Gamla : The Saga Continues

Back home, house is listed for sale, you could definitely say my trip to the beach was eventful! We're moving - to the ocean. I guess you can only keep a Norwegian away from salt water, seaweed, wind, sand and smoked mackerel for so long before she starts to shrivel and become nasty!!! So, the excellent adventure continues. It probably explains the sea-related sagas that have taken up room and board in my head.

The Troll from the Tre Bukkene Bruse Book Bracelet 

thatch-roofed house

the complete bracelet with the oldest Billy Goat Gruff

The bridge under which the troll lives

the book

More characters have appeared and I'll introduce them as they develop.

Gamla (The Olden One): More feared than the Krakken, more terrifying than Surt, the Fire Giant, Gamla sits in her rocking chair, wizened and shrunken. A mountain of pillows add nothing to her diminutive size and the heavy blankets do little to keep the cold from chilling her bones. No one is sure of just how deep her knowledge of the olden ways goes, or of how far reaching her inner sight. None call her kin, yet none dare to send her away.

Gamla stretched out a gnarled hand, gripping my arm with surprising strength. Her skin like thin parchment stretched over a bony frame with veins dancing beneath the surface like swollen worms pulsing with life. Her years stretched thin: her body a frail 4 stone, her will - iron! Fierce determination gleamed in her eye. She had lost none of her passion. "You must tell the story, Anne-Brit!" she rasped. "It cannot end with me, for then there will be no escaping the fjaerning! " Gamla coughed and wiped some spittle from her lip, "Someone must keep watching" she hissed. "Call The Gatherer." Closing her eyes she seemed to shrink into the blankets, dismissing Anne-Brit with a deep sigh.

Liv tugged urgently at her mother's skirt. Anne-Brit was white as the lace on her blouse. "Mama, what was she talking about?" she asked, fearful as much for the look on her mother's face as for the words she had just heard. "I don't know, child...... I don't know." Her mother's voice was low. "Is she a troll?" Liv's words drew a quick glance from her mother. "Don't be rude, child." she admonished. Liv couldn't stop, "But she looks just like a troll with that one big eye glaring at me like that," she muttered.

to be continued.......

The Gardener

**Beep Beep!  The following is a special service announcement by Vickie's most fabulous daughter, Sandy**
That's right.  I'm sorry to say, but for all of you out there on the Interwebs who were expecting another eloquant and elegant blog post by Vickie...you're out of luck.  You're going to have to listen to me blather on for a bit as I have hijacked her blog for today.  It's not easy, I tell ya.  She's very nosy about what goes on around her computer, however, I find if I scatter some lindt chocolates down in her studio, it keeps her busy long enough for me to type for a while.   

So several months ago, I participated in an art swap organized by the wonderful Christi Friesen.  It was a blast and the piece I came up with, The Doctor, has inspired a new series of tiny, zany, sculptures that I will hopefully be able get out of my chaotic mind and into my Etsy shop.  The first one is the Gardener, shown below.  Enjoy!

I was, once again, travelling to the Other Side.  It was a Tuesday, I remember, because the Cafe had a special on Fluffernutter Crepes.  They always have that on Tuesdays.  After stuffing myself silly, I decided to take a stroll and try to walk off some of my marshmallow high.  I happened to noticed a tiny path veering off from the main street.  I almost missed it because it was tucked behind the "No Frumping" sign, but a very faint "meeping" noise caught my ear and my attention. 

When I say the path was tiny, I mean TINY.  Miniscule in fact.  It was quite difficult for me to tiptoe my way without stepping on the Borgus Buttons that edged the path on each side (you don't want to step on a Borgus Button.  Don't let the beautiful blossoms fool you.  The stench is sure to knock you on your butt and then the Gorlins come and steal all your gum).  Anyway, the "meeping" was getting more pronounced and I finally came to a small clearing. 

At first glance, it didn't look all that interesting, but then I noticed the tiny pots.  It was a nursery of sorts and I could even see a tiny glass greenhouse a few feet away.  I could see that the "meeping" was coming from these pots so I crouched down to get a better look.  That's when I was violently poked in the ankle.  I looked at the source of this rude intrusion and was very surprised to meet The Gardener. 

This wee little creature didn't say much, but I could definitely tell by the way he was glaring at me from behind his huge goggles, that he was very perturbed by my presence.  I carefully checked to make sure I wasn't stepping on anything, and then tried to assure him that I meant no harm, but was merely curious as to what he was growing.  He seemed a little suspicious still, but he was kind enough to stop poking me with his rake long enough for me to get a closer look.  I'm still not quite sure how to explain it, but I guess pictures are worth more words than I can come up with so, after getting The Gardener's permission, I was able to take a picture to share with you

They seem cute enough, but I'm not sure if I would be able to take one home with me.  From the look of the glowing goop that The Gardener was feeding them, I certainly don't think I would have the proper food, that's for sure.

After sating my curiousity, I thanked The Gardener for his time (he had already forgotten my presence and was focused on shovelling more dirt into more pots) and carefully picked my way back to the main road.  Once there, the lure of Fluffernutter drew me back to the cafe, where I sat to mull over what I had just seen and experienced.  Never a dull moment on the Other Side.

**Beep...Beep  That concludes this special service announcement.**
And as per usual with a blog hijack, this post was written by Sandy, not:

Christi Friesen's First Art Swap

Thought you might like to see the twisted, warped, mentally deranged work of art that Sandra sent in to the Art Swap! Yes, we all sleep with one eye open!

She's Contaminated

She's finally finished!  I went to her this morning and had some ideas of things to add and when I looked at her, I knew - she was complete.

She's Contaminated took on a bit more of a somber tone than most of my other work so far.  Originally, as with most of my stuff, I was going to name her, however, right through her creation, no name seemed to fit.  Usually, a name will pop into my head that suits the character that I'm working on -  but not in this case.  Then I realized, it's because she's all of us.  She's not a specific character, but more of a spirit or feeling.  As her story goes:

"What were you thinking?

Such an odd statement used often with venom and sarcasm to cause one to second-guess their minds.

"She's Contaminated" represents that feeling that nothing you can do or say is right. Nothing comes out the way you planned. People keep looking at you out of the corners of their eyes, avoiding direct contatct at all costs.

It's that feeling of isolation when you just can't seem to connect to others...or others simply refuse to reach out and connect with you. "

Here are some more pics - I'm very happy with how she turned out:

I ended up adding some suede to her mohawk to give it a little more subtance, and I especially love the little steampunk cuff I gave her:

Here clothes were all hand-sewn...and lemme tell you right now, I don't sew.  Nope.  I don't do it.  I generally don't agree with it and it generally doesn't agree with me.  I think it turned out pretty good though, for a complete, rank, amature. :)  I even sewed the ribbons on because I was worried that if I glued them on, they would eventually come off - and I want her to last a long, long, time.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the completed project with you all.  On to other clay adventures!

Have a great and imaginative day!

Posted by Sandy not...

If I don't get these things out, my head will explode

Good Morning all my lovely clay friends out there!  I mean, friends who play with clay, not friends who are made of clay - though I do have a few of those too, but they have trouble reading - we're working on it, but phonics doesn't work well when you have no ears.  Ah, well.  In the mean time, let me introduce you to some of them.

First, there's Little Red.  She's another box I made to give you all an idea of a different direction you can take your boxes in:

I apologize for the lousy pics but I'm horrible at taking photos of my work.  I think maybe it's my camera - yeahhhh, that's the ticket!  It's the lousy camera.

So get those gears turning.  Start dreaming of characters, images, themes...whatever you think you might like to use to decorate your box come April.  Remember, we'll be learning how to do wire armature, so it makes it a bit easier to do a character with limbs and such.

My next friend to share is No Name.  She's an Art Doll that I am working on and haven't finished yet - thus the No Name, as I haven't been inspired to bestow a title on her yet.  It's the first time I've ventured into what I would consider true Art Doll territory, in that...well...she's big.  I've always seemed to work small-scale, but she's much bigger than anything I've done before.  She's still naked as I'm undecided on how to best cover her yet, but she's coming along and I thought I would share her "birth" with you all.

Please excuse the wire I've used to hang her from the door-knob...it was the best I could come up with to get some pictures of her (remember, I'm terrible at photography, so...).  Her eyes are some glass beads I had laying around and her hair, so far, is what I think is bear fur that I found in a fly-tying kit that used to belong to my grandfather.

I love her long limbs and "dangly-ness".  So far she has a butterfly "tatoo" on her back but that may get covered with clothes later.  I'm thinking I'll trim her mohawk quite a bit so it doesn't stick out so far...but I'm not sure yet.

She has another "tattoo" that reads "POISON" on her head.  The inspiration for this is the idea of someone who is being told that their ideas are not normal or acceptable - therefore her head is full of poison.  Perhaps she's a bit depressed?  Hey, it's Februrary - aren't we all? :P

Anywhoo, theres some little tidbits from me.  I know this is probably going to say it was posted by Vickie, but it's really Sandy.  Vickie gave me the user name and password for this blog so that I could add some posts here and there...I don't think she realized the Pandora's Box she opened up!  *Evil Grin*

Here's hoping your day is starting off in the most fun and creative ways.  So go.  Off with you.  Go get creating!

And have an awesome day!

This post has been published by Sandy
(ignore what it says below...computer dumb)