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Good morning everyone! A beautiful Mothers Day weekend is in store for us here in the pacific northwest, and a great weekend for creating,and creating. It's what I've been doing all week. I've been painting pieces that I made months ago and finally got them done.

Well its Friday again and time to check in and let you know what I'm working on. I have been painting the fairy tale piece this week, and dreaming of Santa's, and Santa scenes that I will create soon. The fairy piece is coming along just fine and the will be photos of you to see some of the pieces that are complete.

What a beautiful day it is, and how lucky I am! I get to each day of the week in my studio and listen to the roosters crowing and looking out my window I now can see rabbits running around throughout the gardens. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place to live, but you must like rain as I do.

Well its Friday again and time for an update of what I'm working on now! Small or miniature cottages, very hobbit like, they are a combination of my love for miniatures, hobbit and harry Potter, each rock and shingle is hand formed and I don’t even know how many shingles are on a roof., or how many rocks hold up the roof, and I'm pretty sure they would not pass any building codes...ha!

These are new for me so I'm perfecting as I go. I hope that you have a happy Easter and enjoy my newest projects, If you remember the very large fairy tale scene we showed you a few weeks ago, starting Monday, it will start the process of painting it taking the scene apart and painting it one character at a time then put it back together as I go. So with any luck you may see parts of it next Friday. 

Warmest regards,  Dennis

What a great week. I've been working on my fairy's that a lot of you saw last year. Its spring (so they say) and its time to reintroduce my version of a fairy. We took it a couple steps farther this year by adding crystals that change colors glow in the dark clay and miniature fairies. At  about 4 to 5 inches tall, the miniatures will feature colorful flowers that show the flower to fairy scale. The fairies that I do for those of you that did not see them before represent the character that I've created over the years and what I feel fairies really look like.

I don’t do Barbie like fairies they are old men but very magical in many ways. The miniatures will be painted to blend into the flower they are holding and can be customized with your favorite flower. Also I'm doing the wizards that have been popular over the years.... and yes I've managed to do some Santa's also as I have to keep up on them and they are my true love. some of the fairies are pictured for you to see even though they are not painted yet. I hope you enjoy what I've been doing and have a great week.

Warmest regards,

Dennis

... blog post from last Friday March 23, 2012

I hope you have had a good week. We woke up this morning to sunshine, no snow and no rain, maybe just maybe spring has sprung! I have been painting all week, and I have lots of pieces that I've made this year and the reality is they need to be painted. So I"ve stopped sculpting long enough to get caught up on the painting so we can get them on the website for you to see. Several Santas and Santa scenes plus the fairy tale scene are on the lineup to be painted, and it's difficult because as I paint I'm coming up with ideas that I want to sculpt. It takes self control on my part to keep painting, but I'm writing the ideas down so I can go back to them when I'm caught up.  I'm a very lucky person to be doing what I,m doing, and very fortunate to have a following like I have. 42 years and the best is yet to come!

Have a good week and now I have to pick up the paint brush and bring these creations to life.

Dennis

Well, I had a great weekend working with Janelle Barryman, and enjoyed her ideas and gave her a few also. I'm in a painting mode now and have been painting for several days, so soon painted pieces will start appearing on the website, mostly Santas and Santa scenes. I think you will be very happy when you see them. March has been a weird weather month last night was thunder, lightning , and lot of hard rain even weird bouts of snow.  I'm painting a Santa now with a reindeer, elf, and a small bear. Hopefully there will be new ones posted on the website soon . Have a good week , warmest wishes.

-Dennis

Well it’s a little late this week but here we go... I've spent the last couple days hosting an artist that I have the utmost respect for, she is terrific {Halloween being her specialty}. Janelle Barryman from Pumpkin Seed Original. , she designs for Enesco, and Department 56 and has been a source of inspiration for me for several years. She came up from Oregon so we could work side by side and share some ideas, and it has been wonderful. I would ask you if your not familiar with her artwork to go to her website and check it out shes like a tamed down Tim Burton.

Other than that I have spent the week creating ,and enjoying the rain. I'm going to incorporate some of her style and ideas into my Santa Figurines and Santa scenes and I think they will be well received. It's always fun for me to sit and work with other polymer clay artist even if our style is different and our approach doesn’t match, you can learn a lot from each other and take away tidbits of information. So for this week I'd like to motivate anybody that does anything to sit with someone who does it also for inspiration and fun.

The best is yet to come,

Dennis

As most of you have seen by now in the blog last week, I had been working on a very large piece (fairy tale themed), I finally I have removed it from my desk, and all that’s left is painting it.

Now I,m working on another detailed piece,not as large though. It will be a surprise that you'll see pictures of next week. and yes it has a.Santa in it. .Santa figurines and especially Santa scenes are my favorite thing to create. This has been a remarkable year so far for creativity I feel as though I have made the best and most detailed pieces I have ever done. I have created a painting nightmare though, as most of what I've sculpted this year still needs to be painted.

This is going to be a very good year for the growth of my artwork as I have a goal to go way beyond anything I've ever done. I plan on pushing the limits to what can truly be done with Super Sculpey. Super Sculpey its my clay of choice and I've used it for over 40 years. If you have never used it I highly recommend it.  

We've had snow ,rain, and wind this week and that makes for a very good atmosphere for creating, I hope you truly enjoyed the video and pictures of the piece last week and that you will forward them on to everyone you know so I can get some feedback and thoughts... again if anyone would like to email me with pictures of what you do with clay I would love to see it.

The best is yet to come,

Warmest regards, Dennis

There is a place far beyond your imagination, a place where dreams come to life, a place somewhere between sleep and awake, a place that as a child you visited often, and as an adult you often wish you still were. That is where we have attempted to take you with this last creation, we take you to where Merlin still watches over, a place where the tortoise and the hare have unfinished business and gnomes wander the gardens. The genie is there to grant your wishes, and Santa arrives to awaken your dreams, humpty dumpty doesn’t need all the kings horses and all the kings men yet! Sail away in a hot air balloon or pirates ship, or just hide out in the cottage where a young girl hid from the evil queen. Enter a world where time stands still, a world where small is big and big is small, a world where it doesn’t matter whether its day or night. Where new life is waiting for spring (find the birds nest with the egg waiting to hatch), a world where time stands still. Although creating Santa figurines and Santa related scenes are what I love to do, welcome to a world I also love. The world of whimsical and fantastical characters that got all of use through our childhood..The wonderful world of fairy tales.

This piece took 25 lbs of Super Sculpey provided by Polyform products, and took over 120  hours and still needs to be painted (after a long nap). It is a piece I'm most proud of and I hope you enjoy. Take a moment and look at the pictures and watch the video and sit back and relax enjoy the time when life was simple, and you will soon realize we are still just kids.......

Warmest regards Dennis, and remember the best is yet to come....