Hand-made architectural tile mural, 2ft x 4ft, temporarily mounted, titled The Sea Refuses No River by Tammy Vitale of Tam’s Originals.

For the artist in all of us, here’s a great way to make your own torso, pregnant or not:   Casting call takes form.  Here’s a snip:

"…Anne Pilli, placed wet plaster strips on Briita Noyes’ very pregnant belly Tuesday morning, the mom-to-be shivered slightly.

"’It’s a little chilly,’ she said. After about 30 minutes, the strips covered her chest and belly and a few minutes later a cast of her shape was dry enough to remove.

"Noyes now has a permanent memento of her form to remember what she looked like on the day her second child was due. It’s called a belly cast."

I’ve also done face masks this way and used them for armatures for clay masks.  They last longer if you put wire screening over the plaster to hold the shape since clay is wet and the plaster will absorb that wetness.  Be sure to use lots of vaseline on your face/body before placing the plaster strips, which can be gotten from crafts supply houses.  Then paint, glitter, decoupage, whatever.

There’s a great little shop in Silver Spring, MD, called Alchemy. Owner Brenda Smoak saw my work at Kefa Cafe in March and called to invite me to work with her shop.  I’m pleased to announce that I will soon have work at there.  A bonus with Alchemy‘s site is that there is free parking right next door to the store at Georgia Avenue and Stoddard, not to mention Alchemy’s work in the arts and surrounding community. 

Adrian Savage writes about business on his blog.  While he defines the world as "harsh" – his tagline is "how to survive and prosper in a harsh world" (and I believe if you expect it that’s what you find) -he has a series of great blogs on the trickster coyote.    Here’s a snip from one on Coyote Teaches Time Management: 

"One warm spring evening, Coyote was out searching for something to eat amongst the trash cans, as he often did, when he heard a voice just above his head. Coyote froze, thinking the owner of the trash can was about to throw something at him—or worse. But the voice didn’t sound angry or threatening, just terribly weary. And no missile was thrown towards him either.

"Coyote, as everyone knows, is intensely curious, so he looked around to see where the voice was coming from. Above his head was an open window, probably to allow the gentle evening air into the house, and the voice was coming from the room inside. It was a woman’s voice, and so weighed down with tiredness it touched Coyote’s heart. He even forgot he was there to look for food…."

Finally, here’s a link to Sculptural Pursuit magazine where you can sign up for an ezine which is a digest of the magazine’s articles with links to some wonderful sculptors.

Enjoy!

thought for the day:  "Shina Tsu Hime: This Japanese wind goddess disperses the morning fog.  She also keeps away evil, distracting winds, winds that treaten to uproot or blur our spiritual focus…

"To Do Today:  Join our Eastern cousins in kite-flying festivities…As it flies, release a wish on the winds."  Patricia Telesco, 365:a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess.