From button sculptures to wire mesh!

Welcome Spring. Before we get excited by the new shiny object this month I have to give a shout out to Spring. Happy you are here.


As I was posting last months blog I continued to find inspirational artisits who are looking at sculpture and story telling in new ways.  They are also just really cool. 


Chinese artist Shi Jindian creates three-dimensional steel wire sculptures where the end result makes heavy objects seem light and dream like. When I first saw the below images I really loved how it showed me a new way to look at sculpture. What is trypically seen as weighted these "skeletons" are the exact opposite. Shi Jindian says that he leaves a steel "shadow". He also says they (the sculptures) also touch "the state of mind that emerges from the labour of my hands: tranquiltiy and calm."


Let me know what you think and check out more about Shi Jindian at: http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/artists/shi-jindian/

Once again we are shown that the SKY is really the limit!

Enjoy!

Button Magic

So... during one of my trendathons I have when time permits I came across Augusto Esquivel's amazing sculptures. He says he holds, "... the button to my ear and it whispers to me, “I want to be…..” Whatever they are saying I am buying.  They are some of the most unique sculptures.  I to love buttons.  Early on while learning my craft I came to appreciate the trimings and details that go into finishing a garment. These details help to differentiate garments fomr one another. While individually small, buttons can make a big statement...as well as keeping your pants on.

A great showcase in how something small can be something big!

Enjoy the inspiration!

                                       

A link to one of his videos. Check it out!                            

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwT2UL9DaKE

Discovering the magic of Reach Out and Read on a local level

Hi,

This is my February blog.  I know it is slightly delayed but I really wanted to wait and share the fieldtrip the SKY Team just came from on the 28th. We met up with the Los Angeles Program Director for Reach Out and Read, Debbie Navarro, at a local community health center in Pasadena. It was great meeting Debbie and understand her passion for her job and how much she loves what she does. Being part of that energy, and family, is really exciting. She took us in where we met with Dr. Andriette Ward. This center is vital to the community and understanding the large impact the partnership between the center and Reach Out and Read is easy to see. Andriette is extremely passionate about what she does and understands how important reading and positive reinformcement through stories can be to children. Many Reach Out and Read centers are attached to hospitals but others, like this one, are smaller and are always looking for volunteers. Through our partnership SKY is there to lend a helping hand big or small. Hearing how Andriette wants to expand the reading opportunties in her clinic lead to a conversation about murals. I have been known to paint a mean mural, my first in fourth grade for my elementary public school. Visually impactful, murals always got me excited as a child. To me they were my imagination blown up and larger then life. With that I am excited to say we will be helping painting a mural, maybe murals, with Andriette. The Sky Team is excited to be a part of enriching the children and families lives that come to the center every day.

Find your local Reach Out and Read center today by going to www.reachoutandread.org.

 One of many doctors in the Reach Out and Read family consulting with a mother and her young child.

The joy of dicsovery and reading!

Let's help celebrate the power of reading!

A New Year!

Happy New Year!

Hope 2012 is full of great new stories and adventures. I am posting today the gift I made for my Mom for Chrsitmas this year. Took me awhile to get it up on the blog but here it is. Throughout my childhood I experimented with Sculpey clay, a "Playto"like clay that can be baked and hardened. It comes in an array of colors, it is easy to use, and really great to work with. I used to make tree toppers, sometimes, angels and sometimes other holidaycentric characters for her. It had been over twenty years since she had received a new one and while the old ones are nice, they are... old. This year I chose to sculpt, for the first time ever, a snow elf.  I also made an outfit for it. I took photos throughout the entire process to share step by step what I did.  This is a great project to do with your kids letting them get there hands dirty, not too dirty though, and showing them a fun way to create!

Enjoy,

Tony

Step One:
I took a styro foam ball and wrapped in plastic wrap ad dusted it with baby powder so the clay would not stick. I then proceeded to layer the clay on the ball shaping his facial features as I went. The tools in the image are actually from my granfather.  he was an artist and made his own tools. 

Step Two:
I rlled out long thin pieces of brown Sculpey and layered it on two frame his face with hair. Once all of the sculptiing was complete I baked it, as decsribed on the directions, in my home oven.

Step Three:
Painting. I waterered down some acrylic paint and began layering it on the flesh tone to create depth. I also did this with a dark brown on the hair so it did seem so flat.

Step Four:
I screwed a wooden dowl to a wooden base. Then I took a foam cone, love Michaels!, and using tacky glue glue them together. Then I glued the head one. I had place a hole in the base of the foam core ball and affixed that to the dowl.

Step Five:
By first pleating the fabric with the iron, I fanned it out and hot glued it in place creating a ruff.

Step Six:
I took some scarpe leather and with embroidery floss whipstitched it together

Detail of hat with metal ball, button, on peak of hat.

Step Seven:
This is where I really got to experiment! I took some thin wire and glue it into some baked clay, gluing the clay to the foam form. This created my skeleton for the arms. Sadly, a stuffed animal was sacrificed int he making of this. I cut off its arms and legs and sewed them together to create the body shape. by wrapping some tee shrt fabric around him I created his underpiece. Note: I sculpted the gloves as I did the face.

Step Eight:
I dipped dyed white cotton fabric and by shirring it at the next created an oversized collar. I sprayed the fabric with glitter and sewed on some metall rings and stones for shine. Lastly, I found a tree ornament and glued it into his glove. Let the snow begin!