thewortzone.net

Dark Sword of Power

I just got my order of balloons and new book on balloon twisting.

Simple Mouse

The mouse is setting on a flower the flower is not shown as I lost all my full size photos when I was transferring them from my phone to my PC.

Snake Ballon Animal

This is Snake need I say more

Giraffe Ballon Animal

I don’t know why but every time I make balloons for people someone always wants a giraffe. This is my best giraffe yet

Giraffe Ballon Animal

Holiday Wreath Balloon

And staying with the season a Christmas Wreath

From Roberta and I wishing you a Merry Christmas and

Very Happy New Year.

In just four days the Fall season officially begins.  The Autumn equinox is September 22, at 10:49 a.m. EDT.  I have mixed feelings about fall. I enjoy the color but despise the the yard work.  I am relieved by the cool nights and the not so hot days.  Fall is kinda like the last day of vacation where if your not carefull you will  find yourself  depressed because the next day is back to the grind.  So I try to keep a positive outlook and just enjoy the beauty of the season.

Roberta and I celebrate 25 years of marriage this 26th of September.  I am not sure I can say I love her more today then I did back then. Because I have always loved her.  She has been and is my friend, lover, confidant and soul mate.  She is so much more to me then anyone will ever know. However she is not the same girl I married. She has grown much more confident and left the fragile parts of herself behind. Sitting here thinking about it I was wrong.  I do love her more because she has helped me grow as a person and I am capable of loving her more.

tangled Pumpkin

Halloween is coming! And Christmas is less than 100 days away.

Create a Monster?  That’s the home work? I want to go back to school!

Little Digger -You can’t keep a good girl down

This stated out as a styrofoam head with muted features.

Her skin is a thin layer of paper clay that was applied and allowed to dry then features were built on top of that. She is looking at you through  eyes that were created from polymer clay and the hair is a fine fish net material that is used for Halloween decorations and such.  She is sporting debris from her grave (leaves from the yard) and copper collar that brings her back from the dead.

I for one will be glad to see it go. Out of the house and to school for the grade.   I may have to hang it above Kristi’s bed so it is staring down at her when Kristi awakes. But it will have to wait till after the grading is over. Just in case Kristi freaks on it!

BWAHHHH HA HA!

From the looking glass

Hi Roni  thanks for checking in on the web sight.  Thought I should get something new in here so you would not be disappointed.

I just did this sketch last night. Its been awhile since I just sat down and drew a face. I used to do this all the time.

The drawing was done in Autodesk Sketch book with a Bamboo graphics tablet.

My wonderful niece asked me the other day if LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) would take the heat of baking if used in a polymer clay project.

Most of the clays I use have to be baked at 275 degrees for 30 mins or more depending on thickness of the clay.

So I had to do some experimenting.

My Eyes my special eyes

The little stone man above baked at 275 for 45 min and as you can see his LED eyes function just fine.

babushka

The blury little babushka above was the first attempt. I was using some small battery powered Christmas lights that I picked up last year,  just for this kind of thing.  I thought the package said LED lights. However the lights turned out to be miniature bulbs.  Either way they survived the baking!

This last image is a figurine I created while playing with the left over clay.

Just a little figure

I am kind of intrigued by this little one and may have to create a series of them. See if I can get Carla and Jenifer to help.

I broke down and bought a Tangle kit from Zentangle.com  I like the kit but I am not sure the price is really worth it.

The Kit consist of

1. The Box

The box is a nice paper mache box about 5 1/2  x 8 1/4 inches  and about 1 3/4 deep.  Inside it is divided into three spaces  two of them 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 for the paper and instruction book. The last division is for the various pens and pencils that come with the kit. Looking around the web you can find similar boxes on the web for around 5.00 each

2. The paper

The paper with the kit is very nice  cotton, heavy-weight paper with a vellum surface finish. Each sheet is die cut 3-1/2 x 3-1/2 with the Zentangle logo and name printed on one side. The kit contains 35 of these tiles. You can get refills of paper from the web site but I have grown to like the artists trading cards for tangling.

The artists card can be found at about any art store and some of the big box stores now. The paper comes in die cut 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 rectangles and in various types of paper. I prefer the Bristol paper as it works well with my favorite pen a .25 or 000 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph technical pen. The paper runs about 3.00 dollars for a pack of 20

3. Two pens

Zentangle.com recommends and includes two Sakura Pigma Micron® 01 black pens in the kit. While these pens are nice I tend to kill the fine point by pressing too hard the pens run about 3.00 dollars each. My favorite pens are the Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph technical pens. The line is very fine and clean.   These guys do carry a high price of about 25.00 dollars each.  But with care they can last a life time.

4. Two stubby pencils  with a soft lead.  If you bowl or golf you probably have a few laying around

5. One  tortillion, or smudge stick, they are sold at about any art store for around 3.00 dollars a package.

6. a Small pencil sharpener  about a dollar

7. A twenty sided Die. Yup dig out your D&D gear.  Cost about .25 cents each.

8. A Tangle Card with 20 various Tangles

(yup you got it roll the die and fill your string with the tangle pattern indicated on the die.)

9. A DVD

This and the instructions were the reason I purchased the kit. I thought I must be missing something here if they can sell a kit for 49.00 the DVD and Book must really Have something. I was disappointed  by both.  The DVD does a nice job of showing you the process. That is what it’s all about right?   I give it a price of about 10.00 as that is the going price for many of the instructional DVDs that I have.

10. The Booklet or instructions.

Some nice break downs of a few simple patterns is about all you get. I can’t  see the price of more that a dollar for it.

For around 20 dollars you can put together your own kit and save 30 dollars.  Similar  content of the DVD and instrtuction booklet can be  found on you tube and the net.

I get the feeling that Zentangle that is trying to copyright the idea of doodling. While I enjoy the method at the end of the day it is still just doodling.

So just relax and enjoy and doodle your troubles away

Just finished sculpting my little polar bear.  He was still warm from the oven when I took the photos. did not even stop to clean him up. Thinking about using a wash yet but I really like him the way he is.

left side

 

being polar

back side

right side

looking over

Zentangle is a  method or way of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns.  So what I do  I don’t conceder Zentangle, because I don’t strictly fallow the Zentangle method and I even have a idea of what I want to create sometimes before I start.  Not to say I don’t have a zen like experience while doing my doodles or tangles.

Mental Polar bear

This tangle if you will,  is was done with a small bit of forethought. I wanted a bear shape so I created a bear outline and from there I started thinking about what I wanted in the bear.  I did not want to fill the bear with one pattern but I did want shapes that some how linked or were related to the bear.

Circus Circles

What more can I say “I like Circles” and Celtic knots

The God partical

I was in a well known book store dirnking a Cafe mocha double shot (Thanks Bruce I am Hooked on these things) and drawing. Great way to relax and just enjoy for a while.  The cafe was all but empty which was odd for a Friday night when a group of very loud women came in and sat down at table near by.  Okay its a public place you can not expect a library quiet but a bible study. Really people!

I did mention the loud part right.  Okay I know I got this whole thing about religion is so contaminated by man (that is both sexes by the way) that it all needs a rewrite by the owner.  We got ten perfect laws to fallow and it does not seem that allot of us can even do that.

STOP! Rant curtailed here!

So anyway I in my Zen place and The Bible thumpers start and that takes me to Angles and Demons and that takes me to CERN and the god particle.  In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a particle not known to have substructure; that is, it is not known to be made up of smaller particles. If an elementary particle truly has no substructure, then it is one of the basic building blocks of the universe from which all other particles are made. So……. this is so not it but I like the name.

30-tangle

Well I kind of did it again but not.  My mind must still be holding onto the same space for a while. Maybe longer if …….

Snail # 2

Got together with my sister and niece this weekend and did a bit of group tangling. It was fun and once I got into the zen of the moment it was kind of cool.  I mean just doing this together with people (in my case people I love) and then noticing the quiet and the deep concentration that it brings.  Its like the form that you are working on is at a point of guided repetition so that your mind can wonder and  focus on the strangest thoughts and ideas.

The snail itself  I had seen that morning in my fish tank just having a good ol’ snail time. Its’ shell is what got my attention and I knew I wanted to do another Snail tangle.  Carla did not seen overly impressed with my first snail so I created the second.

Carla is great she would not hurt my feelings for anything in the world.  So it’s sometimes hard for her to give anything but a positive opinion.  but her reactions are normally very open.

Till next time

Docwort

I was working on this in the Barns and Noble coffee shop, when a man approched me and started to rave over the work.  I was very happy he liked it but when he kept going on and then calling his wife over (who did not seem to share his enthusiasm) it got to the point of embarrassing.

My dear Roberta always the defender and proud wife led him on. The other people in the cafe were all quite thoroughly annoyed by the time they were through I am sure.  It’s kind of hard to take admiration like that and yet it was very  nice of the man to say something.

Tangled again

While working on The Wort Zone tangle below I was again approached by a man.  I was passing time at the Grabill country sales store after having lunch at their buffet and before heading back to work. This time I think it was just the curiosity of watching some drawing something so intently. He asked if I was a full time artiste and when I replied no. He told me how good his wife was at drawing and cooking.

The Wort Zone

Inspired by our two Golden mystery snails I created this little bugger.

Snail

tangled campus .

Pointing

I not sure what I see in this on some times it looks like a very wicked machine complete with blades and grinding wheels. At other times it seems like a large set of gates.

The Machine

Thursday came and so did March. Here it is Monday and we are five days in with bills due. Damn I hate starting off a month behind.

Anyone want to put a roof on my house for me?

March todo

1. Do the taxes
2. Get a loan for the roof
3. Clean! the car, the carpet, the strorage room, bathroom ……………….  (Spring Cleaning time)

Well it took me awhile to get the photo for this little guy but he is here. You know it had to happen. Mr peanut has been walking around for years. So I just had to create one from a real peanut.

Mr. peanut

I like the lighting on this one better than most I have done so far.  It was shot with two lights one to the left and the other to the right and both slightly in front of  Mr. peanut here.

I don’t normaly add eyes or a face to the peanut people. Their pose and posture tell most of the story and a few props help as well. But for Marty Peanut here I just had to. It is the distinguishing feature of the man I made this peanut to portray.

Marty Feldman

Martin Alan “Marty” Feldman (July 8,1934 –  December 2, 1982) I always loved his stuff as a kid and adult. If you don’t know who Marty Feldman is maybe this will help.  The photo below is of his character  EYE-GORE form Young Frankenstein.

Marty Feldman

I got another tangle or two complete that I will post soon but thats about it for tonight.

Take care you all!

Docwert