Life of an Artful Pen from beginning to end, part 1

I wanted to try to give you a glimpse into how I make my Artful Pens.

So here goes.

The photo above shows 4 of my pens at different stages of it's "life." Pen "A" is the pen before it is embellished, when it is "born." Pen "B" is what the pen looks like after I add the first round of Apoxie Sculpt. During this phase, I want to make sure the pen clip is completely hidden from view. This also gives me a better foundation to build my designs off of. You may notice that I also attached something to the top of the pen cap. This is my little ladybug, which is my "mascot"/theme for my business and my line of work. Within the ladybug I inscribe my initials "CL." Pen "C" is at the stage when I attach my design to the pen itself. And Pen "D" is when my design is coated with a layer of gesso just before painting.

The first photo shows a pen with balls of Apoxie Sculpt. I measure out equal parts of part A and part B of Apoxie Sculpt and then mix both parts together for at least two minutes to ensure that it is mixed thouroughly. If it is not mixed thouroughly, it won't cure/harden properly, not fun. The second photo shows my pen along with a few original pieces made from polymer clay. These "originals" will be used to make silicone molds.

The two photos above show how I prepare my pieces to be made into molds. I use either clear pieces plastic or thin pieces of cardboard that I save from packaging. There's nothing more exciting than to have a package that can be used to help you out with your projects. I prefer using the plastic since you can see through it. Anyway, I get my plastic and cardboard stash and find sizes that will work well for each piece. Then I grab the good ol' glue gun and add a dollop of glue to my piece and carefully position it on the plastic backing.

Using the backing helps to achieve an "even" edge to the mold. And when I say "even" I use the term very loosely. The photo above shows a few pieces all ready to be molded with silicone.

Stay tuned to my next blog post when I show how I make the molds from silicone.

Frankie the Frog in Living Color!

Hello Everyone! It's me Frankie. And I'm here to share with you how I look in living color. Have any of you experienced what it's like to go from 2-D to 3-D and from a gray color to vivid color? It is quite an experience to go through all of those changes. The best and most exciting part is going from gray to color and Christine will tell you that it is the most magical part of the process. It's like a whole new life begins once the first glimpse of color touches the nuetral colored surface. After working hours and days on a gray looking piece, Christine forgets about the end result and sometimes wonders if she will like the piece once it is painted. Other times she anxiously awaits the time to add color because she knows how the color adds life and character to the piece.



I am proud to say that Strings the Cricket and I were the first two sculptures that Christine made with Apoxie Sculpt. And that we were chosen to be in the Spring Honors Show while Christine was in college. One day while cleaning up after sculpture class, Christine's sculpture teacher, TC, asked her if she'd like her pieces in the honors show. It was a goal, a secret dream of hers to be in the honors show before graduating and it happened one semester before graduating. Yay! She remembers all of those past classes where teachers would select other's work for the show and now this time something of hers was chosen.






There we were, in an enclosed display case, surrounded by other pieces of artwork selected for the show. We proudly stood there playing our instruments in honor of the show.





If you're interested in learning more about Apoxie Sculpt, you can go to the Aves Studio website to see their products.


To see Frankie the Frog transform from 2-D to 3-D click here.

A Tuba Playin' Frog has Hopped into My Blog!

Frankie the Frog hopped into my blog to show you how he started out as a watercolor storybook character into a 3-D sculpture. He wants all of his fellow 2-D storybook characters to be inspired by his story of transforming from 2-D to 3-D. Enjoy his inspiring story of transformation!



Welcome to the Lilly Bug Blog! I am Frankie the Frog, here to share my story about emerging into 3-D from the pages of Christine's watercolors. Please feel free to leave your inspiring stories and comments here, we love to hear from you.

One day while Christine was in college, she was working on a series of watercolors for a storybook idea of hers. She worked on some sketches of some musicians practicing for an upcoming surprise birthday party. One of those musicians happened to be me, Frankie the Frog, playing my tuba with my cheeks puffed out, as I put my all into my musical talents.



From the sketch, came the watercolor and after a strong desire to make her storybook characters into a sculptures, Christine was signed up for Sculpture II the following semester. During her first week of sculpture class, she was introduced to a sculpting medium called, Apoxie Sculpt. Things would never be the same from then on.




Christine learned how to make an under-structure to support her Apoxie Sculpt pieces. She used one of her original sketches of me as an aid to shape a wire support as the foundation for my body.



After the wire under-structure was formed, Christine began to use a variety of materials to fill in volume for the shape of my froggy physique. Examples of some of the materials used were, masking tape, string and foil.



And once the layers of those materials were completed, Christine, mixed together the Apoxie Sculpt to cover over all of the volume making materials, so eventually my shape and character came into being.



The photo above shows one of the first layers of Apoxie Sculpt covering the under-structure. Upon looking in the photo archives, Christine could not find very many photos of the Apoxie Sculpt layering/sculpting process of my tuba playin' self. After the first Apoxie layer, came others to give me my own uniqueness, or Frankie-ness, as I like to call it. Once the Apoxie Sculpting was completed, Christine got her handy Dremel power tool to help clean up areas and further define my exterior. No worries, the Dremeling did not cause me an ounce of pain.



After all of the sculpting, sanding, and Dremeling was done, I in all my Frankie-ness, appeared in 3-D, albeit in a neutral gray color. Coming up in the next post, you will see me in living color. Don't miss it!

Frankie the Frog "Leaps into Reading"!

Here's my newest piece that I painted last week. I dropped it off at an art gallery in Illinois yesterday. Since I was in Illinois, in the burbs of the Windy City, I was able to visit my sis and her family before I headed to the gallery. I showed my nieces and nephews my new sculptures. While at my sister's house, I was trying to think of a name for my new Frankie the Frog piece and my niece Kristin helped me out during my brainstorming session. I was thinking of naming it, "Leap Reader" and Kristin suggested, "Leap into Reading." And that's what I named it, so here it is, my "Leap into Reading" sculpture of Frankie the Frog. Thank you Kristin! :-)


Frankie is leaping from a book titled, "The Adventures of Lilly the Ladybug" and of course images of Lilly are present on the book cover, Frankie's arm and within the pages of the book that Frankie is reading himself.


I had this sculpture sitting around for awhile unpainted. Before painting it, I wasn't sure if I really liked the piece, but magic always seems to happen once I add paint and color to my sculptures. That's an exciting part of the process. After hours of sculpting in a neutral gray medium, Apoxie Sculpt, seeing it with color brings a whole new life to the sculpture. Up to this point, I have never gotten tired of the transformation from gray to color. I love color!


And here's my cute lil' nephew, Andrew Chung, who will be one year old on Easter Sunday. He's getting close to taking his first steps. In the photo above he's trying to get to one of my Chick-a-lites. I brought some of my craft show pieces to show the Chung family. I thought Andrew looked so adorable peering over the edge of the table, so I snapped a photo. He really wanted to touch the chick and bunny I brought along. He's such a joy to see, I wish I could see the Chungs more often.


The craft show is now only two days away and it seems like I have a mountain of work to get done yet. I posted a few photos of my pieces after they got a coat of "glaze." These pieces will be either a pin or a magnet that I will be selling at the craft show along with my Recyc-a-lites. I think I will have about a 100 pins and/or magnets for my show.




"Hope". . . one of the things I'm trying to hold on tight to is hope. One of my favorite pieces, mainly because it symbolizes something so powerful and encouraging. Without hope, there is no life.



And yes, here they are . . . finally in color, the Bunn-a-lites! I may post some other bunny pics sometime, since the cream colored bunny almost blends in with the background color. There will be 12 bunnies hopping their way to the craft show this weekend.

Take care! :-)