Lately, I am going through a dry spell on carving despite having comfortable cool weather. I don’t know why. There shouldn’t be any excuses.
The last Citizen carved was 24th October followed by the Halloween Owl a week later. I’ve gone almost two weeks without any new additions, a rather unusual stretch. Maybe if not more Citizens, at least some gnomes, another monument or two, superheroes or even the big pieces. OR… maybe something totally new.
We shall see…
Recently I have taken a sudden liking to the cartoon character, Gudetama, a depressed little egg yolk with a butt crack and bought two little keychain plushies of this popular Japanese character.
It was M2 who introduced me to it when she showed me her Holika Holika Gudetama Edition Lazy & Joy Dessert hand cream, a gift from her friend. The character tickles me so much so that I have the sad little fella sitting like one fried egg on top of the dashboard in my car and one hanging behind the driver’s seat.
While I do have other favourite characters and collect them, I don’t put any of their plushies in my car. This time, I find myself having two Gudetama in the car! And my sheer driving pleasure increases every time I look at it whenever I have to stop at the traffic light. It’s certainly one appealing cute little sad egg.
Last week, the internet at the office was down for a good half of the work week. It was most aggravating as we could not work at all. Nowadays work is so dependent upon connectivity and when the connection is down, we find ourselves on edge.
Important emails could not be sent out or received was the bane of the situation. Forget social media updates or glancing at headline news which could not be accessed from the desktop computer anyway. The stress was most unbearable especially with deadlines looming over the head.
To make matters worse, WhatsApp was also hit apparently and for a couple of hours, we were totally disconnected! I felt as if a limb was cut off.
The internet was finally fixed on Saturday and yesterday morning everything was okay until after two o’clock. The connectivity was down again! Aarrghhh.…
So I find myself unable to work again and there’s nothing we could do except to report the breakdown and wait it out. Aggravation indeed. Aarrghhh.
I think I deserve a pat on the shoulder for carving up a four inch Citizen of Gigglesville. The Halloween Owl is a pretty good effort for a first attempt on a bigger and harder piece. And suddenly I find my other citizens so minuscule!
How did I ever managed to carve up 111 pieces of one inch tall or thereabouts of the Citizens and a band of Superheroes too? Just as amazing.
Now that this is completed, onwards to color it!
This year for Halloween, I did not have time to buy whole watermelons to carve like I did in 2013 when M1 was still around. And not only pumpkins have gotten too expensive, they are unavailable at our regular grocer! So I opted for something very different this time.
I carved a Halloween Owl.
Several weeks ago, my only sibling bought a pack of wood with different size blocks for me to vary my carving pieces. It was very thoughtful of him to push me beyond my comfort zone, which I think is a good thing.
The basswood pieces are so much bigger and harder in density than my usual one inch wide soft balsa. I feel very pumped about the challenge. I had to plan thoroughly because now, the size and shape of the character are somewhat different. The block is four inches tall, four times taller than what I am used to work with.
So on 31st October, I started on a Citizen of Gigglesville wearing a witch’s hat and a big cape. I must say even the carving process has been different with more strength applied, being a harder wood, and all the tools were utilized.
Work is still in progress but it’s coming along good. I hope to finish it by next week and have it painted up!
Out of the blue, I decided that my Citizens of Gigglesville should wear hats! I don’t know why but I suddenly developed an urge to sew or make hats for them. It would make them even more cute than what they are now.
I even bought some tiny fluff balls with the intention of making some Santa hats for them. But I have failed miserably because I couldn’t even get the cone shape of the Santa hat right. I won’t give up though.
Then a brilliant idea hit and I didn’t even have to make anything!
My citizens now don sombrero-like hats, made out of fruit nettings! Hahahaha….. it’s just cuteness overload. I had so much giggles ‘dressing’ them up and taking snapshots. Clearly only Citizen #53 was not amused by the session. Hahahaha…..
Online shopping seems to be a new favorite thing to do between hubby and I. Just about every week or every other week, both of us are buying stuff online as if trying to outdo each other. I would look at carving tools to add to my supply and he, at air plants to add to his collection.
But the difference between our purchases are the sizes of the boxes/packages that the things arrive in. Mine comes in flat little packs while his are in big huge boxes except that one time when I ‘won’ hands down with the arrival of the big bean bag. On Tuesday, his latest purchase finally arrived.
Look at the size of the box!
Package one of two arrived last Friday and the diamond files are much longer than what the website picture showed. I guess I didn’t see the measurements listed properly.
Hubby laughed when he saw them because he said they look similar to dental instruments, being angled. Well, I think they will be put to good use especially with all those angles to tackle tight crevices.
And package two, which was shipped separately after I received notification on Friday, arrived yesterday. Yay. Like the first set, this second set of diamond files are also longer than its picture on the website.
Again, hubby laughed at them because he half expected the set to have mirrors, complementing the dental-looking first set. Hahaha….
Anyway, I don’t know why I need so many of the same thing. The more the merrier? We shall see how the end result of new citizens when these new tools are put to use.
The first set
The second set which is longer than my existing mini files
The exams continue this week for M2 after the week long break. I must say she diligently did her revision throughout the week although we took a break on Wednesday to go watch a movie. Only because it was a public holiday and we were off.
Hopefully all that effort will pay off. All the best M2!
I’ve come to conclusion that it takes more than the carving tools to make the end piece look good. The filing or the sanding down of the surface to smoothen it is the essence as much as what the shape is.
My more recent Citizens of Gigglesville do really look good with all this attention to details – the curves, the crevices and of course, the surface.
Last week, the online shopper in me struck again! I couldn’t resist and went into the Lazada site again to purchase two different types of diamond filing sets! I await their arrival.
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