Like us humans, the Citizens of Gigglesville are not created equal. They come in all different shapes and colors. But size-wise, they are about the same, given the one inch balsa I use; only their height differs.
There are several ‘types’ of citizens, all sculpted with love. Every time when one is completed, I break into a giggle and my heart is filled with joy and love.
How can one not giggle and love them by just looking at their innocent giggly expressions?
Things have been slow lately. So much so, I feel so sluggish. The weather, being so hot and humid is not helping either.
I am going through a dry spell as far as Gigglesville is concerned. There were two four-day stretches that I didn’t carve anything!
I suddenly have this urge to create a new character but stuck for inspiration. Thank goodness, the side-tracked Octopus I did for M2 kept me busy but after that, nothing.
I need to recharge…
Somehow my M2 is not quite a fan of owls like my friends because when I asked her if she would like to have one citizen of Gigglesville of her own, she declined.
Instead she asked for something else. Maybe she appreciates my carving skills…
Initially, she requested for me to carve her a potato! I thought it was weird and I didn’t think a potato would be nice, so I asked again.
This time, she requested for an octopus. The challenge my child puts me through!
So I carved an octopus for her. Tried my best and this is the end result.
White gesso base
The end result!
While we appreciate Fat Bird and the pair of birds visiting our home, there’s another Fat Bird that we appreciate more. Specifically, it’s a Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region in New Zealand.
Lovely wine. Highly recommended!
Talk about having no fear. While Fat Bird is wary of us, the pair of friendly birds, Bird 1 and Bird 2 are just so daring! On Monday evening, they casually sauntered onto the garden terrace and right into the house!
Yes, into the house without hesitation or fear. Walked right in as if they do this all the time to explore the house in all directions, towards the dining area and the living room.
They even came right up to my carving area. I sat quietly to admire their head bobbing and funny walk, mesmerized by their bravery at the same time.
Then suddenly they realized they were ‘lost’, they panicked and tried to fly away. In their frantic flapping, they knocked themselves against the windows that were closed. Silly birds.
Hubby managed to catch them, one by one and gently set them into the garden again.
Thank goodness, no injury to the pair. Phew. I hope this spooked experience won’t make them stay away from the garden and us. We shall see the next few days.
I have been asked why a dinosaur and not an owl for my second tattoo as I am so into owls, with all that carving that I do?
Well, it’s because I have been going on and on about the dinosaur era when I reminisce about life in my musings, it made sense to assert my dinosaur-ness with a permanent one. But a dinky one to salute life with a good chuckle.
The owls? They are different and seriously, too many to decide which one I like because I love all my Citizens of Gigglesville. And as I see and create them in 3D, somehow I cannot picture them in 2D.
I have yet to carve a dinosaur and my dinky dinosaur looks good as is, on paper in 2D, it’s apt and a good decision.
Would I consider a third tattoo? Hmm… will give it some serious thought when I get to that crossroad in future.
The square blocks from Daiso are not as easy to carve compared to my usual balsa wood. They are not soft, being harder and more dense therefore, harder to carve.
I started to carve Citizen #64 of Gigglesville but the progress is very slow. Even with sharpened tools, it’s slow. In the midst of it, I diverted to the new balsa wood for a couple of quick ones and Citizens #65 and #66 came about at a much faster pace.
Sometimes there are no shortcuts even at a bargain. I should stay focused.
It took me several hours each time over a stretch of several days to complete Citizen #64. That’s too long compared to the balsa wood which I take only 40 minutes to an hour to carve a citizen up.
Maybe if the blocks are not suitable to carve citizens of Gigglesville, I should consider using them to create other elements to support the township. Something to think about.
Citizen #64, the giant
Citizens #65 & #66
Thrift stores are the best. At a fixed flat price, you can find just about anything from these places. We have Daiso, the Japanese brand here and I must say, it’s one of our favorite haunts.
Every now and then whenever we go to the mall, we must visit a Daiso store. And surely, we will find something useful and at a bargain. Last week, I found some ready-cut wood blocks (8 pieces in a bag) on the shelves and thought the size was perfect for carving. At half the price of my usual balsa wood but three pieces less than what a foot of balsa would yield, it’s a bargain.
Slightly bigger at 1.2 inch by 1.2 inch compared to my usual one inch by one inch balsa, I think I can manage although the label did not mention what type of wood these blocks were. I even discovered a set of diamond files, perfect for filing those crevices!
With the new materials (incidentally, I bought two more pieces of balsa from the art store) and new tools, Gigglesville is set for another boom in the coming days! Whee…..
I finally decided to ‘give up’ two more games on my iPad, deleting them several nights ago. Remember Candy Crush Saga was canned awhile back?
It’s not a total give up but a technical one because I still play these games in Facebook on the laptop (at home) or desktop (in the office). My iPad has been so slow, rendering it almost useless, it’s aggravating.
I don’t have pictures and music on the iPad, so I suspect it’s the games’ data accumulated when I play them and it hordes the space on the device thus slowing it down. With the RAM dropping down to 200MB or thereabouts most times, what can I do? I can’t even read anything on Safari, let alone crush some candies!
So I canned both the Monster Busters apps. This is on top of clearing away other apps that I don’t use any longer. I even deleted the Facebook app!
On hindsight, maybe it’s a good thing to make me less dependent on my iPad as I find myself doing more meaningful things in my free time, like carving up a whole township of Gigglesville citizens!
The carving efforts have improved with time and dedication. This most recent piece is a tribute to hubby’s uncle, a man with a great passion and unusual life mission which is to walk the Great Wall of China.
This little 31mm Wanderlust Owl comes complete with a cap, a backpack and hiking pole, just like the man who has traversed the Great Wall in a spate of several years since 2009. He would continue on each year from where he left off on the previous journey to pursue the improbable dream and fulfill his mission with amazing courage.
You can read all about his adventure in details on his website: http://ooithin.wixsite.com/count1million
Hats off to you for this courageous and determined effort! You deserve the Wanderlust Owl.
Angieneering 
Remarks