etsy shop - Delicious Mischief 

I'm sharing with Inspire Me Monday

Illusive SaniTea

This is The Illusive Sanitea clay whistle.  With a light air pressure, it sounds like a distant foghorn.

Bone Guy

This is Bone Guy, the clay whistle.

He's a warped little dude with a clear whistle sound.  With medium air pressure he sounds like a steam boat.  Play on, Bone Guy, play on.

Frida Kahlo Inspired Self Portrait

Last week The Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano Murillo, challenged her blog readers to paint a Frida Kahlo inspired self portrait to honor the artist on her birthday.  I don't really paint, but I loved the idea.  So, I started with a box of chocolates, which I happily ate.  Then I sketched the portrait to go on the top of the box.  I cut it out, put it on, added colors, inks to age the box and attached some dangly earrings.

Note the uni brow and hint of moustache! Very Fridaesque.  I decided the piece would be about my inner artist, so the inside of the box would have to reflect the joy of creating art!  I love sculpting food!  Especially chocolate and coffee!  I used polymer clay to make the skeleton bits and chocolates.  Of course I had to add jewels and wire work.  Those things bring me joy, as well.

Then there's the Sacred Heart that my ribs can hardly contain.  That's all about my spiritual life.  You can't see it here, but I lined the inside of the box with a sparkly ribbon.  I do love to have sparkle and brilliant colors around me.  They feed my inner artist.

If you're not familiar with Frida's work, click here to see her work and read about her amazing life.

Sweetie

This is Sweetie.  She's a handmade clay whistle.

Each whistle begins as a hollow ball.  To achieve that, you make two pinch pots and join them together.  After the ball dries a bit so that it's firm, but malleable, it can be shaped and smoothed.  I like to carve, stamp and finish the details before cutting the hole and adding the whistle mouth piece.

When the piece is dry it can be fired.  The firing turns the clay to the consistency of an unglazed flower pot.  Now, I don't mind glazing, but I prefer the process of wax resist.  I color on the pottery with crayons, then I paint the whole thing with brown or black acrylic paint.  The paint wipes off the waxy part and soaks in the parts that aren't waxy.  Next they heat in the oven to evaporate the wax (the color remains).  I finish the piece with colored pencil highlights.

Each whistle has a unique sound and different breath pressure to achieve the sound.  If I were an expert whistle carver, I'd be able to control those things, but it is what it is.   Sweetie's whistle sounds like a Ghost Train when blown at a medium pressure.