a flowery dachshund

Meet Fleur. She’s a sweetie.

This is one of the dogs I worked on for myself while working on a couple of commissions which I’ll share soon.

I figured that since my first two dachshunds sold quickly (here is one, the other is at the bottom of this post cause I guess I never shared him on the blog… oops), that maybe making another for my Etsy shop (or ebay? or where..?) might be a good idea.

So, Fleur was made the same way as all my other dog sculptures, using recycled cardboard, wire, DIY paper pulp, air dry clay and then covered in decoupaged napkins to make her pretty and colourful.

I thought she would look best with a purple nose, so there it is! Before selling her, I’m considering giving the nose a shine with some varnish, just to make it shine… I think that will look great.

In case you’re wondering where I disappeared to, well, I have some great excuses. One is I went through a very busy stage, working at the travel agency and grooming dogs in my free time. The other is I went through a lazy stage, preferring to live vicariously through Netflix while holding down the couch. Can’t be too safe with those tricky couches.

Then I got inspired, so I’ve been working on a few things. Firstly, finishing my commissions (a deadline sure does help get you out of a funk) then moving on to my own work. And lastly, having stopped the office work and with things quieter on the grooming front, I’ve moved on to some tool related work. Despite the cold.

At least it doesn’t rain often on Paros. Not a good thing…

Oh, and a ton of home organising, moving summer clothes up and winter clothes down and sorting a ton of stuff to give away. If it doesn’t bring joy, get rid of it – isn’t that the saying? I also say “if I haven’t worn it in ages, it has to go”. Its my way of making room for new stuff (new or 2nd hand) which I will wear.

I am a natural organiser but I never seem to get as organised as I’d like to be. I have storage solutions coming out of my nose, but am I able to find something quickly every time? Nope. Cause it’s not totally, sensibly organised into a spot where it belongs!

sigh.

So anyway, look forward to being spammed with posts over the next few days. Hopefully I can keep up the work, the inspiration and the momentum of blogging again. I mean, what else are you gonna do on those cold evenings?

And, as promised, here is a pic of the last dachshund I made and sold on Etsy. He was covered in striped vintage fabric. One of my all-time favourites.

Cute, huh?

z

march 5. a month of daily art.

Another quick sketch using tea plus red wine. Turns out the red wine is a huge disappointment. Nothing red about it… just a stain. Not a particularly good one either, I admit I was hoping for something redder.

So its back to pencils, tea and the new acrylics. I ended up buying a box of 36 small 20ml tubes cause that way I have all the colours to play with, and when I run out I can always buy what I need. This set is to keep for use in Athens, since it looks like I’ll be here quite a while this year.

I have tons of paints on Paros, but of course, you always need more paint… especially favourite colours. But I work bigger on Paros than I do here, so the mini tubes are fine for here.

I really hate having two homes. You sort of need two of everything if you live in more than one place. Sure, my HOME is on Paros, but since mom lives in Athens I’ll always be here for some time in winter to be with her… not to mention the constant renovation projects I seem to attract.

So, till I go back to Paros, hopefully by the end of this week, I’ll continue working on smaller works for my daily art. Bigger ones are more like weekly art than daily. Sometimes monthly…

z