Step three:
I installed my windows...and they wondered why I was saving empty water bottles under my bed. 
They tried to take them away from me once but decided against it. When the orderly was reaching under there to get them, I bit him on the butt. He leaves my bottles alone now.

I also put my Venetian blinds up...I modeled them after the ones on the meds window in the infirmary.  Next came the license plate, and a few bumper stickers I cut out of an old magazine, then a couple of tail lights. Seems to be shaping up. We'll see where it goes from here...

Step two :
I gave it a skin of silver duct tape that I found in the
furnace room. This old place is just full of little nooks and cranny's to hide in... 
The trim is the seal off an old coffee can I found in the kitchen,and the doors and windows are cut out of card board and covered with the tape. 
Don't tell anyone I was in the basement...they might fix the lock and I wouldn't be able to go down there any more.  

 

Coming up next, window treatments...

 

I must be doing better because this time around they let me have scissors. I have to be very careful not to run with them or they said they will take them away from me. I had to promise, and had to write 20 times 'I will not run with scissors', 'I will not run with scissors', 'I will not run with scissors'...they didn't say anything about throwing them !!!

While I was out in the real world I started building a Trailer Park out of cardboard and paper. That project will continue here. I will try to start at the beginning so bare with me because supplies are limited in this place. I have paper 

(empty cereal boxes), glue, paints, some clay, and my new

scissors, which I promised I wouldn't run with. I wouldn't

throw them either cause that wouldn't be very nice. 

 

Here's the first step. I drew a pattern on the back of a cornflakes box and the tires I made from Fimo, a clay you can cure in a home oven...in my case I had to let the cafeteria lady bake them for me...

Stay tune, more to follow, I promise :)

Claydoodles

Yesterday I was sitting at my desk waiting for guests to arrive and picked up a small glob of air dry clay.  I started pinching clay and soon these little guys just emerged from my finger tips. 

The phone rang and I needed someplace to sit them so I grabbed the first thing I saw.   It was a small branch of wood  I found at the lake that had this beautiful moss green/silver  patina.  I cut it into several short lengths  and  polyurethaned them to protect them for future projects .  Couldn't have come up with a better perch had I actually tried :)

I liked the color and pattern  of the wood so much I even shared a piece of it with a  friend in Canada, as if they don't have enough beautiful trees of their own already...

 They sort of reminded me of the Cow Birds that populated our feeders last season at the lake  and I couldn't resist getting out my colors to finish them off.


  They are a bit rough around the edges , but keep in mind...it's just a claydoodle .

The other day I set my blog preferences to allow  posting to my blog from my Blackberry.   It was simple enough to do.  I just had to text a code  to a blog number.

I forgot about it and the next afternoon, as I was sitting at my computer,  my phone received a text message.  When I looked at the text it was just a garbled bunch of numbers. I did what any red blooded American lad would do and immediately text back "dumb ass !"

Today's blog:  'Dumb ass'...that goes without saying.  
 

 

I Believe, cont'

Last night I finished landscaping Jensen's display case.  I decided to place him in a dry creek bed. I was telling you before about using pine needles bunched as reeds and those turned out to be rather realistic looking, if I do say so myself.

I laid a ground of the same air dry clay that I used for the large stones. Then I rolled a mess of various sized balls of clay and flattened them into little round, smooth river rocks.  I'm pretty happy with it considering it's the first time I've worked in this particular medium.

I dropped a tiny branch into the reeds over the larger rock which added a bit more realism, then painted the whole thing.  I still have to add a polymer satin finish to the ground and then the only thing left to do will be putting the sides up and gluing on my Gothic hinges .

I'm still working out the top of the case which will fit like a lid.  I'm wanting to build some kind of lighting into it and I'm looking for a battery operated LED that isn't that horrible blue/white light.  Any suggestions from outside these walls would be greatly appreciated.

Well, I'm not getting it done sitting here. I have to go hide this stuff,  it's about time for my meds...yeah ! 

Thanks for the visit

Later, 
Flip   

I believe, cont' 


I have to thank a new City-O-Clay friend, Karin, for turning me on to builders foam.  I was able to use it to build a simple platform stepped up with a cut out the size of the side panels of glass. 

I used an air dry clay to cover the base and after scoring it the way I wanted the stones to lay, I shaped them a bit then I imprinted them with a nice texture of a rock I found in the shock therapy room...it was covered in bite marks.  Then I painted the whole thing and used a Satin Liquitex finish.

I planned the base for four inch sides with a height of nine inches.  They set perfectly into the base.  I made what appear to be Gothic hinges out of Fimo and cured them over the edge of a cigar box in my little toaster oven that I keep under my bed,  Shhhhh ! 

...and I just used a super glue and glued them onto the glass to hold the frame together.   I plan to make the top on the same principle as the base, with the hopes of creating some kind of lighting, It will just fit on as a lid.  I had the corner glass shop cut the window glass for me and had them polish the edges.

My next step is landscaping the base and soon I will show you some ideas I have to do that . 

I also want to show you some cool tall grasses I made out of a few bundles of pine needles...I'm going to plant them around an old fence post.  I'll also be showing you how I built the neatest little drying rack for my air dry clay...stick around,  Subscribe, do what ever you need to do...but check back and we'll start where we left off...

...and I believe in fairies !


I've become very absorbed in making little people and things out of clay in our craft class, but  I have to be very careful around here because they scare the other inmates...they wake up screaming!


This week I've been working on a display case for a little fellow that  I call 'Jimson Weed'


This pic is where it stands at the moment:

Common sense...

Remember, if you wipe your butt and blow your nose on the same piece of toilet paper, it's common sense that tells you which you should do first...