Artistic epiphany!
So there I was, hanging out at Casa Lastwordy, checking out the most recent Pyramid Collection catalog, when I saw the perfect gift for my sister Julie. It was a resin sculpture of a door to the fairy realms - it was about 3 inches high, and very plain, and I said to myself, if I can't make that out of Sculpey, I need to hang up my crafting spurs and retire. So a few nights after I got home, I took out a giant lump of white Sculpey and went to work. I started at 11:00 p.m., figuring that when I got sleepy I would put the project aside and work on it the next day. At 4:30 a.m., I found myself preheating the oven in happy anticipation of my awesome sculpture. I then spent the next week slowly painting everything and letting each different color dry before I moved on to the next bit.
Let me interrupt by saying that I am not a sculptor. Not even a little, tiny bit. That's the only artistic talent I can't even fake - I just suck that badly at it. It was the simplicity of the original design that gave me the confidence to try - had it been more complex, I would never have believed I could copy it.
Anyhoo.
Frank had a number of suggestions. Some were brilliant, some were very silly, and I ended up incorporating almost all of them. (I chose *not* to make the ghetto fairy door with the car on blocks out front and the couch on the porch with the stuffing spilling out of the cushions.) He suggested that I build up the stones on either side of the door to give it a wider base, so that it would stand up better, and that worked really well. He also suggested that I make a Welcome mat and a lion's head door knocker (Rawr!). The Welcome mat says "welcome to my dwelling" in Tolkien Elvish, and the door knocker is a cartoonish dragon's head, because I couldn't make a lion's head (rawr!). I was shocked at the success of my dragon's head, to be honest. The rose vine was all my idea.
My fairy door ended up coming out *so* much more detailed than the Pyramid Collection door - it was my artistic epiphany for the week! I am so proud of the whole thing, from the sculpting to the paint job. Remember, I used white Sculpey and painted the damn thing myself! You can't quite tell in the photograph, but the roses and leaves are subtly dry-brushed with gold, so they have a delicate shimmer. And I did the wood grain one line at a time with a toothpick.
Please let me know what ya'll think! By the way, Julie loved it very much, and gave me many compliments, not the least of which is that she has displayed it prominently on a shelf next to her front door, so everyone who comes in will see it. :)
Let me interrupt by saying that I am not a sculptor. Not even a little, tiny bit. That's the only artistic talent I can't even fake - I just suck that badly at it. It was the simplicity of the original design that gave me the confidence to try - had it been more complex, I would never have believed I could copy it.
Anyhoo.
Frank had a number of suggestions. Some were brilliant, some were very silly, and I ended up incorporating almost all of them. (I chose *not* to make the ghetto fairy door with the car on blocks out front and the couch on the porch with the stuffing spilling out of the cushions.) He suggested that I build up the stones on either side of the door to give it a wider base, so that it would stand up better, and that worked really well. He also suggested that I make a Welcome mat and a lion's head door knocker (Rawr!). The Welcome mat says "welcome to my dwelling" in Tolkien Elvish, and the door knocker is a cartoonish dragon's head, because I couldn't make a lion's head (rawr!). I was shocked at the success of my dragon's head, to be honest. The rose vine was all my idea.
My fairy door ended up coming out *so* much more detailed than the Pyramid Collection door - it was my artistic epiphany for the week! I am so proud of the whole thing, from the sculpting to the paint job. Remember, I used white Sculpey and painted the damn thing myself! You can't quite tell in the photograph, but the roses and leaves are subtly dry-brushed with gold, so they have a delicate shimmer. And I did the wood grain one line at a time with a toothpick.
Please let me know what ya'll think! By the way, Julie loved it very much, and gave me many compliments, not the least of which is that she has displayed it prominently on a shelf next to her front door, so everyone who comes in will see it. :)