Gummi Madness: Prt Another One (5)

I tell you what: Having a break from the sculpting seemed to have re-ignited my love and enjoyment for the craft. In the last few days I have finished TWO different sculptures and started on the third... I mean I can't even remember being this productive, in the past... ever.

I have also found that having my embroidery 'out' at the same time as the clay is less of a problem than I thought it might be, although my lounge aka crafting space is getting a bit crowded.

The system that I am working with now, (that is to say rather than following my personal rule of 'one thing at a time") allows me to keep working on the Gummi's until they are ready to be baked, at which point I pick up my cross stitching and work on that until the baked clay has cooled (a lesson learned through experience: letting the clay cool completely after baking makes for a much stronger end product that is less likely to crack or break).

Once my Gummi is cold, and ready for the next phase in the completion of the project, I can put down my needlework and carry on working on the sculpture.

By doing things this way, I have found that I am making huge amounts of progress on both of my projects (I'll do a post on my cross stitching after I finish this Gummi Madness Series)...

And so, Beautiful Internet People, without further ado, may I present: Zummi Gummi!

I think it worked out rather well, in my last post, when I just let the photos tell the story of the journey, so here goes, starting with the clay blended to match the original Disney Zummi, as closely as possible:

I can tell you that I had so much fun sculpting this little guy that it is almost criminal. 

Zummi is definitely one of my favorite Gummi Bears, it's a pretty close call between him and Tummi, who happens to be the bear that I am working on as I type (technically he is in the oven, cooling down, but you know what I mean).

I did, however, find one thing in this particular Gummi to be more challenging than the rest, and that was Zummi's Gummi Medallion. I'll admit that I found it to be rather tricky to try and replicate. 

Now I have watched every episode of the Adventures of the Gummi Bears that I can find, so I know that the Gummi symbol on the medallion is not always visible, so I could always just (as it is sometimes during the show) have a round disc with no extra details on, but for my rendition of this bear, I definitely wanted that little detail...

The picture that I have up the top there, of the medallion separate from the rest of the sculpture, gives you a slight indication of just how small that piece really is (the grid behind it is one by one cm). 

Zummi's Gummi Medallion and his glasses are some of the only pieces in this series that I have sculpted and baked separately from the main piece (the only other thing was Cubbi's sword). 

I did this just because it was easier for me to get the details down-pat without said efforts getting disfigured/squashed etc before baking.

Once they were baked (and cooled) I simply added them in position using a drop or two of TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey).

I'll be the first to admit that these bears are far from perfect, but I think that they are good enough.

Here are some more pictures of Zummi Gummi from different angles:

And so it is once again time for me to love, and leave you.

Until next time,
ACL.

Gummi Madness: Prt The Next (4)

Yes, I am back with the next installment of the Gummi Bear series.

Even thought this particular Gummi, Grammi Gummi, took me the least amount of time to actually sculpt, it has taken me a lot longer to get around to make her than any of the three previous Gummi's. I have a perfectly good reason for that: I got bored with the polymer clay...

I'm sure that I have mentioned before, once or twice, that I am easily bored with any particular project, meaning that I often (more often that I'd like to admit) abandon a piece/project before I finish it and this undertaking was no exception...

After making Gruffi Gummi, whose colour scheme is probably the least exciting of all of the Gummi's, and who took me a rather long time to complete, I kind of lost my enthusiasm for the Gummi Series.
I like to think that it is, at least in part, due to the fact that the colours of Gruffi didn't inspire me. I am a rather sensitive creature and my environment plays a large part in the success, or indeed failure of any of my projects.

In the week or so that I took a break form the Gummi's, I indulged in another of my passions, cross stitching.
I re-discovered my love for the craft and took up one that I had abandoned almost a year ago, and I can honestly say that I am absolutely loving it again.

Now, because I know myself, and by that I mean my tendency to get distracted by other crafts etc., I have a personal rule which I try my best never to break.
The rule is that I cannot have more than one project 'out'; meaning, of course, that if I want to switch from the polymer clay to, say, embroidery, I have to pack away all of the clay and any paraphernalia that might go along with that before embarking on anything else. In this way I might try to avoid my house becoming a total disaster zone.

So, after I finished Gruffi, I packed all of that stuff away and got out my embroidery. But, alas, not only would the Gummi Project not leave my mind for too long, but I got so many other ideas for polymer clay projects since packing it all away, that the other night I finally caved and (breaking my rule) unpacked the clay and made Grammi.
I honestly think that she might just be my favorite of the four that I have done...

Today I might do the WIP pictures a little differently. Instead of explaining every step as I normally would, I thought that I might jusyt upload the images and let you see the progress for yourself seeing as there is very little difference in the process for Grammi with regard to all of the previous Gummi's.

The last three pictures are of Grammi after baking and sanding, but before finishing and painting. Once I managed to do all of that all that was left to do was sealing it with a matt vanish. Et voilà!

Now I just have two more Gummi's to go, so watch this space...

Until next time,
ACL.

More Creative Writing...

A letter from a failing woman:

I sometimes feel like I am drowning. 

I realize that I must sound a little overly dramatic, but in all honesty, at times it feels like the enormity of my perceived failures surround me and close off any and all means of surviving. I feel my chest becoming tight and my world shrinking so that the only thing that I know and feel and am is this inability to succeed... 

I sense the lights fading and I search desperately for something, anything to cling to. 

The voice of reason that usually clears away the fog that surrounds me is that of the man who loves me. The man who owns me: heart, body and soul.

In the deepest depths of my despair, I can always reach for him and he has never let me fall. He is my rock and the one thing I have that I can physically cling to when all the mocking laughter grows too loud.

There are few things in my life that I have wanted as much as I want this, but it seems that the Fates have other plans for me. I believe in the Divine Plan and my faith usually sees me through the hardest and darkest parts of this journey, but I will be lying if I said that my faith was never shaken and has always infallible. 

More and more I hear the whisperings in the darkness; asking questions that I would never voice, especially in the light, and planting the seeds of Fear and Loneliness, and at times in the darkest hours of the night, I find them hard to shut out and harder to purge from my mind.

I know, deep within my core, that if it were not for this man who holds me up and carries me when I feel I cannot continue, I know that I would not have reached this point on the journey that we have undertaken. I would not have survived and I would not be willing to, or able to, re-arm myself and face the same challenges, fight the same battles. For this I am more grateful that I could ever express and even if I could articulate it, it would never be enough.

On days like today however, I would like nothing more than to give up. To curl up into a little ball and weep until I have nothing left inside of me. To let the sorrow and the failure consume me. To retreat from it all and be immersed within my own self-loathing and self-pity until the end of it all. 

I know I won't, however. 

I won't ever give up. 

I want this to succeed. 

More than I have ever wanted anything else in my entire life and I have worked hard and sacrificed much to get here, but most of all because at the end of this road, not only will I find my own happiness, but I am sure to find the happiness of this amazing man who has been with me through it all, and for him there is very little that I would not do.

As I have traveled along this road I have faced many challenges, most of them have been mental, but lately they have become more and more physically demanding and I do not know how long I can continue to torture, not only my mental capacity, but my physical body too.  Every lost battle breaks me down a little more, puts another crack in my veneer, another chink in my armor.

Every time I fail, I feel that this burden becomes heavier, and I fear that, above all else, he will abandon me and find his happily-ever-after with someone else. 

Someone who is able to give him what I cannot.  He has assured me time and time again that he loves me and that he will not leave me, but a life time of insecurities is endlessly difficult to overcome, especially when you are unable to achieve even this: the most basic thing of all. 

For now I lay my heart and my body on the line; and if, in the process, I happen to lose my sanity, I know that he will be there to help me find it again. He is my lover, my best friend, my hero and my husband and I will eternally be grateful that Fate has given him to me, and me to him.

Thank you for keeping my head above the water, for holding me up when I cannot stand on my own, but most of all, than you for loving me the way that you do.

Yours always, in mind body and soul.

XOXO

Sheesh! If that doesn't bring you down I'm not sure what will. 

I know that this piece is dark and depressing, but I had a desperate desire to get it out there. Even if no one ever gets it, no one ever likes it, or even reads it, this was somethng that I felt I had to do.

I promise that the next one will not be so dark or depressing...

Until next time,

ACL

Gummi Madness: Prt 3

Yes my lovelies: We are half way there!!!

Because there is very little difference in the process involved in making these particular bears (the colour and their individual expressions/outfits are different, but the techniques involved in reaching the end result are all the same...), I have decided that perhaps I should only share photos, lest I repeat my self and bore both of us to death...

 

(I may have lied, just a little, about not writing anything...)

This is the colour guide that I used and one of the reference pictures that I had close at hand. The clay has been blended and I am ready to begin.

 The face as a WIP (work in progress).

 The body; before it became the body...

Bulk of the body done, hat added; now the arms...

Legs and feet done. Just the skirt to go. For some reason none of the Bears wear pants...

 
Here he is, just before he was going into the oven for the last time... (See the Cubs at the back?)

He kinda looks really mean, but I think that it works well, seeing as Gruffi is the grumpiest of all the Gummi's...

And that's that. Three down, three to go.

Until next time,
ACL.

PS: Do you remember when I slammed my finger in the door? Well this is that it looks like now. I cannot wait for the nail to grow out, I am so sick of this black spot.
I could cover it with a dark nail polish, but I don't like having nail polish on if I'm working with the clay; lest some pieces flake/chip off and get into the clay.

Surely it cannot be much longer now until it is grown out...

I will add that I am now so cautious of that freaking door, that it almost borders on fear...

Gummi Madness: Prt 2

I'm back with more Disney...

As promised in my last post, I have continued making more of the Gummi Bears, this time it was Sunni's turn.

The original:

I think that she turned out rather well, even if I do say so myself...

Here's how I did it (well most of it):

I started with some pictures from the internet to give me a more accurate visual reference that just doing it all from memory, and once I was confident that I more or less knew what every angle of her looks like, I was ready to start.

A ball of tin foil on a long cocktail stick serves as a base for the head. 

I had Cubbi close at hand to that I could make sure that the scale remained the same.

 Also close at hand was my colour reference chart, showing me all of the colours that I would need to complete Sunni. Starting at the top they are as follows: Fur, muzzle and inner ear, nose, dress, boots, belt, buckle, and drawstring.

Once I had all of my clay mixed to match the colour chart as closely as possible, I got to work.

Adding clay to my tinfoil ball. 

For a little while there she rather closely resembled the Grinch, only in yellow...

You'll notice that here she has a yellow nose which does not fit with the actual character or my colour ref. chart, but I used it as a place holder only. 

 There we go, that is looking a little better.

Next I gave her some eyes. 

For the eyes I simply employed the same method that I used to use with the other figurines/dolls that I have made in the past. That is to say that I shaped the eyes out of the clay and baked them first, then, after they had cooled, placed them on the face and took things from there. 

For a time I was toying with different ideas on how to do that fringe of hers. 

If you have a look at the drawings etc of Sunni, her fringe is most definitely not smooth. It has some spikey bits all over, but, here we come again to the same issue that I faced with Cubbi (and I dare say I'll meet it again with the other Gummi's). 

The issue that I am referring to, of coure, is that all of the Gummi Bears' images etc are all very flat. The 3D aspect is something that I have had to find for my self, and with the hair more than anything else, I was stuck for quite a while.

In the end, I found that keeping it simple and leaving the clay as I did, smooth rather than 'spikey', looked the best and worked well in my representation of this Gummi.

Once I was happy with the appearance of her head, I replaced the yellow nose with one in the right colour and she went into the oven...

After the head had cooled down completely I made another ball of tin foil that was to become her body and also added it to the same skewer.  (I found that it was an easier way to make these particular sculptures rather than using armatures etc..)

I covered said ball on the green that matches her dress and added a V for the neckline, a long dash down the front for the opening of her dress/blouse (she calls it both in different episodes), this is also where the draw string will be placed a little later. I decided to make her body in stages rather than trying to make it all in one sitting, as I am way too clumsy to not make a mess of any, or ever all of it, before it is done...

Finally, for this part, I added the collar of her shirt and baked her again.

Unfortunately, that is where I stopped documenting my progress.

I will endeavor to be more diligent with the next Gummi (Gruffi Gummi). I know; I said something similar in the first part of this series, but I really did forget. 

I was so focused on reaching the end of this journey that I neglected just about everything else (including my fur-babies' dinner which very nealy became a burnt mess).

Finally I will share with you some snaps of (the completed) Sunni Gummi from different angles:

And that is all she wrote.

Until next time,
ACL.