ARGH Matey!

Here's a Boo teaser for the imminent update on the Queens Marketplace! He's a pirate skelly ornamant who's passed on of scurvy about 250 years ago.  He's about 10" high with the hanger.  He's got a gold tooth, an eyepatch and breath like death.  Jack Sparrow he ain't, but he's still pretty gnarly!

ULALUME: A BALLAD

I heard this Jeff Buckley version on XM Radio today (on the Loft's Vin Scelsa's Idiots Circus)and he reads it with haunting perfection (click at the bottom to hear it yourself)...

by Edgar Allan Poe -1847

ULALUME: A BALLAD.
——

The skies they were ashen and sober; 
    The leaves they were crisped and sere — 
    The leaves they were withering and sere; 
It was night in the lonesome October 
    Of my most immemorial year; 
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, 
    In the misty mid region of Weir — 
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, 
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic, 
    Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul — 
    Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. 
These were days when my heart was volcanic 
    As the scoriac rivers that roll — 
    As the lavas that restlessly roll 
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek 
    In the ultimate climes of the pole — 
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek 
    In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,
    But our thoughts they were palsied and sere —
    Our memories were treacherous and sere —
For we knew not the month was October,
    And we marked not the night of the year —
    (Ah, night of all nights in the year!)
We noted not the dim lake of Auber —
    (Though once we had journeyed down here) —
We remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
    Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent
    And star-dials pointed to morn —
    As the star-dials hinted of morn —
At the end of our path a liquescent
    And nebulous lustre was born.
Out of which a miraculous crescent
    Arose with a duplicate horn —
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
    Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said — "She is warmer than Dian:
    She rolls through an ether of sighs —
    She revels in a region of sighs:
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
    These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion
    To point us the path to the skies —
    To the Lethean peace of the skies —
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
    To shine on us with her bright eyes —
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
    With Love in her luminous eyes."

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
    Said — "Sadly this star I mistrust —
    Her pallor I strangely mistrust: —
Oh, hasten! — oh, let us not linger!
    Oh, fly! — let us fly! — for we must."
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
    Wings till they trailed in the dust —
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
    Plumes till they trailed in the dust —
    Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied — "This is nothing but dreaming :
    Let us on by this tremulous light !
    Let us bathe in this crystalline light !
Its Sybilic splendor is beaming
    With Hope and in Beauty to-night: —
    See! — it flickers up the sky through the night !
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
    And be sure it will lead us aright —
We safely may trust to a gleaming
    That cannot but guide us aright,
    Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
    And tempted her out of her gloom —
    And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista,
    And were stopped by the door of a tomb —
    By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said — "What is written, sweet sister,
    On the door of this legended tomb?"
She replied — "Ulalume — Ulalume —
'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
    As the leaves that were crisped and sere —
    As the leaves that were withering and sere,
And I cried — "It was surely October
    On this very night of last year
    That I journeyed — I journeyed down here —
    That I brought a dread burden down here —
    On this night of all nights in the year,
    Oh, what demon has tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber —
    This misty mid region of Weir —
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
    In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."

Said we, then — the two, then —" Ah, can it
    Have been that the woodlandish ghouls —
    The pitiful, the merciful ghouls —
To bar up our way and to ban it
    From the secret that lies in these wolds —
    From the thing that lies hidden in these wolds —
Had drawn up the spectre of a planet
    From the limbo of lunary souls —
This sinfully scintillant planet
    From the Hell of the planetary souls ?"

Cat 'n Mouse

Almost done with this one. She's been invited to a party and has brought a gift for the host:-D.



I've got a few more of these wide (apart) eyed characters up my sleeve.

I dunno...I better be careful, I'm going all cute & gooey.

Humpty's Fall from the Wall

Since I have all these international viewers who are looking at the January 09 post searching for humpty's fall, I thought I'd take advantage of that and post pics of another Humpty I made a few years ago. This Humpty is in the process of falling as he is a bobber or nodder of a sort. He was sculpted on a styrofoam egg with wired arms and legs and glass eyes. He was mounted on the edge of the wall via a spring so that if touched he 'teeters' on the edge as if he is about to fall. He was so much fun to make, perhaps I'll try another!

Josie

Zoie is ...One Twisted Kitteh

Ahhhh...the flexibility of youth!

Alfie the Elfie

Just a quickie post...

Yay! He's done. Now with his wool hat he stands over 13" high. Now on to the next project!

Making Progress

Here's a progress pic on ol' Alfie the Elfie. He's about 80% done. He'll be holding a toy to be painted in this hand and in the other he holds a paintbrush. He's about 12". I'm debating whether to fashion him a wool hat or sculpt him one. My original intent was the wool but I'll scrap it & sculpt one if it doesn't look right.

And here's a picture of Zoie at 6 months. Hubby's agreed to let me keep her and she's settling in nicely. I love taking these types of pics where the sun lights up the ends of their fur and throws the rest into shadow.

Latest WIP

I think will be my Spookytime Jingles Christmas entry for October. I'm really excited about this guy. I knew the basic shape of the character I was going for but not what his face would look like. I'm not one to do a conception drawing beforehand so he is evolving around this basic body shape. I sculpted his face last night and at one point he looked a bit like Alfred Hitchcock.



So I was wavering back & forth on whether he would be an old creepy guy maybe carrying a cat for a Halloween theme but after studying his legs I thought wow, they would look really great & goofy painted in red & white stripes, then I pictured the really high old man waistband (think Urkle) with suspenders so I just had to add pointy ears and Voila! An old Elf was born. An elf getting ready for retirement.

Of course, this could change but that's the direction I'm going in for now : - )

Josie

Latest for Spookytime Jingles

Here's my latest for STJ;

This bust is about 14" high and the base is about 7¼" in diameter so it's a good size. I've combined two different types of dried gourds together; a cannonball for the head and a gooseneck gourd with both the top and bottom cut off for the upper body. I've given the base a bottom so it is stronger and not just a shell. The held leg of the frog is Apoxie Sculpt for extra strength. The candy cup and his hat are made from a heavy-duty cardboard thread cone.


I've also pulled the Cheshire Cat from Ebay and will offer him on STJ as well. I currently have the Mad Hatter up for auction on Ebay and page views/watchers are waaaaay down from this same time last year. I haven't offered anything on ebay in a while so perhaps I'm suffering from that or the bidders just are not shopping. I know money is tight but I feel sorry for those who depend solely on the sale of their art to make a living. But for those with some extra cash it's a great time to grab some fabulous art at bargain prices!

STJ Sneaky Peeky & Malice in Wonderland WIP Update...

Here's a peek at my latest offering for SpookyTime Jingles for the month of August. I call this one "The Hag Wagon".



This one is a pretty involved piece with the wagon, the two pumpkins, the hag & her hat & broom. I kept wanting to add stuff such as a cat but I would have had to attach her hat to her head so the cat could sit on the pumpkin but I think that would have made the sculpt too high. As it is now it is almost as long as it is high (10"x 11" x 6").

She has some fun little details such as branches made from epoxy affixed to the side of the wagon with copper wire to hold her broom and the use of the vintage easter grass turned out to be just perfect for the bedding of straw. I am particularly fond of the face on the second pumpkin : )

And here is my Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat WIP update which are both a little further along than this. Mad needs mounted to a base. He has a hat and is painted but is a bit heavier than planned so the intended candlestick although made of wrought iron may be too tall so I fear it may be topheavy.