The Story

I don't know her name, but locally she's known as the Witch in the Woods. She treks through the forest and marshland twice a day, hunting and gathering. She places items in an old black sack (what the children refer to as "her death bag").

I know what you're thinking. After such a long hiatus, you're posting a scrap of burlap?

This is a preview of the ensemble I'm making for my latest project. Lots of firsts happening in this one:

A) It's a sculpture of a human being

B) I have to make clothes for it

C) It will have a base

Let's go back to today's topic of clothes. I am not a seamstress. I do not own a sewing machine. I haven't made a piece of clothing since Grade 7 Home Economics (and if memory serves, I made a pillow in the shape of a D. Not clothing).

But when I started sculpting the hag, and she had such an organic feel to her, I decided I would cheat myself if I didn't give her actual clothes.

This is an image of her shawl. I made it while watching the Russia vs. Canada hockey game (trying not to fling it across the room as both arms shot into the air for each goal). It's burlap with the edges tied in knots and weaved with twine to make a hem. Then I knotted some more twine in different sizes and tied them to the edges. A little brown and white paint, and voila.

She has simple (very simple) footwear, a babushka (peasant scarf), a dress (more of a wrap) and a scarf belt.

More to come.

Hello Ghoulies. I have yet to find our copy of Photoshop which means I haven't been able to post images, which explains why I haven't been blogging since the resurrection of my computer.

I've tried to use the time to catch up on emails, other blogs, twitter, and everything else plugged into the online world.

Worst case scenario, I will install the old Photoshop 6 program I have kicking around. After all, I have Underbiters, a brand new sculpt project, and a plague doctor door snake to show you!

In the meantime, I've been plotting out a road trip to the west coast in April: driving along I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska, dipping down into Colorado (maybe taking the more nicer I-70), popping back up to Utah and finally arriving at our destination of San Francisco.

We don't plan on staying more than a night at main stops along the way, but if anyone has some favourite places along that route - maybe even some ghost towns - I'd love to hear about them.

I'll tackle the plans for the route home (up through Oregon, east through Washington, and on) later.

Question: if I bring Brains Vs Coffee in the car with me, can I dub this a book tour?

I signed into Twitter today and there was a lot of chatter about Groundhog Day. Morbius Kromwell got me thinking when he tweeted "Just once, instead of a groundhog, I wish some mutant creature from the depths of hell would rise and wreak havoc...". I started musing about ways to improve this holiday.

This is what I've come up with.

We replace the Groundhog with a Chicken. On the special day, the chicken gets decapitated. If it runs around for more than 1 minute, it means we have a longer winter. If the corpse stops moving before then, we have an early spring (hence the term "spring chicken").

If children in the crowd of festivities get splattered with blood as the chicken runs around, it means more precipitation (rain or snow depending on the spring/winter forecast).

AND best of all, if someone eats the chicken - and by doing so, devours the chicken's living essence/soul - THEY get to overrule the outcome of the chicken run and decide what the forecast will be.

There is a small group of supporters already. Who else is with me?